Consumer complaint received 2020-04-03
Company: Stewart Information Services
State: NC
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Closing on a mortgage

Complaint:
At the beginning of this year we decided to refinance our home. A combination of our credit scores and income documentation, lead to us finding XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX dba XXXX XXXX. Having been a mortgage banker for over 8 years, I did my due diligence with these folks upfront. We sent them over 150 pages of banking statements to be reviewed in detail and ensure that we were qualified financially before starting the loan process.

It took us 8 weeks to navigate the loan qualification process and then another 2 weeks for the closing. The end result is a deed of trust was recorded on our home and we were never given a loan. We reached out to them and the Stewart Title the day after the deed was recorded, only to learn that they had no intention of funding it and had begun the process of attempting to rescind the deed of trust. XXXX  made the decision to halt funding and attempt to rescind my loan without letting us know. The collusion between the two companies is self-evident and is the reason neither made any effort to update us on Monday or Tuesday morning. There was a conscious decision made to withhold that information and an attempt to rescind the documentation without communicating any of it to us. 

After a week of silence, we received an email from XXXX telling us that they sent Stewart Title a " satisfaction '' for the deed of trust. There has been no satisfaction to this loan, because there was never a loan itself. There was a misfiled deed of trust that remained on our home for over a week. There was no communication from XXXX during that timeframe and we still never received anything in writing as to what happened. We qualified and closed on a loan, that they chose to back out of at the 13th hour and then colluded with Stewart Title, their normal title company, to rescind the deed of trust without telling us. Not only did we supply this company with our 100 's of pages of personal documents, we also paid for an appraisal that meant nothing because they couldn't offer a product to justify it with. The result of this, is that in our current climate we are left in financial ruin, with no answers and two corporations that walked all over us. Both companies treated us poorly throughout the process and especially when it was time to fulfill their side of the qualified transaction. 

The NC Bar Association has reviewed this information along with a 16 page timeline of the events and full communication that occurred. The Real Property division has decided to launch an investigation that is ongoing at this time. Both a litigation and real estate attorney have also reviewed the information and stated that there is a valid claim. It was noted that there was a breach in Stewart Title 's duties to us as a client when refusing to disburse the funds, as well as a breach in the loan commitment from XXXX XXXX. They have identified NC Statutes 45A-4 & 45A-7 and the Good Funds Settlement Act as just a few of the items that were all violated during this transaction.

The bottom line here is that there are multiple violations contained on pages 9-14. The rest of the information is to assist in understanding the timeline of events and negligence on the part of XXXX and Stewart Title.

Company public response: Company believes it acted appropriately as authorized by contract or law
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation