Consumer complaint received 2020-01-29
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: MI
Product: Vehicle loan or lease
Sub-product: Loan
Issue: Problems at the end of the loan or lease
Sub-issue: Unable to receive car title or other problem after the loan is paid off

Complaint:
I needed to update my vehicle title at the DMV or SOS in Michigan after my bank XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX ( XXXX ) had mailed a check to pay off the loan ... a fact that I confirmed via phone with Bank of America ( BoA ) and also received a letter from Bank Of America indicating said pay-off transaction date of XX/XX/XXXX. BoA when I requested via a call to their customer service on XX/XX/XXXX to fax a Notice of Termination to the DMV office which I had visited to transfer the lien to XXXX  refused to send this information over, claiming my request was in Research status because BoA could not verify that they were lien holder on the loan. This in itself I believe merits an investigation into the Bank 's processes because they had written to me a letter dated XX/XX/XXXX informing me of my new auto loan with them and directing me to make monthly payments of {$340.00} starting XX/XX/XXXX. If the bank had not verified that they were lien holders on my loan, what was the basis of the payment request from me? Are there unsuspecting consumers making payments to BoA due to false claims by the bank of some liabilities? I was informed by Customer Servic of BoA that it would take up to 120days to complete the investigation on the lien status - all this over a month after XXXX had paid off the loan and needed to be duly provided updated title information. I had no choice but to leave the DMV, returning a second time with my XX/XX/XXXX letter from BoA indicating payment receipt for my account with vehicle VIN reference. Unfortunately the Michigan DMV/SOS could not complete the title update without the Termination Notice from BoA. A state/SOS agent called the customer service of BoA to request the said document and affirmed BoA was duly indicated on all title docs and the RD108 as lien holder. These documents were subsequently faxed from the DMV/SOS with a letter typed on the State 's letterhead requesting the Notice to facilitate transfer of th title to XXXX. After over 3hrs of phone conversations, BoA now claimed that it was against their policy to mail Notices directly to individuals if the payoff check did not come directly from the individual and would rather require XXXX XXXX fax number to send over the notice to them for subsequent transfer to me. A frustrating, frivolous requirement in my opinion given that I hold the title and the loan contract was with me and not XXXX. A fact that BoA indicated in their letter to me on XX/XX/XXXX claiming I was still responsible for the loan if there were any later processing issues with the payments received from a 3rd party on my behalf. 
After requesting permission from my job twice to complete this task, I now find myself in a situation where I can not make another visit to the DMV in the immediate term, exposing me to possible legal action by XXXX  which paid off my loan 2months ago and have no legal evidence of ownership thanks to this ridiculous attempt by BoA to hold myself and the bank hostage to their frivolous baseless withholding of pertinent information that are well within my rights to request from them. 
Kindly review this case to prevent this unfortunate situation from befalling any other consumer and help me obtain this " Notice of Termination '' of my loan with Bank Of America NA as soon as possible.

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