Consumer complaint received 2017-06-09
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: NY
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Home equity loan or line of credit (HELOC)
Issue: Closing on a mortgage

Complaint:
On XXXX XXXX, XXXX, I applied for a HELOC in Citibanks XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX branch as my third lien. Citibanks loan officer and his manager who helped me were XXXX XXXX XXXX and XXXX XXXX. Before submitting the HELOC application, I informed them that I currently have a mortgage with XXXX XXXX and a HELOC with XXXX that I signed on XXXX XXXX that has an clause that I may not close it within 3 years during the withdrawal period. That means my first HELOC with XXXX must be open for another year ( until XXXX XXXX ). If I closed it sooner, I would get charged an early termination penalty and I told them I did not want to close it early and did not want to pay an early termination penalty fee. I would use the Citibank HELOC to pay off my XXXX HELOC but keep it open with zero balance. XXXX said that he understood and not to worry about it. He said that I could keep my first HELOC with XXXX open as inactive till the end of the withdrawal period with XXXX. So, I agreed to submit the HELOC application with Citibank on XXXX/XXXX/XXXX. I filled out the application asking for {$150000.00} HELOC. XXXX submitted my application on the spot and spoke with the loan processor on the phone. The processor approved me for {$130000.00} HELOC and I accepted. Thus, we settled at {$130000.00}. After sending a lot of documents back and forth that Citibanks loan processor had requested, a month and half later I received the approval letter and loan agreement ( XXXX ) for {$75000.00} although my financial information did not change from the day I submitted my application. I wrote an email to XXXX asking why the amount was changed and he contacted the loan processor. Then, about two weeks later, the Citibank loan processor, XXXX XXXX XXXX, approved me for {$100000.00} HELOC. I agreed to it and, she sent out the updated approval letter and XXXX for {$100000.00}. In XXXX, I received the APPROVAL LETTER letter dated XXXX/XXXX/XXXX, and the three XXXX that I needed to sign and have my Co-op board sign as well. My co-op building, XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, requires a {$350.00} application fee for HELOCs application. I submitted the HELOC application with the {$350.00} application fee to my co-op, and I got them signed and gave the two signed XXXX to XXXX personally ( one XXXX was to be kept by the Co-op board ). This was supposedly the last step before scheduling the closing. But then, things got weirder and weirder. The loan processor, XXXX, kept asking me for more documents, one at a time, each time I followed up about my application. I had provided all the required documents that she requested prior to the issuance of the approval letter and XXXX which took about two months. A good loan processor should have looked into all the documents I had given her. If it was not sufficient, she should have requested it prior to issuing the approval letter and XXXX. However, XXXX kept requesting new documents one at a time on  different days. On XXXX/XXXX/XXXX, she said the proprietary lease I had provided was missing pages. Should n't she have reviewed it when I gave it to her before the issuing approval letter or XXXX? Then, after I gave her what I had, she requested the original which I do n't have ( fast forward, she was okay with just the copy not the original ). The next day, on XXXX, she said my mortgage loan number did n't show the entire number ; It proofs that she never reviewed my documents I had submitted when she requested a few months ago. Then, on XXXX, she still said my proprietary lease was incomplete. I finally got the complete proprietary lease and sent it to XXXX. On XXXX XXXX again made another request. She asked me to sign a document allowing Citibank to request a payoff statement from XXXX and close the account. I refused to close my XXXX HELOC as I already told XXXX ( Citibanks loan processor ) and XXXX ( Citibanks loan processor manager ) the first day I applied for the HELOC. They assured me it would not be a problem and I could keep my XXXX HELOC open as inactive with zero balance. On XXXX XXXX emailed me to inform me that my HELOC application was denied. I have spent my time, energy, and frustration for more than three months to keep up with their never-ending requests and paid a {$350.00} application fee to my co-op only to be denied even after they issued the APPROVAL LETTER and XXXX. Citibank failed to disclose that I MUST pay off and close my first HELOC with XXXX. Neither the approval letter nor the loan agreement ( XXXX ) said that I must pay off and close my XXXX HELOC as one of the requirements. And, Citibank mistreated my application while finding excuses to deny my application after more than three months playing with my emotion, time, energy, and money. This is entirely unacceptable and I am completely dissatisfied with this situation. I want Citibank to at least reimburse me the HELOC application fee of {$350.00} I had paid to my XXXX.

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