Consumer complaint received 2021-11-01
Company: Fairway Independent Mortgage Corporation
State: MA
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Struggling to pay mortgage

Complaint:
We applied for a modification in XX/XX/XXXX that was ultimately denied in February 2020. They stated our mortgage was ineligible due to MA Chapter 194 35B and before we could appeal, COVID hit and we entered COVID forbearance. Our COVID forbearance ended on October 1. We have been speaking with Fairway and our ( yet another new ) single point of contact on our options. We had been hoping to utilize the COVID mortgage modifications but were told that because we were considered in arrears when we entered the COVID forbearance, that our loan is ineligible for those specific options. We were also told that despite our D : I ratio being vastly different now post-bankruptcy, the loan is still ineligible for modification due to the Certain Mortgage Loan Law dictating that the ineligibility happens at the time of lending. 

Initially, Fairway told us that unless we can come up with over {$80000.00} on XX/XX/XXXX, our only options were a short sale, deed-in-lieu, or foreclosure. They were pushing us towards a fast-track short sale and encouraging us to speak with real estate agents. We repeatedly told them that we wanted to stay in the home, that we make decent money, that we did not want to have to pull our child out of kindergarten mid-year, that we did not understand how we could not possibly stay in the home. 

After repeatedly pushing back on the reasons we were supposedly ineligible ( even going so far as to supply them with direct links to Fairway to XXXX XXXX lender letter XXXX outlining our options ), they finally admitted our loan WAS eligible, that the original interpretation of the MA Chapter was incorrect, that we were in fact eligible for the COVID19 options, and offered us a Flex Modification of 2.875 % for 480mos and a trial payment plan that starts in XX/XX/XXXX. 

However, given that our ORIGINAL modification application submitted pre-COVID was incorrectly denied and the flex modification they are offering us now adds almost {$60000.00} to our principal from interest accruing at 5.49 %, we asked them to correct their error and backdate our interest rate to our original modification application, reduce the outstanding interest accordingly, and recalculate the TPP. Then we would proceed with the flex modification and revised TPP starting in XX/XX/XXXX. 

They have refused and ambiguously state that they can not do it because our original modification was denied and seem deaf to us stating it was INCORRECTLY DENIED DUE TO NO FAULT OF OUR OWN BUT AN ERROR ON THEIR PART. 

They have also sent us letters stating they cant get a hold of us despite our regular contact ( both over email and phone ), we have not received the proper documentation for a right to cure, they seem to be skipping the steps they are legally required to make, can not get their stories straight, and at this point it feels like we are being pushed into paying usury interest upon threat of losing our home. I have spent countless hours on this that I simply do not have to spare and have been under immense stress from the whole ordeal that is approaching tort territory. We need help and I dont know where to find it.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation