Consumer complaint received 2019-03-09
Company: PNC Bank N.A.
State: IL
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: FHA mortgage
Issue: Struggling to pay mortgage

Complaint:
I am writing this letter asking for assistance as I have run out of options in working with PNC Mortgage. I purchased the property in XX/XX/XXXX and after a couple refinances, became a PNC Mortgage holder in XXXX, where the mortgage has been since. At that point, I was already in a negative equity position due to the market conditions. Unfortunately, the loan was not HARP eligible, but I continued to pay as the property value depreciated each year by thousands. At one point, I was upside over {$50000.00}. My mortgage payment history was impeccable, though. In XXXX, we outgrew this home as we had 3 kids and not enough living space or bedrooms. Because we were still upside, I could not sell the home without losing money. At the advice of a mortgage loan officer at PNC, I attempted to rent this home and purchase a new one. I followed her instructions and got a tenant in the home starting XX/XX/XXXX and then purchased a new home with more space and in a better area for my kids ( school district was a priority ). My tenant paid me regularly and therefore, PNC Mortgage was paid on time. In XX/XX/XXXX, our tenants purchased a home and I found a new reliable tenant. Unfortunately, payment stopped coming in from my tenants due to their negligence and we found ourselves depleting our savings by paying two mortgages, my wife out of work, and legal fees for a nasty eviction process. After several months of paying two mortgages and my wife just getting back to work, I reached out to PNC Mortgage inXX/XX/XXXX to inquire about a hardship and/or any other alternatives. We discussed short sale because deed in lieu was not an option for my FHA loan. I was told by the mortgage representative from PNC Mortgage that if we decided to go the hardship or short sale route, they would not consider it until I was delinquent and in pre-foreclosure ( approximately 2 months past due ). After a really rough holiday season with our finances and making the most difficult decision we have ever had to make, we decided to miss our PNC Mortgage payment. This was extremely difficult because we had NEVER missed a mortgage payment in our lives and we feared losing our rental home because many attorneys and other clients said the PNC Mortgage Short Sale process is by far the worst. I heard it from so many people that we feared they would fail us, too. My wife and I have sentimental value because we got married while living in this home and had all three of our kids in this home. It was our first home and a place many of our memories were made. Worst of all, we paid PNC Mortgage on this home for many years while we were in a horrible negative equity position, but made good on our promise. We knew that would be irrelevant in the foreclosure or short sale process. Moving forward, we missed the two payments and started the process for hardships and short sale. I was immediately turned down by PNC Mortgage Hardship due to income. I was so upset and frustrated because just two months ago, a representative told me that based on my situation, this should be simple and to go ahead and missed the payments to get started. My only option now was to proceed with the short sale. I got an attorney to assist in the short sale because I was instructed by many to do that with PNC Mortgage. This was the same attorney handling my eviction, whom had a specialist in his office to handle short sales. After we finally evicted our tenant ( which took very long due to his situation and unfortunate experience with the system ) we quickly proceeded with the short sale as we were now 6 months past due. After thorough discussions with PNC Mortgage Loss Mitigation, our attorney, and several local realtors- we listed the home. Our balance was $ XXXX ( approximate ) at this point. We determined the best list price was $ XXXX due to some wear and tear from the tenants. Our realtor listed the home and I started doing small repairs ( paint and carpet cleaning ). During the first day of repairs, my contractors whom I paid, could not access the home. The padlock from XXXX XXXX XXXX was gone and replaced with a new padlock. The garage door was locked and the opener non-functional because it was unplugged. After having to pay carpet cleaners and painters to do NOTHING, I eventually went to the home to discover that PNC Mortgages vendors had entered the property and removed the padlock and created a post-sale sign in sheet in my property even though the foreclosure had not even begun. Apparently, PNC Mortgage accidently listed the home in their records as REO, which initiated a team to come in and throw away all the belongings in the home and secure the home. Multiple vendors came in and out of the home, unauthorized by me. After filing a claim with the REO team, it was discovered that PNC Mortgage had made the error in listing it as Bank Owned. I thought this was odd because they literally did it days after the eviction. It appears that when I called them to tell them the eviction was final and we were ready to start the short sale, they made their error and it started the process to secure the property. They destroyed the padlock from our realtor and threw away a lot of stuff that belonged to me and my kids that was safely stored in the garage and basement. After a couple days, they mysteriously located most of our stuff at a garbage field. Very disturbing. They brought the belongings back and left them in the garage. We eventually gained access by using the padlock from PNC to allow showings. Keep in mind, PNC Mortgage completely brushed off their error with no apology or consideration. I know that I was late, but I still owned the home. I was working with them for months to handle this professionally and accommodating. Actually, their vendors called me and were more apologetic than any one at PNC Mortgage. Fortunately, we moved quickly to list the home and we had nearly a dozen of showing the first week, many below the $ XXXX asking price and came up with an offer of $ XXXX that was put under contract. After months of slow processing from PNC Mortgage, our buyers walked away. We then worked with PNC Mortgage and realtor to re-list it at $ XXXX. Again, we had dozens of showings and an offer quickly close to asking price of $ XXXX, which we accepted. This time, the process moved quicker and PNC indicated before they proceeded and finalized the short sale, they would want to do an appraisal. We waited several weeks to hear back from them. After numerous attempts to get an answer, PNC Mortgage said that they wanted us to sell it for $ XXXX. This was astonishing because if this house was worth $ XXXX, I would not have to do a short sale. My many conversations early in the process with PNC Mortgage representatives never indicated that they thought I was in a positive equity position. How can they say that it increased in value by $ XXXX in 7 months? Considering the fact that I had several realtors call me to get my business and all of them wanted to list between $ 190k - $ 205k due to repairs and comparable in the area. We requested to see PNC Mortgages appraisal to see what they used to determine that value. We discovered that they did not use a local realtor, instead did a Brokers Price Opinion from hundreds of miles away. They had homes that were 700 - 1,000 square feet bigger, extra bedroom and bathroom, and finished basement on their comparables. As you can imagine, the buyer ( who was a cash buyer with a lot of time to wait out the process ) walked away and was not willing to negotiate as he felt he was already at the top of the market price. Again, trying to accommodate to PNC Mortgages instruction, we listed it at $ XXXX. We had 0 showings. During the course of this process, PNC Mortgage decided to come in and winterize the home ( even though we already had someone do it ). I am not sure what they did, but it appears someone unplugged the sump pump. I am not sure if it was a realtor from a buyer, one of the vendors that came in, or the people that came to winterize. I am also not sure if the sump pump was broken and they unplugged it to help me. All I know is that water ended up building up several inches and I had to get it cleaned, leaving marks and potential fear of mold. The home has now been pulled from the market due to the water damage, the outrageous listing price demand, and the failures and constant mistakes from PNC Mortgage.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation