Consumer complaint received 2018-03-10
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: CA
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Struggling to pay mortgage

Complaint:
We had a Mortgage with Bank of America and in XXXX we negotiated a short-sale with them and had a cash buyer for {$130.00}. We had submitted all the hardship letters, bank statement etc to the bank and everything was agreed for the short sale to proceed. Bank of America in their efforts to close this sale took myself and husband off the Title - we never signed anything with them to do this. There was a problem with the Title and the cash buyer we had walked away from the property after waiting for 6 months to get possession of the property. We were notified via a Court document that we no longer had any legal rights to the property Because of this we were unable to do another short-sale or anything with the property. We spent many frustrating hours on the phone with Bank of America trying to get this matter rectified. We spoke to every department sent letters and emails to no avail. I spoke to deed in lieu department and they told me I could not do a deed in lieu because we were not on the title. 

In XXXX our loan was sold to XXXX XXXX XXXX. They contacted us to find out what was going on with the mortgage. I explained the situation to them. They said they would look into the matter and see if we could do a deed in lieu. I asked the representative that I was working with if there were be any consequences in doing this with them and he said no they would just take the property back and we would be done with it. I heard back from XXXX XXXX stating that their attorney came back with the title report and advised that myself and my husband were not on the title to the home. There was a court ruling that took our names off the title back in XXXX - as stated above we never signed any court documents with Bank of America. XXXX XXXX also states that the previous servicer, however, never released the lien and reported the transfer complete. They stated that we did not have to sign any further documentation with them. 

Our credit report were severally affected by all of this and I asked XXXX XXXX if they could clear our credit reports. Their reply was there may be a way to have the credit reporting fixed so the loan does not show up after you and your husband were taken off the title in XXXX. They asked us to draft a letter giving an overview of the situation starting with our hardship up to dealing with the Bank of America and trying to get this sorted out. They said once they received this letter, my supervisor and I will take it to our Vice President and get working on fixing the credit. They did fix our credit. Clearly they could see from the documentation sent to them that we had a case. 

I received a XXXX stating that we were personally liable for {$140000.00} which I am now expected to pay taxes on. I sent an email to the person I have been dealing with at XXXX XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX stating that my understanding was that after talking to you that this debt would be forgiven once you cleaned up the title. I asked him at the time we spoke on the phone what were the repercussions of you taking this property back and itw as stated that there would be none " we will take it back and it will just go away. It was never disclosed to me that we would be personally liable for the debt. 

I have left 3 messages for XXXX XXXX to call me back and none of my calls have been returned nor do I have an answer on my email that I sent on XX/XX/XXXX. 

I called XXXX XXXX customer service division today and spent an hour on the phone with various people all stating that they can do nothing about this. How can we be personally liable for a debt when we do not own the house? We had a clear agreement with the Bank of America back in XXXX for a short-sale that they messed up - and they took us off the title leaving us with no recourse. 

I do not know who owned the house after Bank of America took us off the title or why they could not complete the short-sale but I do not believe we are personally liable for anything on a property we did not own

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