Consumer complaint received 2020-03-20
Company: Stearns Ventures, LLC
State: AZ
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: FHA mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process

Complaint:
1 : What is this complaint about? 
Upon transferring the loan to XXXX XXXX Stearns Lending re-calculated the loan amount rather than using the original loan amount and disclosing XXXX payment as a credit 2 : What type of problem are you having? 
We have made an extra payment which is not being recognized, credited, or refunded to us due to Stearns Lending failing to inform XXXX XXXX  that We submitted XXXX payment to Stearns Lending. Therefore, upon transfer of loan to XXXX XXXX, the XXXX payment appeared to be in arrears when in fact it had actually been paid.. 

3 : What happened? We purchased our first home in XXXX. Our first payment Due XX/XX/XXXX was paid XX/XX/XXXX. Our mortgage was sold on XX/XX/XXXX from Stearns Lending to XXXX XXXX. For our first month we payed the original lender Stearns Lending, unaware of when our loan was being transferred we paid XXXX XXXX, they then returned that money via check because Stearns Lending already accepted the payment and did not transfer over our loan and account until XX/XX/XXXX ( STEARNS LENDING SOLD HOME LOAN TO XXXX XXXX  ). XXXX payment was second, made to the new loan holder XXXX XXXX, payed on XX/XX/XXXX. Then when payed it showed we had a delinquent balance not paid for XXXX, therefore having to make a double payment for XXXX, when it was already paid to XXXX XXXX   XX/XX/XXXX. Therefore, XXXX XXXX refuses to recognize that payment and forced us to make that payment again to them. Then XXXX XXXX  insisted we had to pay the 2nd payment to them which we did. They continue to demand we make monthly payments, refusing to refund or credit the extra payment to our account based on the documents provided to them by Stearns Lending.. Phone calls between myself, XXXX XXXX, and Stearns lending took place on XX/XX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX, XXXX  XXXX XXXX XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX. XXXX XXXX  has let customer service know at Stearns lending on a recorded line that they are not showing any payment from them and the numbers of our starting loan are not the numbers they received, but are minus the first month when they should have transfered over the original loan balance with the payment to show it was paid but instead Stearns took that payment and subtracted it from the total and sent over a new total showing there was not a payment. We have proof of payment to Stearns for XX/XX/XXXX. 

After several conversations, they said they would expedite it, reverse the loan, resend over to finance team at XXXX XXXX  and get back to us in 3 days. Since then we have received the same email every 3 days for over a month which basically states they are still working on it. Its the exact same email with a different date attached each time and obviously auto-generated. Every time I call they state they can not help me until the finance team investigates it Attachments are as follows : Document 1 shows payment being made to Stearns lending, and XXXX XXXX  for XXXX. XXXX XXXX  sent the double payment back due to the fact Stearns lending already accepted my first months payment, then lending company subtracting that payment from the whole total, THEN transferring that new number out to XXXX XXXX  XX/XX/XXXX, therefore making it look like XXXX was never paid to XXXX XXXX, numbers not adding up. 
Document 2. Confirmation of double payment to XXXX XXXX  for XXXX/showed delinquent for XXXX so had to pay twice for XXXX/shows check back for double payment for XXXX. 
Document 3. shows confirmation of XXXX payment. 
Document 4. showed confirmation of XX/XX/XXXX payment. 
Document 5 shows original loan with Stearns lending. 
Document 6. Email i have received approximately 7 times from Stearns lending stating escalated request Document 7. shows my print out from XXXX XXXX XX/XX/XXXX of transaction history 4 : What company is this complaint about? 
Stearns lending 5 : Who are the people involved? 
Stearns lending XXXX XXXX

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