Consumer complaint received 2019-02-03
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY
State: FL
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Reverse mortgage
Issue: Struggling to pay mortgage

Complaint:
Our home was recently sold on foreclosure in XX/XX/2019. 

Our home fell victim to predatory lending - When Wells Fargo bought out XXXX XXXX  my mother signed what she thought was a reverse mortgage. She never received the note till the property was undergoing foreclosure it's then when we found out that it was an adjustable rate loan that had been acquiring interest. 

We made an effort to provide the bank with all the documentation necessary for a modification. We received an approval by sending the documents the law firm listed to represent wells fargo. This approval was immediately after a natural disaster known as hurricane Irma. The impact on our home was catastrophic it blew our the roof of the back of the house. At this point we wanted to move forward with the modification but our roof was damaged and our insurance had a 75 % deductible. For which wells fargo asked if we needed an extension given that there was a storm - we also noticed that the modification approval was over appraised in the exact amount of the debt. We explained we wanted to move forward with the modification - we asked why the property was over appraised and what were the terms of this modification - we were then informed that our modification approval was in error and we would just need to apply for re-entry ... 

I was re routed to several call centers through out the US - some explained they were contracted and others direct service rs for wellsfargo. They explained that there was a hard stop on the foreclosure once there's a sales date and would not be able to allow the file into re-entry. 

After several months of calling after my first complaint to cfpb to the office of the president - I received an initial call stating they would be able to stop the foreclosure and be able to review my file for the modification. After that it was months of calling with no results or certified responses. The office of the president where this complaint goes to with wells fargo is really an outsourced call center with no ability to help other than document your grievance. 

They explained that once the matter is outsourced to a law firm they dont have access to reenter a file on there automated system. Which is what they considered a glitch in there system. They would need an IT over ride from the office of the president which is an outsourced call center or the attorneys listed to modify and collect on the note. Another option would be to pay the debt in full including all the wrongfully acquired interest from the original predatory note, which happened to be the exact amount of the appraisal conducted by the law firm collecting on a debt but with a 40 year extension and the original terms of the arm remains. 

I just think - there is a huge conflict of interest if the law firm assigned to help with the modification actually makes more money selling your property. Which is one of the reasons why the approval was revoked and was never really a real modification to today 's standards if the property was appraised in the exact amount of the debt and comparable properties appraise for much less. 

There was really no fair option to modify the loan to save our home.

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