Consumer complaint received 2018-06-19
Company: NATIONSTAR MORTGAGE LLC
State: WA
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Applying for a mortgage or refinancing an existing mortgage

Complaint:
My ex wife and I divorced in XX/XX/XXXX. I left our house in XX/XX/XXXX, and the divorce was finalized in XX/XX/XXXX. I gave her the house in the divorce decree, as there was no way she could afford to refinance at that time. I wanted my son to grow up in a safe place, so I did not put any forcing function to refinance in the divorce agreement. 

The house was financed through XXXX  XXXX XXXX. In XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX, I attempted to obtain a consolidation loan to take care of my debts that I absorbed in the divorce. I took on $ XXXX in negative debt equity including 5 credit cards, a timeshare, and other debts I knew would not be taken care of by anyone other than me. The bank told me NO - debt to income ratio was too high, and if I wanted that to change, I had to refinance the house out of my name. 

Okay - flash forward to XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX. The ex missed some house payments. Nationstar took over the mortgage, did a loan modification, and told my ex that she didn't need my signature on anything because the divorce decree gave her the house. Then, they turned right around and left my name on the mortgage... Still financially obligated even though I was not party to the loan modification, nor did I sign anything in that process. 

I didn't find out about that until XX/XX/XXXX, when I was in the process of repairing my credit, and was given an opportunity to finance a car through a XXXX XXXX pre-approval deal. I was good one month, and the next month when I went back to check on options, I was turned down because I had missed a mortgage payment. I talked it over with the ex, and we petitioned Mr. Cooper ( who assumed the loan from Nationstar ) on XX/XX/XXXX for an assumption - get the house out of my name and just move forward. They denied that assumption on XX/XX/XXXX - said we did not qualify because of the consolidation. They had a chance to fix this at no cost to anyone - they decided not to. 

So, at the end of the day, I am obligated to a contract that I was not party to, yet somehow I am financially and legally liable for the house - even though my signature wasn't necessary for these institutions to do a loan modification in my name. If I had the money to refinance long ago, I would have, but she wouldn't have qualified on her own. She qualifies on her own now, as the modification eliminated the HELOC and left her with a lot of equity in the property ( almost 40 % equity based on the total loan and HELOC price ). 

I didn't know it was legal for someone to involuntarily include you in a contract that left you financially and legally liable for something. I didn't know that banks could ignore or leave out a party to an agreement yet still enforce financial liability on someone without their knowledge or consent. The burden of proof is on the banks to produce the documents with my signature for the modification of the loan, which they can't. Because I never saw that paperwork - I certainly didn't sign it. I talked this over with a lawyer who told me that is how they do business, and without a lot of financial resources to challenge them, they get away with this kind of stuff all the time. 


That is not right. As a small business owner, if I put someone else 's name on a document they had no knowledge of, I have committed contract fraud and can lose my business and even end up in jail depending on how much money was involved. It doesn't seem right that a bank has the authority to financially obligate someone to a contract they were never party to - especially after telling the ex she doesn't need my info because the divorce decree gave her the house. If that decree is good enough to nullify the need for my signature, it should also nullify the financial obligation during a modification process. If they don't need my signature to modify the loan, they don't need my name and credit on the mortgage. They should most certainly not put my name and endorsement on a contract I did not even see - much less sign. 


I want my name off of all financial documents related to the house at no cost to me - after all this, that is the minimum required to make this right. The banks should be held accountable for doing the right thing. Committing forgery and fraud by adding my name to a contract while acknowledging that I am not needed for the mortgage at all and then executing said contract without my signature or knowledge is beyond the realm of legality. 

This has negatively affected my debt to income ratio for far too long now. Up to the time of the modification, that decision was mine. After that time, the bank took away that choice for me, and they should pay for that. I have struggled with horrific credit since XX/XX/XXXX because the debt to income ratio was so lopsided, and I could not leverage anything to help me. I have paid 29.99 % interest on multiple vehicles. I have been turned down or denied many things because of my poor credit score - all of which could have been alleviated had the banks done the right thing in XX/XX/XXXX so that I could consolidate and get back on my feet.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation