Consumer complaint received 2021-07-03
Company: Freedom Mortgage Company
State: VA
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: VA mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process

Complaint:
Property ( condo ) located in XXXX, VA, XXXX. 
Loan 1 : loan number XXXX. Duration XXXX XX/XX/XXXX Loan 2 : loan number XXXX. Duration XXXX XX/XX/XXXX Loan 3 : loan number XXXX. Duration XXXX XX/XX/XXXX I had multiple loans with Freedom Mortgage ( FM ) for the same property. Loan 1 originated in XXXX and I refinanced it with FM XXXX XXXX to a lower rate, thus starting Loan 2, and then again to an even lower percentage in XXXX XXXX, thus starting Loan 3. Then in late XXXX my parents ' health deteriorated to a point where they have to move-in with me so I started looking for a house. I bought a house and put my condo on the market. It was sold very quickly, but I had an incredibly difficult time with closing paperwork because of FM 's vile incompetence. My closing was supposed to happen on XXXX XXXX but was delayed until XXXX XXXX due to the following problems. 

Problem 1. FM did not record the Deed of Trust when I refinanced with them from Loan 2 to Loan 3. They tried to blame XXXX XXXX XXXX and myself, but I reminded FM that I didn't pick the closing company- they did, and its not my responsibility to check if FM has completed the required documents. Instead of quickly resolving the problem, FM send me the wrong documents claiming everything was fine. I had to set-up teleconferences between XXXX XXXX and FM because FM kept sending the wrong documentation and pretended everything was fine. It took two weeks to resolve this problem. 

Problem 2. FM did not pay my second half of XXXX taxes at all. I found that out when the taxes were 64 days overdue and had to pay them myself ; I could not sell the condo with outstanding taxes. FM took money from me into escrow but didn't pay the taxes like they were supposed to. I called FM Tax Services and was told to email with an explanation of the problem. So I did. As of today, I am still waiting for the promised refund. I had to call them multiple times, and FM told me it was an error, but that explanation is insufficient. If I was late with my mortgage payment FM would have charged me substantial late fees. I got lucky that XXXX XXXX Country Taxpayer services did not report me to the credit bureaus. Any tax-related problems would have severely impacted my employment ; I am a government contractor with a security clearance and tax problems are not well received. I found out that FM did not pay my first half of XXXX taxes on time. Instead of XX/XX/XXXX they paid them in XX/XX/XXXX. I repeatedly asked for an explanation but was not given one. Was that even legal to withhold money like that? While I was dealing with FM to resolve this problem, I had to make multiple calls about it to their tax department. No one from FM called me back even though it was a problem of their creation, not mine. There was a class action lawsuit against FM due to harassing phone calls, so they clearly know how to make a phone call. 

Problem 3. On XX/XX/XXXX FM documented a loan in my name that had previously been paid off ( Loan 1 ) like it was new. That, again, prevented me from closing on the condo. No explanation was given as to why they did that. So I needed a new Certificate of Satisfaction. I organized a teleconference between FM and the title company working on my sale. FM was given the instrument number and all other required information, but they failed again and sent me the wrong Certificate of Satisfaction. This caused unnecessary delays and I almost lost the sale. I had to allow the buyer to move in prior to closing just to keep them in the deal.

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