Consumer complaint received 2021-05-03
Company: Freedom Mortgage Company
State: NC
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Closing on a mortgage

Complaint:
Application date : XX/XX/XXXX with Freedom Mortgage after receiving a solicitation for a refinance from Freedom/XXXX  since they merged last year. XXXX was my existing loan servicer. 
It took at least 6 weeks to get the loan in front of an underwriter, which, is understandable with the current economic situation. I work for a mortgage lender, and audit underwriters, so I am familiar with volume and expectations. However, I am also aware of what is required to complete a rate/term refinance as far as documentation goes. Upfront, I provided the requisite paystubs and w2s. No assets were needed as I was receiving a minimal amount of cash back. The loan received unnecessary conditions - they either were not needed or they were something that typically is not required from the borrower. After multiple scripted messages about no movement in my loan status, I finally received an email regarding missing items on XX/XX/XXXX. The email gave me 24 hours to produce documents after it had taken 6 weeks to even have someone review my loan. The one condition they needed from me was a Deed of Trust. Which makes no sense. When I asked them WHY they needed this, they advised it was because my title is vested in a trust. It most certainly is not and never has been. A Deed of Trust is recorded in NC because NC is an attorney state. The attorney is considered a trustee for the lender. I advised them of this, and told them they could get it online with the county as necessary, and then I did the " legwork '' with the county online myself just to expedite my loan. I spoke with my MLO  and emailed with my MLO repeatedly, to no consequence. Each time I was told that my concerns would be escalated and received nothing from any management level. Days later on approximately XX/XX/XXXX, I received another request to provide the lender 's title insurance policy. This is not something any lender would require from a borrower. Most borrowers don't even understand what this is. But, again, to expedited my loan, since I know what a lender 's policy is, I reached out to their partner, XXXX and made a request to obtain it. I still have not received that to date. I inquired as to why Freedom and XXXX can't work together to obtain this information since they are now the same lender, and received no response. Luckily, I have a contact at the closing agent from my prior refinance who put me in touch with the title company itself, and I successfully got the lender 's policy info within about 2 days. I am sickened to think what would happen to a borrower who isn't familiar with mortgage and who would potentially still be waiting if they'd had to simply wait on XXXX to get them a document for something that honestly shouldn't even need to be provided. After all of this lunacy, and another week of non-responsiveness, I escalated to a complaint department for Freedom Mortgage. All people I spoke with previously advised me that they have no escalation department. This was surprising, since every lender I've ever know has some type of escalation/compliant resolution. I must commend Freedom on their website, because finding a phone number for compliant escalation required diligence and searching on par with that of an FBI agent. But I did find it!! And I spoke with a representative who seemed to brush over my concerns about the overall process and just state that he would " work to get the loan clear to close '' as quickly as possible since that's most important. I finally received a clear-to-close on XXXX. I received electronic Closing Disclosure to acknowledge on XXXX. When I viewed the disclosure, I noticed that I was getting approximately {$790.00} back ( due likely to the fact that I did correctly continue to make my mortgage payments during this entire process ). I wrote my customer representative and initially asked if I could have that reduced. HOWEVER, I wrote back later the next day on XX/XX/XXXX and advised the customer representative and MLO that I decided to leave the loan amount alone, no need to reduce it. And advised that I acknowledged the XXXX electronically at loan amount of {$230000.00}. The closing was scheduled for XX/XX/XXXX. On XX/XX/XXXX, a mobile notary came to my home. We started executing disclosures. The attorney had the incorrect county EVERYWHERE on docs. And then, to my surprise, came the XXXX for a lower loan amount of {$230000.00}. WELL, THAT WAS INTERESTING. Because I thought it was the law that the lender is required to re-disclose when a loan amount changes. Especially since it was NOT at my request. When I emailed my customer representative and MLO about the discrepancy later on XX/XX/XXXX, no one replied. I emailed again on XX/XX/XXXX, with no response. And again on XX/XX/XXXX, with no reply, this time, including the compliant representative. I again, received no responses. Finally, on XX/XX/XXXX, the final day of the rescission period, I got an email response and a phone call from someone in the Closing department. They did note that it should have been redisclosed. He stated " well, sometimes fees change ''. BUT NO FEES CHANGED. The loan amount changed. They executed a principle reduction without disclosure of such to me, the consumer. Not only that, but he said " we'll make this right - maybe by sending a gift card. '' Um, sorry. That would be considered bribery, and also, you know, still illegal because the loan should have been redisclosed. The closing representative also advised that, since my lock expires on XX/XX/XXXX, they could not re-close the loan because the lock would not cover another segment of closing/rescission/funding. And he advised that there would be a cost incurred to me for extending the lock at that point. As if this weren't bad enough to this point, now I was being advised that Freedom will charge ME in my rate or pricing, to re-close the loan that they XXXX  up and didn't disclose properly. I emailed the escalation/complaint representative one more time on XX/XX/XXXX, and have gotten no replies. No calls. No emails. The loan closed and I was in a bind for whether or not to rescind, so, it funded and that's all they're concerned with.

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