Consumer complaint received 2023-09-25
Company: TRUIST FINANCIAL CORPORATION
State: FL
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process
Sub-issue: Escrow, taxes, or insurance

Complaint:
Truist Bank is my mortgagee. My home suffered damages due to a hurricane ( XX/XX/XXXX ) and, more recently, a tornado ( XX/XX/XXXX ) I have been working with Truist Banks loss draft department as they have a procedure in place for homeowner insurance checks and repairs. 

XX/XX/XXXX : Truist Bank received my claim checks. 
XX/XX/XXXX : Over a month later, Truist Bank processed the first checks received from my insurance company for loss repairs, and released an initial payment. 

XX/XX/XXXX : Inspection request was sent by me via Truist Banks insurance claim check portal. 
This is critical in the process established by Truist Bank in that they will not provide the remaining claim funds until it is complete ( 1 ). 

XX/XX/XXXX : A loss draft department representative put in a request for an exception to allow the next draw of my claim funds to be released immediately and without waiting on the inspection as Truist Bank failed to assign an inspector for three weeks despite the urgent need for claim funds as repairs needed to be paid. 

XX/XX/XXXX : Three weeks after making the request for inspection, despite several follow up calls and requests for the assigned inspectors contact information, as well as requests for escalation to bring this to the attention of a manager, I still had not been contacted by an assigned an inspector. 

XX/XX/XXXX : Truist Bank erroneously informed me that I was previously contacted by an assigned Inspector and that I had missed the call. Because the representative alleged to have knowledge of the assigned inspector, I again requested the name and contact information which the representative refused to provide. 

XX/XX/XXXX : After adamantly insisting that our exception be expedited to allow my claim funds to be released, I received a text from an inspection company that stated that the inspection company had Received a work order to inspect my property ( 2 ). I immediately made contact with this company by text ( 3 ). 
In response, the assigned inspector confirmed that this was his first attempt to contact me, proving that the accusation made by a Truist representative that the inspector attempted contact, but I missed their call, was false. The inspector further shared that he had driven by my home over the previous weekend, and knew that he should have called prior to XX/XX/XXXX. He stated that this is his side huddle, and as such, his calendar was limited. 

XX/XX/XXXX : I received a text message notification that the assigned inspector was available for an inspection appointment that same day and in next couple of hours ( 4 ), which I could not accommodate due to my work schedule. He texted that he would reach back out to me on Wednesday, XX/XX/XXXX to schedule an appointment. 

XX/XX/XXXX : I contacted Truist Bank to discuss the exception and asked that we continue with the request regardless of the recently assigned inspector. This request was due to the urgent need for funds to be released in order to pay for repairs. The process to release claim funds is not simply an inspection and I feared that this process may be incredibly slow and frustrating given the complete incompetence and negligence demonstrated by the loss draft department while handling the claim funds process thus far. 

XX/XX/XXXX : The assigned inspector reached out on this day as previously confirmed, but instead of scheduling an appointment, he sent a text message asking if I was Available for an appointment, and followed that up with a text that said, soon ( 5 ) despite me previously stating that I was not available on Wednesdays as I am out of town on those days. 

XX/XX/XXXX : I made several calls to Truist as a follow up to the request for exception. I was initially told that I should expect a response within 48 hours, later they corrected the timing and stated the anticipated response time frame was 3 business days. Later, they recanted and stated that the estimated response time for an exception request was 5 business days. 

XX/XX/XXXX : I called in and spoke to a representative in an effort to follow up on on our request for an exception. I expressed frustration about our current assigned Inspector in that he relies on same day appointments, has very limited availability, and that he drove by my home on his day off. The representative suggested we request a different inspector, to which I conceded. 

I asked if Truist would provide the name and contact information of the inspector. 
This request was denied. 

I requested to speak to a representative from the department responsible for assigning inspectors in an effort to expedite the process.. 
This request was denied. 

During the time period from the initial inspection request on XX/XX/XXXX through present, through phone calls to the loss draft department : I have requested escalation at least four times, specifically documenting XXXX, XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX ( 6 ), in an attempt to find a solution to these issues. I was hopeful that I would have an opportunity to speak with a supervisor. I only received one supervisor callback. 

I have requested to speak to the department that assigns inspectors, and was denied. 
I have requested the name and contact information of the newly assigned inspector in an effort to schedule and I was denied. 

I have asked for the name of the department that processes the request for exceptions, and was only given, Corporate, as a response. 

I have asked for the names of the departments associated with this process and the names of their management team and have been denied this information. 

XX/XX/XXXX : I received a call back from a manager ( XXXX ) who apologized for the situation, stated that she requested that the funds be released and that she would be personally working on accomplishing this. She said that she would get back to me, possibly by the end of the day, with an update. I never heard back from her. 

XX/XX/XXXX : I logged onto the banks webpage and used the departments virtual assistant to ask for a status update on my exception request. I received a response showing that it was denied. They stated that the denial was due to the fact that I had not had an inspection ( 7 ). 

In a documented conversations on XX/XX/XXXX and again on XX/XX/XXXX with the Truist Banks online virtual assistant, I requested further explanation on the exception denial. I also requested the name contact information of the inspection company that has been assigned to my claim. I was denied ( 8 ). 

The virtual assistant did mention that on XX/XX/XXXX, a representative had reached out, on my behalf, to the inspection department for information ( 8 ). 

It is now more than five weeks passed my inspection request. My home repairs will have to come to a complete halt as I can no longer pay from personal accounts given there is no immediate resolution. 

I have taken care to follow all of the steps of the process for my claim. 

Now, even if there is immediate information available on Monday regarding contact information for the inspector or inspection company, this banking institution still has a process to complete in order to release my claim checks. 

The dishonesty, lack of transparency, lack of concern for clients, lack of continuity between departments, carelessness and negligence in handling claims and claim funds, unnecessary delays in assigning inspectors, and the decision to issue a denial in response to an exception request that would allow the release of funds that have been seriously delayed by the actions or lack of actions by Truist Bank and their representatives, and are urgently needed to cover repairs, need to be fully investigated. 

Aside from the above described issues, this institution failed to recognize that my homeowners insurance policy was renewed and despite the provider sending all necessary documents to prove coverage, Truist Bank established force placed insurance. I have called to resolve the situation to no eval. It is evidenced on their portal that now there have been two escrow payments made for homeowners insurance. ( my selected homeowners insurance as well as the force placed ). 
This same issue occurred in XXXX with my flood insurance policy and I have yet to be successful in getting this bank to remove the costs incurred due to their own negligence. My attempts at recovering my funds proved to be overly exhausting and frustrating in dealing with the hold-times, incompetencies, and dishonesty. I just gave up. 

I am concerned that the erroneously force placed insurance combined with the delay in assigning an inspector are intentional efforts to withhold funds. Truist Bank was directly responsible for the delays related to the process in handling my claim funds and have made no effort to rectify this issue. 

I have been a SunTrust customer since XXXX. I never encountered any issues with Suntrust. Since the merger I have had force placed insurance established in error on two separate occasions. 
The insurance claim check department is set up so that there is no accountability. It is as if their representatives are trained to road block clients from obtaining information necessary for them to receive their claim funds in an appropriate amount of time. There is no possibility of speaking to upper management. There are no department heads. There is no continuity between the first level customer service, the processors, and the department that assigns the inspectors. They can not provide contact information for the assigned inspectors. 

I am including additional attachments ( aside from the first 1-8 ) that provide relative information.

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