Consumer complaint received 2020-12-29
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: NY
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process

Complaint:
My brother and I are the remainderman of a property that had a life estate tenant ( my step father ). The life estate tenant was responsible for the mortgage with Bank of America and upkeep of the property and has been paying the mortgage for the past 13 years. The mortgage was changed to " The Estate of XXXX XXXX '' who is my deceased mother and I am the executor of her estate. ( see attached payment slip ). I am the authorized user on the mortgage, having sent in my letter of testamentary and a copy of the death certificate many years ago. Bank of America granted a " forebearance '' to an unauthorized user ( s ) of the account in XXXX. I have been trying to straighten this out since XXXX, which is when I became aware of this. Each time I call Bank of America, I get told that they don't know who I am and have no record of my paperwork. I call every week to try to get to the bottom of this. At one point, I finally got through to someone who was somewhat helpful and he told me to make a notation of the date XX/XX/XXXX, which is the date that I was granted full access to this account. Unfortunately, I have not been successful with this information either, when I call, I get placed into a hold loop for 45 minutes to an hour only to be told that they can not give me information about the account. This forebearance was done fraudulently, and without mine or my stepfather 's knowledge. This loan was modified without my knowledge. I get railroaded by Bank of America every time that I call to get to the bottom of this. I did file a fraud claim with the bank, on one of the calls when I was lucky enough for the to suddenly find my access, but now I can not get an update on that claim. This mortgage is now {$11000.00} in arrears and there is also a negative escrow amount of < $ XXXX ( two payments were made in XXXX ). My stepfather has since passed away, this month. He lived on a fixed income and was not impacted financially due to Covid-19, he was also unaware of this activity on the mortgage. Bank of America now keeps calling me to tell me that I need to start making payments in XXXX ( they suddenly know who I am to make that call ). I need answers on the fraud claim that was filed. They had no business modifying this loan without my knowledge and had they notified me at the time, none of this would have happened. I need this situation to be investigated and I need someone at Bank of America to communicate with me. There is never a manager or even a direct phone number to call, just the constant purgatory loop on hold. I have gotten nowhere with this mess in almost six months and it is completely unacceptable. If they can not speak to me, the only authorized user on the account, how on earth did they grant this forebearance to someone who is not authorized in any way? Since my stepfather has passed on XX/XX/XXXX, my brother and I need to sell this house and I need to straighten out this mess. I have attached a copy of a statement showing that the account is in " The Estate of XXXX XXXX '' If necessary I can also produce a copy of the deed showing the life estate.

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with non-monetary relief