Consumer complaint received 2018-04-27
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY
State: OK
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Struggling to pay mortgage

Complaint:
I am writing to complain about Wells Fargo. I have a 15 year loan with them and for the first 10 years I pay without any problems. I had some hardship with my business and then a divorce that caused a lot of financial issues and I began missing my mortgage payments. I contacted Wells Fargo and applied for a loan modification with them. After a few months they told me I was denied because I make too much money. I don't see how this can be true, my business is growing but I am not making that much money when I applied the first time. So I tell Wells Fargo that I disagree with their findings and that I think it is wrong. I have owned a commercial cleaning business for 25 years and now things are starting to get better again for me and Wells Fargo said that since things have changed that I can apply again. So when I apply again they tell me that I don't qualify because I don't make enough income -- -this does not make sense, because this time I am making more money than the first time. I think Wells Fargo is not playing fair and denying me access to government and internal programs that should be made available to struggling homeowners. They are now trying to schedule a foreclosure sale date on my house instead of giving me details and explaining what income figures were used in these denials and how this could happen. 

When I refinanced in XX/XX/XXXX the lender XXXX XXXX took advantage of me before the loan was transferred to Wells Fargo. I am from XXXX and my primary language is XXXX. I had a good credit score at the time of this loan in the high XXXX 's but somehow I ended up in a stated income loan with a high interest rate and found out after the fact that I paid over {$25000.00} in closing costs. I was taken advantage of because of my nationality and because I did not understand what was going on. I was also convinced that it was a better deal to take a 15 year loan which led to a much higher monthly payment. My financial problems began in XX/XX/XXXX. My main contract for my cleaning business was with XXXX XXXX XXXX. A competitor came in and underbid me and stole the account and I was in a bad place because that account generated the majority of my income. In that same time frame my wife and I began having problems and then we began divorce proceedings and she stopped contributing to the household bills. My income had been drastically slashed by the loss of my major account and now I was the only one paying the bills. I used my savings and scraped up what I could and continued making the monthly mortgage payment even though I was going through so many problems. Finally in XX/XX/XXXX I missed mortgage payments because I could not hang on anymore. I contacted the agents at Wells Fargo to see if I could get some help and began the process of applying for a modification. After several months of back and forth and review, I was told that I did not qualify because I made too much money. 

Since that review my business started building back up again with new clients and I am making more money. I have myself and my XXXX children, XXXX and XXXX living with me in the home. When I talk to the people at Wells Fargo they tell me to apply for help again. So I applied again because now I have more income, and they tell me that this time I am declined because I don't make enough money, there is too little income. None of this makes sense. I am not given specific figures or details or the income that they calculated when they made these decisions. I think that Wells Fargo is making mistakes when they do these reviews or maybe they are doing it on purpose so they can foreclose on my house. 

I have paid Wells Fargo a lot of money over the years and was pushed into a 15 year loan at origination which did not benefit me. I need some help to fix this problem, this foreclosure could be avoided.

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