Consumer complaint received 2020-09-08
Company: AMERISAVE MORTGAGE CORPORATION
State: CA
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Applying for a mortgage or refinancing an existing mortgage

Complaint:
I applied with AmeriSave on XX/XX/XXXX for a no cash out refinance for the purposes of : a ) lowering the current interest rate on my existing mortgage b ) lowering monthly principal and interest payment on my existing mortgage c ) Lowering or eliminating private mortgage insurance. 
I estimated the savings from the refinance would save my family approximately {$200.00} - {$400.00} a month or approximately a 15 % to 20 % reduction in the monthly mortgage payment. Which is quite needed and welcomed in these economic times. While my industry and job has not experienced set backs, I provide assistance to my elderly mother and sibling that works in the hospitality industry in Hawaii that has been laid off. The savings resulting in the reduction in interest rate would be a tremendous help to my family and extended family. 
AmeriSave is not processing my refinance in good faith, maybe hoarding refinance applications of borrowers such as myself without a good faith effort in the intake and processing of these applications. The Loan Officer also insisted I must pay an unheard of Industry practice of {$500.00} non refundable fee to proceed with the application. I paid the fee, in hopes AmeriSave would diligently process my refinance in good faith to bring the loan to a timely close. 
Instead, the exact opposite happened. I am trapped with AmeriSave and am incurring direct and indirect costs of the incompetent handling of my refinance after relying on their representations of diligent and reasonable processing of the refinance. If I go to another lender, I must start the process over, expose myself to damaging my credit with too many inquiries, risk a higher rate as my FICO may be lowered due to the additional inquiry exposing me to a lower tier in terms of pricing. And of course, AmeriSave will keep the {$500.00}, which is really a drop in the bucket to the costs I am exposed to due their misrepresentations of handling my loan refinance in good faith. 
As of this date, my refinance application should have already been sent to loan set up, processing, and have been reviewed by underwriting with a rate lock and funded. I think my loan application based on a text and requested documents has not even gone to underwriting and remains unlocked. 
Please see attached the detailed email I sent to the Loan Officer on XX/XX/XXXX. All of the documents are attached in this email lock a loan, nearly most of the documents needed to process/underwrite a loan for a final approval are in this email. I worked a 12 hour day the day I wrote this email and by the time I was off work and attached all the relevant documents and composed this email, it was XXXX XXXX. Included in this email are current paystubs, W2s, Current Asset Statements ; documentation from State of California on medical leave in XXXX for a gap of employment, a current tax cert from the XXXX XXXX County assessor with the exact millage rate to properly calculate property taxes, current paid Homeowners Insurance Policy. In the body of the email I included what employers report to the Work Number for an easy electronic verification of employment history **AND** gave the Address/PHONE NUMBER/CONTACT to verify a prior employer via a traditional Written VOE as I am aware they do not report to the Work Number. 
It is unacceptable there has been nearly no communication from AmeriSave after receiving documents to a ) lock this loan b ) process this loan c ) have a conditional approval from underwriting d ) was sent enough information minus the Homeowners Association document to FINAL this loan a long time ago. 
Based on the attached Loan Estimate, AmeriSave themselves put a XXXX expiration of costs. The AmeriSave Loan Rep. stated they would lock the loan once income documents were sent, of course that never happened. 
AmeriSave collected {$500.00} from me on XX/XX/XXXX on the promise of diligently processing the refinance. Instead it appears they trapped me and are not in good faith processing this loan costing me a refinance. 
I think they are making up documents to give the faade they are processing this file when they do not have the capacity or skill to credibly process/underwrite this file. I received a text, not a preferred communication and not regularly checked by me the other day from a person named XXXX to look at the AmeriSave Portal for needed documents from a person I have never heard that shares the same phone number as the LO that initially texted after failing to return a phone call on XX/XX/XXXX that I waited for in the late evening. 
Some of the requested documents from the AmeriSave Portal were non-sensical and against AmeriSaves own prior documents sent to me on funds to close. Please see attached 1003, page 5 item p in which AmeriSave represented I would receive {$1600.00} at closing. This was consistent with my last phone call with AmeriSave Loan Officer, I did not owe any money based on the XX/XX/XXXX conversation with the Loan Officer, I was to receive {$1600.00} at closing. Please also see the Loan Estimate dated XX/XX/XXXX page 1 Costs at Closing Estimated Cash to Closing {$1100.00} TO BORROWER. 
Please see attached screenshot as of XX/XX/XXXX from AmeriSave portal on documents I supposedly need to send. There has been no disclosure nor communication on this, it may very well be made up the short funds to close! 
The first and last screenshot from the XX/XX/XXXX AmeriSave Portal pertain to bank assets and are non-sensical. If by what AmeriSave told  me on XX/XX/XXXX, and their own prepared and documented 1003 and Loan Estimate, this file is not short to close, I do not need to bring in any assets, I would receive approximately {$1100.00} or {$1600.00} at closing depending on AmeriSaves prepared 1003 and Loan Estimate. 
Yet, by this portal, it would appear I am short to close by at least {$3200.00} as the first item requests a bank statements with this amount as a balance implying somehow, without notice or any communication the loan terms changed. Bizarrely, AmeriSave received current asset statements from me, a 401k with approximately {$110000.00} in the balance and a XXXX IRA with approximately {$40000.00} in the IRA. Not only am I not short to close based on the 1003 and Loan Estimate, AmeriSave already has documented assets in file that would cover the alleged {$3200.00} short to close inference from the request for bank statements. Its hard to make sense of this, even if someone at AmeriSave unilaterally changed the terms with no notice to me, the alleged funds to cover the short to close have already been provided to AmeriSave by the email to the Loan Officer and me re uploading the documents sent to the Loan Officer in AmeriSaves portal. It appears they are simply making up documents weeks later to  disguise their own lack of processing and communication. 
I have bank statement available that would document any alleged short to close, but again, this is absolutely zero excuse to hold any file up and delay communications weeks after the fact. AmeriSave has asset statements in file, has not communicated this for weeks, and this would be no reason to not lock a loan or send to underwriting for conditional or final approval.

I spoke on the telephone with the Loan Officer and authorized my  credit being pulled after taking approximately 30 45 minutes to discuss the necessary details to complete an accurate and thorough loan application on XXXX the XXXX. The loan officer pulled my credit on XX/XX/XXXX and verified a FICO score of XXXX and she would need some time to run the XXXX system ( Desktop Underwriter-FNMA ; Loan Prospector-FHLMC ) to verify if there could be a property inspection waiver. I was assured by the Loan Officer she would call back shortly within 30-45 minutes.

The follow up call promised by the Loan Officer never happened that evening. Instead a series of texts occurred which were not complete. I was unable to reach the Loan Officer until the next afternoon. By the loan officer on XX/XX/XXXX, an appraisal waiver was approved by XXXX XXXX ; i.e. no appraisal needed and this file should be expedited. 
Attached is the XXXX XXXX XXXX Application ( 1003 )  required to completed for every loan. There are obvious errors that the Loan Officer did not bother to correct that could impact approval, pricing, and overall quality of the loan. 
a ) Income on page 2 is not other income of $ XXXX. ; it should have been entered as {$9500.00} under BASE EMPLO. INCOME. *This matters because the XXXX systems, DU/LP will consider other income to be anything other than wage income ( i.e. Trust income, notes receivable, retirement ) and can impact the findings including releasing an appraisal waiver. 
b ) Type of property was listed as a SFR ; it should have been PUD.  This is important again as 1 ) it can impact the finding of the XXXX c ) The loan officer didnt even bother to create a complete, accurate,  application, as you can see - under the employment section years on the job, years employed in this line of work, employer phone number are completely empty. Despite this information being relayed during my conversation with the representative, the representative of AmeriSave provided haphazard and erroneous information on the 1003 that would delay and cause problems with the loan. It could create unfavorable finding on the XXXX be it Loan Prospector or XXXX, it will likely create fraud alerts for leaving out phone number of employer and other income as the representative didnt bother to enter the income under Base Emp. Income. 

A mortgage company should not be allowed to solicit mortgage applications for refinances, accept applications, run a consumers credit, demand a {$500.00} upfront fee, then check out of the process leaving a stressed homeowner to bear the costs. A refinance is too important, particularly in these times. It costs myself and many borrowers real economic damage when they do not perform reasonably. In this scenario, I absolutely believe they are overwhelmed, have insufficient staff or lower skilled staff not capable of diligently processing these refinances, yet make the borrower believe they do to obtain a {$500.00} non refundable fee and lock them into their company for fear their credit score will drop and rate will rate due to an additional inquiry if they elsewhere. 
Worse, consider the .5 % fee that was delayed until XX/XX/XXXX and how it feels to be stuck with a company that is not in good faith processing your refinance. The damage an incompetent company can do can result in real economic damages to the borrower, they should be stopped from hoarding loan applications and shelfing them until they are staffed or have trained staff to get to them. 
My career was put on hold as I wanted to switch companies in my position with another company and was holding off on the start date/resignation with employer until after the refinance. After realizing AmeriSave has either abandoned the processing of the loan or is otherwise not handling the refinance diligently or timely, it was in my interest to not delay a better job opportunity and moved my start date to XX/XX/XXXX after resigning XX/XX/XXXX. I would only hurt my career waiting for AmeriSave to communicate and process the refinance. I have uploaded the offer letter to AmeriSave.

Its a shame borrowers seeking to better their financial situation with a refinance get trapped to a company that promises one thing and delivers something else.

**Included is one 46 page attachment of disclosures that has the 1003 ; Loan Estimate ; Advanced fee arrangement, email to Loan Officer XXXX XXXX XX/XX/XXXX, PDF of AmeriSave Portal on  documents ( bank statements needed ) for XX/XX/XXXX.

Company public response: Company believes the complaint is the result of a misunderstanding
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation