Consumer complaint received 2021-05-20
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: CA
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Closing on a mortgage

Complaint:
We are first time home buyers and went with Bank of America as our lender because one of us has been a customer there for a long time. At first our lender XXXX was accessible and seemed to be very helpful with the whole process - which was great because we had no clue what home buying entailed. Shortly after we got going, though, our lender became almost impossible to get in touch with. Wed have to follow up on email 2 or 3 times, or call and leave a VM ( which was almost never returned ). When he did respond on email, it was often with no details or explanation as to what he needed or why he needed it. We would ask questions for clarification and often he would respond with very abrupt answers or just copy and paste the same info he had already put in a previous email in his response. We even had to call BOA and ask to speak to his boss early on as we were putting an offer on a house and he would not respond to our requests to supply us with our pre-approval documents ( which were time sensitive ). 

Additionally, we ran into another issue related to a past charge on my account that went to a collections agency. I thought the delinquent charge had been taken care of years ago as I never got any indication it was still active until we began our mortgage process. It took weeks for our lender to fully explain to me how I needed to get proof of payment for our underwriter. I was understandably confused why they needed me to call a company named XXXX for a charge I was under the impression had been resolved about three years prior. 

On XX/XX/XXXX I called XXXX for the first time and was told they didnt know what I was talking about and they couldnt help me. I told our lender this and he informed me that I needed to show proof of the payment leaving my account, which I did by sending him my debit transactions on XX/XX/XXXX. On XX/XX/XXXX, his assistant sent another vague email demanding I call XXXX about my delinquent charge. I once again informed them I had already spoken to them and they couldnt help me and that I had sent proof of payment on XX/XX/XXXX. After going back and forth on email I finally got an explanation as to why I needed to call CoreLogic ( it was so they could confirm with the collections agency that I had paid the charge ). I called them for the second time, sat on hold for 40 minutes and was told that they couldnt help me without a reference number which our lender had never shared with me. On XX/XX/XXXX I emailed our lender requesting the reference number. He replied by pasting the same request to call them in the email response and didnt even acknowledge my request for a reference number. I then called and left a VM requesting the reference number and was never called back. On XX/XX/XXXX, we emailed our lender again requesting the reference number and got a response on XX/XX/XXXX that said I needed to call XXXX and give them my social security number. Once again, I replied that I had given them my social when I called the second time and they said I needed a reference number. Finally, at XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX I received the reference number and resolved the charge with XXXX. As of today, though, it still says its an outstanding item on our mortgage portal, so I have once again emailed our lender asking him for confirmation this is closed out. 

The main reason I am filing this complaint is due to our lender withholding important requirements from the underwriter and basically tanking our loan in the last week before we close on our house. On XX/XX/XXXX at XXXX, our lender emails us listing 5 outstanding items that need to be resolved before our closing on XX/XX/XXXX. These were a list of repairs that the underwriter was requiring be completed or we dont get our loan. Mind you our lender told us we had already been approved for the loan and we thought everything was good to go at this point. We spoke with someone at Bank of America on XX/XX/XXXX about this and found out that our lender had received notice of these outstanding items about 24 days prior ( so he got the items at the end of XXXX ) and had only shared them with us on XX/XX/XXXX ( if youre keeping track, thats 15 days before we were scheduled to close ). We were also told if we didnt get them done, we wont get the house and we lose our $ XXXX deposit, plus the money we spent on the inspection ( {$500.00} ). They also refused to do anything to fix their lenders mistake and basically tried to shift the blame to us. As mentioned above, we are first time home buyers and therefore stupidly thought we could trust our lender to be competent and guide us through this process. 

This is outrageous to us, and we are beyond livid that we might not only lose out on our house, but a large sum of money. We also have already put in our notice at our apartment so we could end up being homeless if the house falls through and be out around $ XXXX for breaking our lease early.

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 non-monetary relief