Consumer complaint received 2017-11-15
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: NV
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Struggling to pay mortgage

Complaint:
I have been trying to get Bank of America to modify my home loan for several years. I have been stuck in a black hole in their loss mitigation department as I try to get some help to get caught up on my loan and save my house. They transfer my case from department to department and give me the runaround when I call in to get an update. They have not completed a review of my current and correct financial information and have denied me access to government, state and internal programs that should be made available to a homeowner in my situation. Bank of America has also failed to offer access to mediation through the state of Nevada to resolve this matter. They are required to do so but have ignored this rule and have repeatedly engaged in dual tracking and have set multiple sale dates. We have been backed into a corner and reluctantly agreed to short sale our property because we were led to believe there was no path forward. We do not want to sell our home, we want to fight to keep it and want B of A to follow the rules and give us a fair chance at a negotiation. Even though we are far underwater we do not want to lose our home. 

We bought our house in XX/XX/XXXX and refinanced with Quicken Loans in XX/XX/XXXX so we could lower our interest rate. We were responsible and had no problem making our payments until the recession hit. I was told by the city of XXXX XXXX XXXX that due to the recession I needed to take an early retirement, otherwise I was at risk of being laid off. I did not see a path forward so I did this, thinking I would easily find another job. I was mistaken and eventually had to permanently retire at age XXXX. Around the same time my son was XXXX from the military and unfortunately came home XXXX. We had to care for him and were overwhelmed with expenses. We tried to get help from the B of A loss mitigation department but could make no progress. We then hired an Attorney to assist us and were advised that we needed to go late on the mortgage in order to get B of A to take our request for help seriously. So we stopped making payments and the Attorney tried to get us approved for help but was not able to get this done and eventually disappeared. We then began trying to work things out with their agents on our own. The problem is that we always get the runaround and get transferred from department to department with no single point of contact, and no completed review of our current and correct financial information. At one point while in the middle of review B of A attempted to sell our home, an obvious example of dual tracking and against the rules and laws of the state of Nevada. The whole thing has now snowballed and our delinquency has grown and grown. Our loan balance is not that large and based on our fixed income and the pension I am certain that we qualify for government and internal modification programs that would benefit us. My issue is that their agents have not given us the opportunity to be reviewed and have pushed us into a short sale that we do n't want to do.

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