Consumer complaint received 2020-09-10
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY
State: FL
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process

Complaint:
I am a veteran that can't get a VA loan due to Wells Fargo 's actions. 
In XX/XX/XXXX, I called Wells Fargo concerning a possible loan modification. They sent me a packet that I never filled out or returned. No modification was ever done. A few months later, I received my monthly mortgage statement that now reflected added fees for escrow. I never had an escrow account. I pay my taxes and insurance separately. I was told by Wells Fargo that escrow was required due to loan modification. I NEVER received a modification. For months on end, I went back and forth with them over the payment. My account had never been properly notated and I had to explain myself over and over again to each person that got my call. Please keep in mind that insurance and property taxes iXXXX XXXX Florida are not cheap. I pay taxes and insurance individually when work commission checks are received. The added escrow nearly doubled my monthly payment putting it well beyond my monthly budget. For 6 -8 months I went back and forth with them over the correction. They would remove escrow then put it right back on. My payments were applied incorrectly and eventually snowballed and started to show as late. They even refused to accept my payments at one point claiming they were short ( due to added escrow ) and a local office held 2 of my checks. Eventually, I was referred to their recovery department after multiple phone calls and complaints ( I ended up with 3 separate people in recovery all passing it on to the next guy until The last one actually made an effort to fix things ). I reimbursed them for the property taxes that they paid twice ( I paid them in XX/XX/XXXX for taxes they paid in XX/XX/XXXX that were not due till XX/XX/XXXX, and I paid them for taxes they paid in XX/XX/XXXX that were not due till XX/XX/XXXX over {$12000.00} paid by mXXXX 401k with a penalty ). While working with their Recovery Department on all of this and making arrangements to make sure that the payments were all in order they decided to initiate foreclosure proceedings. Why start a foreclosure on a customer that you are already working with? We got it all straightened out and the foreclosure was dismissed without going any further then the initial document filing. 
Thought all was good till about 6 months later when I noticed an added fee of {$4100.00} on my statement. I was told it was for the attorney fees for the foreclosure. Again, going back and forth. Now they have sold my loan to XXXX XXXX XXXX. My first payment to XXXX showed as {$5600.00} due to this added amount. XXXX has moved this to the back of my loan but said they can not remove it as Wells Fargo said they were " late payments ''. I am an XXXX Veteran attempting to refinance this to a VA loan so I can get a more affordable rate, and I can not get approval because of this fee. All because Wells Fargo could not seem to understand the difference between asking about a modification and actually receiving one.

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