Consumer complaint received 2019-10-24
Company: Specialized Loan Servicing Holdings LLC
State: AZ
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Home equity loan or line of credit (HELOC)
Issue: Applying for a mortgage or refinancing an existing mortgage

Complaint:
We were trying to refinance our first mortgage to get a lower interest rate which in turn would get us a lower mortgage payment. I was trying to get a VA mortgage so that I could also eliminate the Private Mortgage Insurance or PMI that I am currently paying, which again would help us lower our payment. My wife has health issues and because of this she can no longer work and has been out of work for almost two years. This cut our income in half so we are struggling. I filed for bankruptcy in 2010 at which time I had a second mortgage or home equity line of credit, the bankruptcy forgave this loan and charged off this debt but the second lien remained on my home. The company that now holds this lien is Specialized Loan Servicing or SLS. I was misled by this company when my bankruptcy was discharged they informed me that I had to continue to make payments each month or risk losing my home. I have been making minimal payments on this lien even though it was charged off and I have no legal obligation to pay it and have paid over {$6000.00} on it. The current amount owed is approximately {$27000.00}. Since I could not move forward with my refinance until this lien was removed I asked them ( SLS ) to have it released and of course they refused. My refinance was going to be for {$160000.00} I currently owe {$140000.00} on my first mortgage, this would have left {$20000.00} if I could get a 100 % Loan to Value or LTV type loan. of the remaining {$20000.00} I was informed that the loan costs would be somewhere in the vicinity of {$13000.00}. Therefore I would receive {$7000.00} at closing to pay bills and help us get out of debt it would not be enough to get us completely out of debt but it would help us immensely. I verbally offered SLS {$2000.00} to release the lien at which time I was told that this was way to low of an offer. I might mention that SLS did their own Broker Price Opinion or BPO on my property, they had someone come by my house after I had an appraisal done, take pictures of my home and did their own appraisal so they knew that the max I could get on a 100 % loan was {$160000.00}. So I then offered the entire {$7000.00} that I would have coming to me because even though I may not get any money back, I could still get a lower mortgage payment to help me get caught up. I sent the offer in writing as was requested and they asked me to give them a couple of days to review it even though they already knew what the offer was as I mentioned this to them on the phone. Two day later ( today ) I called back and they asked me to resend it because I didn't put the loan number on the subject line so they don't know where it is. I complied, I resent it via email, gave them a few of hours to review it as they requested. I called them back this afternoon just to be told that my offer was way to low and that the lowest offer they would consider would be {$21000.00} on a loan that I am not obligated by law to pay. These people are not nice, they are ruthless, nasty people. If you go online and see the reviews you'll see what I'm talking about. I believe that {$7000.00} is a very generous and reasonable offer to remove the lien considering I am not obligated to pay it at all. I spoke to my loan officer and we had to stop the whole refinance process because SLS refused to remove the lien and now I am unable to refinance my home thanks to Specialized Loan Servicing.

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