Consumer complaint received 2022-12-16
Company: Freedom Mortgage Company
State: CO
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process

Complaint:
XX/XX/XXXX Recent unfair and incorrect business practices by Freedom Mortgage XXXX XXXXXXXX XXXX companies. 

I am writing today to document business practices by both Freedom Mortgage and XXXXXXXX XXXX  related to my current mortgage on our home. While I cant be 100 % sure if the processes were intentional by design and execution, it does appear that the result is to force either an unwanted and unrequired loan modification to a performing and current mortgage to a higher rate. Or to force a foreclosure. 

With interest rates having increased in the past 12 months, it appears that this is a tactic employed by two directly related companies to cause the re-write or modification of existing lower interest rate loans to increase financial returns. 


Facts Found : XXXX. On XX/XX/XXXX, I received an alert from XXXX saying I had an outstanding payment on my mortgage dating back months. I was surprised because # XXXX I did not recognize the lender and # XXXX My mortgage payments were set up to autopay directly from my XXXX XXXX XXXX account at the beginning of each month with the lender XXXXXXXX XXXX 
a. As background, my mortgage was originated with XXXX XXXX and was later sold to/transferred to XXXX in XX/XX/XXXX. 
b. The loan had a 100 % payment record of on-time payments with XXXX up to this point. 
XXXX. Up to this point in time I had received XXXX communications via any media including email, regular postal mail, courier, text or telephone from either XXXXXXXX XXXX  or Freedom Mortgage related to my current loan. 
XXXX. On Monday XX/XX/XXXX, I reached out to Freedom Mortgage via telephone to inquire about the alert I had received via XXXX and spoke with XXXX in your call-center. This was my first time talking to Freedom Mortgage and I was surprised to discover that XXXX  had sold or transferred my loan to Freedom Mortgage in XX/XX/XXXX. XXXX explained to me that I should have received both a Good-bye email and letter from XXXX and a Welcome email and letter from Freedom. At this point I had received neither, however XXXX was good enough to forward a PDF copy of the Good-bye letter from XXXX dated XXXX XXXX via email. This was the first time I had seen this document. The document states that Your loan is being transferred to a new servicer. 
a. I did think it was a little strange that the new servicer ( Freedom Mortgage ) had a copy of the good-bye letter, and no copy of a welcome letter was ever sent or provided by the new servicer ( Freedom Mortgage ). 
XXXX. On this call, XXXX explained to me that XXXX had stopped taking their monthly automatic payments from my XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX account. However, in their letter in Step 2 under the What I need to do? Section, it was I that was supposed to disable the automatic payment, I had set up ( not XXXX just deciding to do it on their own ). Which I never did, because I never received any letters/communications and was unaware of the changes required. 
XXXX. XXXX also informed me that I was delinquent in payments going back all the months since XXXX had stopped their automatic payment withdrawals. A significant surprise to me. But not to worry he said. You have already been approved for a loan modification by underwriting and were sent a letter with the required steps. Which I never received. He also emailed me a PDF copy of this document directly dated XX/XX/XXXX. First time I had seen this document and I have still not received a copy in the mail even though it was said to have been sent. 
a. I live in a small town with our residential mail delivery coming to a XXXX XXXX XXXX I did check with the Postmaster, and he confirmed that they do not sign for mail coming to the XXXX XXXX XXXX unless it is registered. And then I would need to sign to pick it up. 
XXXX. I have never received monthly mortgage statements in the regular mail or via email from Freedom Mortgage. I have not received any delinquency notices in the regular mail or via email and I did not opt-out. I was told by the representative at CFPB when I reached out that the services have a mandatory requirement to send monthly statements. XXXX went 6 months without ever reaching out to me regarding my loan and the only reason I was now aware and speaking with them was because of an alert from an outside service I use to track my credit. 
XXXX. Also, on XX/XX/XXXX, I signed up for access to my loan information via the Freedom Mortgage client/borrower portal for the first time. XXXX had to help me do this by providing the new loan number etc, because I was not active in their systems. 
a. I have not opted=out of any regular mail communications since registering in their portal. 
XXXX. On XX/XX/XXXX, I made a payment via their portal in the amount {$4500.00} which was the only amount allowed even though it is less than my normal previous payments made when XXXX was automatically deducting them. I did receive an email confirmation of this payment, and this is last and only direct communication I have received from Freedom Mortgage. 
XXXX. As part of my research into the issue, I have discovered that XXXX did not sell my loan to a new separate unrelated loan servicer. However, they merely transferred the loan and its servicing obligations from XXXX Mortgage to Freedom Mortgage. XXXX was and still is ( for now ) a wholly owned subsidiary of Freedom Mortgage since XXXX https : //www.freedommortgage.com/about/press-releases/details/Freedom-Mortgage-and-XXXXEnter-Merger-Agreement. My loan was just moved within the family of companies. Within the family of companies, they already had all my detailed contact information, my approvals for and banking details required to automatically withdraw regular monthly payments or to be able to reach out and contact me. 
XXXX. On XX/XX/XXXX, Freedom announces they are selling XXXX to XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX https : XXXX I believe the facts presented here indicate that XXXX XXXX and Freedom Mortgage worked together to create a situation that is unwanted by me as the borrower and more profitable for them. 
They failed to actively communicate with me regarding any late payments or delinquency, when they had all the information and avenues required to do so. 
Since they were just moving a loan around within their companies and XXXX was a wholly owned subsidiary of Freedom since before my loan was ever sold by XXXX to XXXX they had all the information to continue making regular automated withdrawals and could have but chose not to. Or reach out. 
According to CFPB they have a legal requirement to send monthly statements, but never did. 
I was a good regular automatic paying borrower with a 3.75 % interest rate loan now in a rising interest rate market. Maybe they thought they could trick me into a situation that increases profits for them. 
Freedom went 6 months without ever reaching out. A reasonable person would link that if I was behind in payments and Freedom wanted to get their regular payment on-time, they might have emailed, called or texted. Certainly, that is what the credit card or utility companies do if you are even a few days late. What was the motivation behind the zero-communication practice?

Six months of no payments creates a significant cash requirement burden on me to true-up payments not automatically withdrawn now. Caused by a situation I did not create but rather by two related companies business practices.

I plan to continue to make regular monthly payments via the portal until the situation is resolved, and we are all back on track.

I am not looking for a loan modification which will ultimately result is a significantly higher interest rate & payments given the current interest rates and market conditions. I would like to keep my original mortgage terms and rates that I originated with XXXX, was sold to XXXX Mortgage and now transferred to Freedom Mortgage. However, I now need time to catch up on the months that have passed without payments being automatically withdrawn. 

I also expect both Freedom Mortgage and XXXX XXXX to clear/clean/remove all derogatory credit bureau notifications, since this entire issue was their doing and responsibility and I was completely unaware until XX/XX/XXXX. I was a perfect payer with a XXXX XXXX XXXX prior to this. 

Please let me know how to proceed forward. 

Regards,

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