Consumer complaint received 2023-07-19
Company: Union Home Mortgage Corp
State: TN
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Applying for a mortgage or refinancing an existing mortgage

Complaint:
On XX/XX/2023 I applied for a mortgage with Union Home Mortgage to get my preapproval to start shopping for a home. I was preapproved on XX/XX/XXXX and started shopping. Talking with my mortgage XXXX there was a possibility of potentially getting some financial help from my father if it would help me out. When I brought the option to the mortgage officer he took it upon himself to put the money in as additional money to bring to closing when 1 I had not agreed to it, and 2 I had asked what it would look like if I used the additional money to pay off a car note. I had specifically wanted the additional money ( if I had chosen to go this route ) to go to the car note so that I wouldn't have that bill on top of having the mortgage after we closed. However, the mortgage officer felt the need to make the decision for us. This was the first issue and it required fixing from our realtor directly intervening and stating that he was taking liberties that weren't his to take. Fast forward as we moved past this and decided against using the additional money from my father. We found a house and this was the dream house. We put in an offer and it was accepted. We were under contract XX/XX/2023. With the loan structure we had we were getting down payment assistance through XXXX so our loan had to go through the normal process with XXXX and then XXXX. On XX/XX/2023 I paid my credit report and appraisal fee to XXXX. On XX/XX/2023 I had my own personal home inspection of the property conducted. The inspection came back fine, however, there were some areas that would need to be addressed at some point ( yet these areas didn't make the house unlivable or not safe ). Our realtor negotiated with the seller to get $ XXXX towards these areas and because of me getting the XXXX funding reached out to our mortgage officer to gain help on how to best handle ( escrow vs title paying contractors vs credits ). Mortgage officer assured us that we would be fine doing an amendment and stating $ XXXX would go towards closing costs and the remaining $ XXXX would be a check cut directly to a contractor for the work. This meant the majority of the funds would never touch me as the buyer. While this is all going on my appraisal comes back on XX/XX/2023 at value ( {$230000.00} ) as is. Not only does the mortgage officer not share the appraisal with me, he takes a direct screenshot from the appraisal ( including the value ) and emails it to my realtor and the listing agent. Now any hopes of using this as negotiating is out the window. I would finally get a copy of the appraisal on XX/XX/2023, 12 days after it came back, mind you my disclosure states they must provide it to me timely and in real estate 12 days is not timely. After all of this the mortgage officer submits our file without the amendment he requested ( my realtor at the time was still waiting on seller 's signature ). The file gets cleared to close on XX/XX/2023 ( both XXXX and XXXX ). We get the amendment on the XXXX of XXXX and mortgage XXXX insists it must go through the whole process and no one will have an issue. XXXX underwriter sees amendment and immediately halts the whole process ( we're supposed to close XX/XX/2023 ). Claims that this amendment, despite the loan being conventional and the appraisal coming in at value and as-is, means the house is not safe. My realtor and I get statements from our contractors and even home inspector stating these items are not items that need to be done and that the house is fine. These items are just things that would need to be addressed at some point in the future. Underwriter is still not satisfied and demands to see inspection report. I won't show it to her because at this point I know she will take every item and turn it into something that it isn't. Closing date passes and we have to get extension from seller. Underwriter at XXXX will not budge despite multiple supervisors from other departments trying to reason. She demands that we show part of the inspection including photos and that we get XXXX bids for the work. This created yet another hurdle since due diligence was over and we no longer had access to the house. Most vendors/contractors won't bid on work without being able to go see the job. We we able to get what she needed and on XX/XX/XXXX everything was submitted. Underwriter decided that even though I had been completely cleared to close already and she had gotten everything she needed she wouldn't give her blessing until XX/XX/2023. At this point she also required that we now keep 1.5 % of the highest bids in escrow ( totaling over $ XXXX ). Please remember the seller only agreed to $ XXXX in the beginning, the appraisal came in as-is, and my realtor had asked about escrow from the very beginning. Now the whole file had to go to XXXX for their last stamp of approval. Turns out that XXXX had to form a formal committee on this and ending up pulling my funding because of the large escrow amount. I wholeheartedly believe the underwriter at XXXX knew this large amount would cause the loss of funding and that is why this number was chosen. She was spiteful because I fought back on her stance for the and then more so after I was able to produce what she requested. 

All of this has been a complete nightmare and I would never ever recommend anyone dealing with XXXX again. Their customer service is lackluster at best and their desire to put their customers first is ever worse. I had given my current landlord a XXXX month notice because I am so financially solid and I was told everything would be smooth sailing especially after being cleared to close the first time. Well here I stand about to be homeless because XXXX failed me on multiple occasions.

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