Consumer complaint received 2020-10-21
Company: Social Finance, Inc.
State: VA
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Closing on a mortgage

Complaint:
I initiated a mortgage refinance loan with Sofi on XX/XX/2020 and was told that it would take approximately 60 days to close ; however the loan is still not closed due to repeated mistakes on their part. I am not submitting any documents or records for this complaint, since all of the issues I am describing can be verified by documents in my Sofi account portal and through emails with Sofi staff that have handled my loan. 

I submitted all required paperwork for the loan to them on XX/XX/XXXX and had the home inspection was completed by XX/XX/XXXX. We received conditional approval for the loan on XX/XX/XXXX, on which day we also submitted contact information for employment verifications. At that time I was told that no additional paper work or information was needed from me and that the loan would go through regular processing channels ; however from that point forward until today Sofi has made error after error which has resulted in a routine mortgage refinance taking almost 6 months. Below is a summary list of the issues that we have had with Sofi : 1 ) Staff do not routinely return phone calls, voice mails or emails. They do not acknowledge receipt of paperwork, information or requests for assistance/clarifications.

2 ) Staff routinely lose or fail to file paperwork and information that they collect ( employer verifications, documents that come to them directly from current mortgage holder etc ), which results in the applicant needed to follow up on their behalf and to request the same documents/information multiple times from employers, mortgage companies, city tax offices etc.

3 ) The process for managing the loan is completely unclear and staff are unable/unwilling to explain who/which offices or departments are responsible for the loan during different points in the timeline. The initial " loan officer '' is a person that seem to have no actual engagement with the loan after the preliminary paperwork is signed. He is the only point of contact for whom an email and phone number are provided, yet he is completely unreachable. I had to comb through the Sofi website and make dozens of calls to any phone number I could find on the website to get connected to managers of the various departments that handle the process. The amount of effort I have had to exert to get information and feedback from this company is ridiculous.

4 ) Despite Sofi senior staff admitting that they have made major mistakes with my loan, they do not seem to have capacity to oversee the processing to ensure that it moves forward efficiently and effectively. Each time there was a problem they assured me that they would address it immediately ; however even if they resolved one issue, others arose due to staff who seemed inexperienced and/or did not review the information diligently. At various times it seems that the staff managing the process lost track of my application or were so overwhelmed with other work that they could not follow up with me for weeks. This resulted in the interest rate being extended five times and my family having to submit 12 sets of paystubs and 6 months of mortgage and bank statements ( so far ).

5 ) Some of the most egregious problems that have occurred so far include what may be considered as predatory lending practices ; 1 ) failure of Sofi to send us ANY closing documents until 3pm of the day that we were scheduled to sign the documents in front of a notary at 5pm ; 2 ) the closing documents that were sent were incomplete and did not contain information on the monthly payment that was due ; 3 ) the closing documents stated that we needed to provide {$2600.00} cash at close, which was not what had been agreed upon in multiple earlier conversations and emails ; 4 ) the failure of Sofi to provide a SINGLE person who could answer any of our questions after we received the incomplete and inaccurate CD ( two staff that were responsible for my loan were on leave and the other was unreachable ) ; 5 ) inability on the part of Sofi to cancel the notary appointment ( that they scheduled ) after I emailed everyone to let them know that we could not sign the documents since we had not been able to review them fully or get answers to our questions ; 6 ) pressure from the notary that they hired to sign the documents ( he claimed that he could not leave my house without either the signed documents or instructions from the loan officer - of course he could not get in touch with the loan officer ) and ; 7 ) learning after the closing fiasco that the {$2600.00} cash at closing was to cover city taxes- which had already been paid in full by the current mortgage company.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation