Consumer complaint received 2018-05-21
Company: Ditech Financial LLC
State: UT
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process

Complaint:
This is follow up to complaint XXXX that was closed before the issue was resolved to my satisfaction. 

I contacted Ditech on XX/XX/XXXX to inquire about removing the PMI from my mortgage. My property value had dramatically increased and I was quite certain the loan to value ratio had more than been met to remove the PMI. I was told to obtain and submit an appraisal on the house. I questioned them about whether I could do it myself or must go through Ditech and they put me on hold to verify. They came back and told me to do it myself and the PMI would be removed once they received the appraisal verifying the values. 

I had an appraisal done the following month that showed the value high enough to remove the PMI. But Ditech says they received the appraisal in XXXX ( though I am quite certain I faxed it in before that time ). And they came back by phone to tell me that the appraisal was being rejected because it was more than 90 days old. I got off the phone and searched their website for where it says in writing that the appraisal must be less than 90 days old. I never found anything ( which makes sense considering that Ditech admitted that there has NEVER been a policy allowing a customer to obtain their own appraisal, it has always been required to set it up through the company. They admitted that the agent misinformed me on that first phone call ). And when I received the call from ditech informing me that the appraisal was being rejected, NEVER AT ANY TIME did they inform me I was not supposed to obtain and send in my own appraisal. So at my husband 's urging, I scheduled another appraisal to be done the next morning after the phone call. I was dismayed to receive in the mail AFTER THE SECOND APPRAISAL was already completed a form with a checklist of what to do to have the PMI removed that included contacting Ditech to arrange for an appraisal. I was never told I could not arrange my own appraisal. This was the first I had heard. I mailed the new appraisal in along with the checklist making notations that I was not told I needed to go through ditech to schedule the appraisal. 

Ditech shows record that they rejected the second appraisal because they don't accept appraisals scheduled by the homeowner. But Ditech never bothered contacting me by phone or in writing that they received and rejected the second appraisal. It was only months later that I realized I was STILL being charged for PMI. 

In response to complaint XXXX Ditech admitted that I was told wrong by the agent in XX/XX/XXXX and never at any time has the homeowner been allowed to obtain their own appraisal and not to schedule it through Ditech. But they have told me over and over again that I was told by the agent on the XX/XX/XXXX phone call that the appraisal must be less than 90 days old. When I asked for a copy of the call to show proof of this, I was told calls are proprietary and not shared with the public. But I know for a fact that I was NOT told that the appraisal must be less than 90 days old. Why would he mention this if there isn't even a policy allowing homeowners to send in their own appraisal? It doesn't make sense and it is a lie. Later, in the same response to complaint XXXX, the paralegal wrote that I was told " the appraisal must be less than 120 days old '' in the phone call dated XX/XX/XXXX. Their lies are contradicting. And it makes me upset that after months of trying to work this out when I finally ( FINALLY ) got a phone call from ditech, they told me they could not continue the call if I was recording it. Can you blame me? They can record calls but won't provide them to me when requested. But it isn't ok for me to record our calls??? 

Although Ditech did pay to obtain another appraisal last month and they did refund me on the second appraisal I purchased, I still submit that they should not have charged me PMI from XX/XX/XXXX - XX/XX/XXXX since they received an updated appraisal that was sent in good faith with ZERO knowledge that it would or could be rejected. The newest appraisal shows that the value on my house has gone up more than 20k since the XX/XX/XXXX appraisal was done. Ditech needs to take responsibility for the lies, the misinformation and the poor customer service. 

I did submit a complaint to XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX that has had over 12,000 views. I also posted a link to this complaint on Ditech 's official XXXX page. There were 16 comments made to this XXXX  post but Ditech has somehow made them private or hidden so that only two of the comments are visible ( see attached pics ). They have that right, but it is sad that they are unwilling to be held accountable for the problems they have caused.

Company public response: Company believes complaint represents an opportunity for improvement to better serve consumers
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation