Consumer complaint received 2018-06-29
Company: CIT BANK, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: NJ
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Applying for a mortgage or refinancing an existing mortgage

Complaint:
I initiated the mortgage loan process on XX/XX/2018 with One West Bank a division of CIT Bank. The entire process from start to the actual closing of the loan was handled unprofessionally by the assigned staff at One West. I'll summarize the many issues encountered in chronological sequence. 
1. The initial loan estimate closing costs provided by One West was {$10000.00}. I had used this to make my decision to proceed with OneWest for my mortgage loan. The final closing costs, provided to me on the actual day of closing came in at {$14000.00}, representing a 25 % increase! 
2. There were ongoing delays in obtaining loan approval as the processing and underwriting teams requested XXXX XXXX XXXX and Balance sheet statements from my sole proprietor ( unincorporated ) consulting position that pays me income on a XXXX basis. I explained many times that this business doesn't maintain either statements as the income is just passed through onto my personal tax return. 
3. The bank repeatedly requested copies of a XXXX statement on stock investment in a XXXX. They couldn't understand that this XXXX didn't really represent an active partnership role in the company but only a stock investment. 
4. The final loan amount includes a monthly real estate tax escrow of {$730.00}, representing a yearly property tax of {$8800.00}. The actual property tax is {$610.00} monthly or {$7300.00} yearly according to NJ tax records. I asked the bank to explain this escrow overage, but they didn't respond to me. I believe there's a legal limit on how much additional escrow can be withheld by the bank, which may be exceeded in this case. 
5. The final closing disclosure statement was incorrect as the state tax/stamps had me the buyer as being responsible for payment. Fortunately the Title company made the correction just prior to closing. 
6. The actual closing was scheduled for XXXX XXXX  EST on XX/XX/XXXX. The bank didn't send the closing disclosure documents to the Title company until XXXX, setting up a made scramble for all parties to push the time of closing back. I did not see the closing disclosure document until I was in the attorney 's office ready to sign all of the documents. I was advised by the bank to use the preliminary closing numbers to make final payment. They specifically told me to use the number I had as an " idea '' to make the wire payment to the title company. Obviously I was uncomfortable making a wire payment of XXXX based on an " idea ''. 
7. Once the actual closing began, I discovered that the bank had misspelled my last name on many of the closing documents. The bank was notified of the error and informed my attorney and title company that all of the paper work had to be reissued and the bank needed to run another credit check using the correct spelling of my name. It was already XXXXXXXX XXXX, and the bank informed me they couldn't get the credit check from XXXX  and XXXX  because I had freezes in place. They asked that I remove the freeze so they could run a check. As it was nearly impossible to remove the freeze over the phone, I needed to rush home ( 35 miles ) to unlock my credit online using the preassigned pin provided when my credit was locked. As a result, the bank instructed the title company to not release any funds ( although the seller already left with the check in hand ) until credit was verified. Bottom line is that the underwriting team obviously never ran the credit check prior to closing as using the wrong name wouldn't have returned a correct credit score. It wasn't until XXXXXXXX XXXX that evening that the title company informed me that the bank gave approval to release funds. I was not able to take possession of the property until the following day. 
Throughout the 30 day loan process, the OneWest team was unresponsive to many of my questions, and at times unprofessional and incompetent.

Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief