Consumer complaint received 2020-09-25
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: NC
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: FHA mortgage
Issue: Closing on a mortgage

Complaint:
To : Bank of America CC : XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX, and XXXX XXXX Subject : Customer complaint regarding BoA Mortgage Executive summary : On XX/XX/2020, I applied for 30-year residential FHA loan from Bank of America. Mr. XXXX XXXX was assigned as my Lending Officer. Throughout the origination process, Mr. XXXX and his colleagues provided exceptionally poor customer service characterized by evasive communication, lack of accountability, and sheer incompetence. Though buying a home for the first time is a stressful and emotionally charged period, it should ultimately be an occasion for celebration ; after having received a home loan from Bank of America, however, I was left feeling defeated and conned.

In the following report, I have outlined the numerous ways in which Bank of America and its employees fell far short of reasonable expectations throughout my home loan origination process. I have made every attempt to provide an unbiased, objective assessment of the events that transpired. It is my hope that this document will shed light on systemic shortcomings and prevent future breakdowns for other borrowers sake. 

Complaint : 1. Negligent lack of communication A. Receiving mortgage estimate On XX/XX/XXXX, I contacted Mr. XXXX via email to request an updated monthly payment estimate in light of additional money applied to the houses down payment. He responded that he did not have that information and that he would reach out to the mortgage underwriter. As of XX/XX/XXXX, I had not received a response and followed up. Mr. XXXX responded that day that he still was not aware of the updated figures but would reach out again to the underwriter. As of XX/XX/XXXX, I again reached out to Mr. XXXX to request the revised monthly payments and posed an additional question regarding the mortgage process. He did not respond to the former request for monthly payments, so I sent a second email on XX/XX/XXXX to acquire the updated mortgage payment information. The evening of XX/XX/XXXX, Mr. XXXX indicated that he would follow up immediately, as illustrated in Figure A in the enclosed Appendix. As of XX/XX/XXXX, XXXX XXXX CDT, I still did not have that information and sent another email. On XX/XX/XXXX, the revised estimate was shared on the Bank of America online portal. It took me five emails over a four-week period to have my question resolved.

B. Closing date As of one day prior to my scheduled closing on XX/XX/XXXX, I still had not received notification of my closing information, including cash needed to close. I called Mr. XXXX phone number several times throughout the day and did not receive a response. I sent a follow up email that evening at XXXX CDT to indicate that the closing attorney still had not received final documentation needed to close at the appointment at XXXX CDT the following morning. I specifically requested he call me ASAP ; he did not. Mr. XXXX instead returned my email to indicate that they had all the required documents needed but did not provide confirmation that these documents had been delivered to the closing attorney. XXXX XXXX CDT ( outside of business hours on the East Coast ), I  directly asked Mr. XXXX XXXX he would send the documents to the attorney that evening. Mr. XXXX responded again to say that they were working on [ it ] and that he would be in touch when it had been completed. Again, for a third time, I directly asked if the documents would be in the attorneys hands that evening. As seen at the bottom of Figuress B, Mr. XXXX responded with an affirmative yes. 

On my scheduled closing date of XX/XX/XXXX, XXXX XXXX, Mr. XXXX supervisor, emailed me XXXX XXXX CDT to indicate that he had contacted the leadership team to expedite closing docs to title for [ ] signing ( See Figure C ). This is in direct contradiction to Mr. XXXX assurance that he would send final documents to the attorney the evening of XX/XX/XXXX. XXXX XXXX CDT, I received an email from Mr. XXXX that docs were sent to the closing attorney and that final closing disclosure remained forthcoming ( Figure D ). This is 2 hours after the scheduled closing.

At no point in this process did I receive a phone call from any Bank of America staff, nor were my voice mail messages answered. My realtor also indicated that her staff had been attempting to contact the Bank of America team without success. The one exception to this was a call from Mr. XXXX the evening of XX/XX/XXXX circa XXXX CDT. I missed the phone call after putting my phone away for stress relief. Mr. XXXX did not leave a voicemail. I was finally able to contact Mr. XXXX again via telephone circa XXXX CDT XX/XX/XXXX. 

C. Financial information I did not receive the amount of cash needed to close until 2 hours after my scheduled closing on XX/XX/XXXX. At this point, I also learned that the monthly payment on my home loan would be about {$150.00} more per month than stated on the estimate provided less than one week prior. Mr. XXXX indicated this discrepancy was due to a change in taxation ; however, as professional lenders, the discrepancy between the homes assessed value and home price should have been noted and adjusted within the estimates shared.

2. Duplicative requests On numerous occasions, Mr. XXXX and his team asked for identical documentation multiple times. Figure E demonstrates one such occasion in which Mr. XXXX requested a XXXX XXXX savings statement from me. I passed along the statement, to which he replied that he has received the requested XXXX XXXX statement and requested again I send along the XXXX XXXX savings statement. Unprompted, my realtor verbally indicated that Mr. XXXX and his team had repeatedly asked for the same documents. 

3. Lack of accountability A. Closing Mr. XXXX repeatedly suggested that the challenges I faced throughout the closing process were someone elses fault. 

Figure F illustrates that the items needed to close belonged to the realtor, though my realtor indicates that all documents had been provided to the Bank promptly and certainly well before XX/XX/XXXX. Again, in Figure G, Mr. XXXX indicates that the delay in my closing date was due to the underwriter being out of office. Though Mr. XXXX says his explanation is no excuse, I found it particularly inappropriate since I had begun asking for financial updates on XX/XX/XXXX and reached out on a weekly basis for the following four weeks. 

B. Feedback XXXX XX/XX/XXXX, I received an email from MrXXXX XXXX regarding a client satisfaction survey. I responded to the email to indicate I had not received such a survey, once on XX/XX/XXXX and again on XX/XX/XXXX ( See Figure H ). 

Within the following days, I called XXXX XXXX to complain about my experience. She said that she would follow up ; I did not hear any further developments. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I contacted Mr. XXXX to indicate I still had not been able to provide feedback and would like to do so. He offered that I reach out with a written complaint and that he manually would log it. 

4. Miscellaneous The day following my scheduled closing, I received a phone call from the closing attorney that I needed to return to the office since the Bank had rejected my documents due to a minor signature issue on one page. This page, shown in Figure I, had a small strike through on one of the numbers in the date on a signed-and-dated form.

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 monetary relief