Consumer complaint received 2018-03-02
Company: Shellpoint Partners, LLC
State: FL
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Struggling to pay mortgage

Complaint:
I received my permanent modification from Shellpoint Mortgage on XX/XX/XXXX and before I could being to make my first payment, we had a severe Hurricane named Irma and our State ( Florida ) was declared a Federal Disaster Area and due to the Hurricane, many jobs & businesses were closed for many days including my job. The Governor XXXX XXXX announced on National TV that anyone with a Mortgage could receive a deferment up to a year and the payments will be put to the back of the Loan. He also announced that many Creditors/Auto Loans/Credit Cards, etc could defer payments on bills but the Debtor had to call their Creditors and request it. All my credit card companies sent me letters to defer the payments if I needed too without any penalty or interest charges. Being that I sustained damages on my property due to the Hurricane and not able to claim on my Homeowners Insurance because of a very high deductible, I called Shellpoint Mortgage to request 3 months of forbearance and was approved and told that those payments would be added to the back of the Loan. I received the letter dated XX/XX/XXXX approving the forbearance with dates & amounts of the loan from Shellpoint Mortgage. No where in the letter did it mention that the 3 months of forbearance would be due in full in XX/XX/XXXX. In XX/XX/XXXX, I received my Mortgage Statement to my surprise it stated that on XX/XX/XXXX Shellpoint Mortgage hired an Attorney and charged me {$250.00} for Attorney fees, Filing Cost {$250.00} and FC Cost {$250.00} and claims that I am Delinquent on my mortgage payments for XX/XX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX & XX/XX/XXXX which were the months of the forbearance period and they would begin Foreclosure process. I then called Shellpoint Mortgage in regard to this statement and was told that they were sorry for the mistake and would reverse the charges and also they were sorry for the Customer Service Specialist for giving me the incorrect information about the forbearance and I would have to pay the 3 months of forbearance on XX/XX/XXXX. I informed them that I did not have the monies to pay the 3 months of forbearance due to fixing my property damages from the Hurricane. Shellpoint Mortgage told me that the only solution would be a Repayment Loan for the 3 months payable within 12 months. I asked them about deferring the payments to the back of the Loan, and the answer was " No '', so they are in the process of trying to commit me to a Repayment Loan of an additional {$400.00} per month to the current mortgage payment of {$2200.00} payable within 12 months. On XX/XX/XXXX, I saw on the local news station XXXX XXXX, Help Me XXXX, about a person with the same situation as myself and asked if it was lawful of the banks to make us pay back the forbearance payments that occurred because of a Hurricane and being declared a Federal Disaster Area the investigation was found that the Law requires Banks to Defer the payments to the back of the loan if the state was declared a Federal Disaster area, which in our case it was. I therefore contacted Shellpoint Mortgage about the Investigation on National TV and my Specialist sent me an email on XX/XX/XXXX directing me to write a letter to the Escalation Department in reference to my area being declared a Federal Disaster Area and my 3 defered mortgage payments to be placed on the back of the Loan instead of a Repayment Plan. I am currently in the process of the request with Shellpoint Mortgage Escalation Department.

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