Consumer complaint received 2023-04-25
Company: TRUIST FINANCIAL CORPORATION
State: FL
Product: Payday loan, title loan, or personal loan
Sub-product: Personal line of credit
Issue: Problem when making payments

Complaint:
Truist Bank told us that our endorsed check would be cashed to provide the funds to us or deposited in our HELOC account. Instead money was kept by the Bank and Bank will not release it to us. 
Our property, a condominium in XXXX XXXX Florida, was effectively destroyed by XXXX XXXX in XX/XX/XXXX. Since then, I have been working to secure our insurance coverage funds so that we mXXXX repair it. We were issued a check by the insurance company for {$48000.00} in XX/XX/XXXX. The check required required endorsement by my wife and me and BBT ( now known as Truist Bank ) as the holder of our HELOC account ( line of credit ). 
I went through a very long and frustrating process to ascertain what I needed to do to get the check endorsed by Truist so I could use the funds to reconstruct the condo. I obtained all of the documentation and information required and sent it along with the unendorsed check in to the Truist address provided. The Bank sent back the check to me with a letter stating that my wife and I needed to endorse the check and resend. I visited our local XXXX Florida Branch Manager XXXX XXXX and the Sr Relationship Banker XXXX XXXX who stated that despite my expressed misgivings about sending in an endorsed check, that this was necessary for the Bank to endorse and return it to me to cash and/or for the Bank to deposit in our line of credit account. Based on the express representations of the Branch Manager and the Sr Relationship Banker, who are legal agents of the Bank, my wife and I endorsed the check in their presence and left it with them for deposit in our HELOC account or to send back to us with the Banks endorsement so we could use it. 
However, this did not occur. Instead, I learned on the afternoon of XX/XX/XXXX after many phone calls and emails that the check has been kept by the Bank and we can not access it. I was told that we will receive a small portion of it soon but the bulk only after we complete all of the repairs using our own money followed by inspection by the Bank and submission of verification documents. As I explained to XXXX XXXX of the Bank who apprised me of this, this is infeasible as it will require our expenditures of up to an estimated {$100000.00} which we would have to pay out of pocket without access to the insurance money. Because the Bank has taken our insurance money, we will have to front the payments which will require high interest loans and personal hardship. 
I am a retired partner from the XXXX firm. Based upon my practice representing banks I believe that Truist committed both civil and criminal violations by representing and promising that our endorsed check would be deposited in our account or returned to us with the Banks endorsement so that we could cash it but than, without telling us or providing any prior notice, keeping it and depriving us access to the funds. The Banks unauthorized and surreptitious action in depositing in its own account constitutes, among other things conversion, misrepresentation and fraud. 
To be clear, we gave the endorsed check to the Branch based on the express representations by the officials there that we would receive the money through our line of credit account or return of the check with endorsement by the bank. During our many conversations with the Bank trying to figure this out how to proceed, no one told us that by submitting our endorsed check, the bank would take it. While I understand, the Bank may have policies and procedures on insurance matters, it must advise the client of those policies. It can not, as it did here, ask for an endorsed check representing that will be deposited in the client account for the clients use or endorsed so the client can cash it but then take it We never would have provided the endorsed check to the Bank if we had known they were going to do this.

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 explanation