Consumer complaint received 2020-11-02
Company: EQUIFAX, INC.
State: TX
Product: Credit reporting, credit repair services, or other personal consumer reports
Sub-product: Credit reporting
Issue: Incorrect information on your report
Sub-issue: Account status incorrect

Complaint:
I am writing to dispute the following information in my file. 
The late fees on this report as of XX/XX/XXXX are inaccurate because of the following reason ( s ) : Around XX/XX/XXXX my mortgage company was bought out by another. Formerly XXXX loan services, it is now named XXXX Mortgage. During that time, I was on a modification plan that finally allowed me to get on track after my divorce which I was current on. After the merge, I found myself unemployed due to the decision to homeschool my kids and several incidents with a daycare provider resulting in multiple doctor visits due to infections. My XXXX payment cleared the bank the day before my final paycheck hit and the new mortgage company XXXX XXXX XXXX  ) immediately canceled the modification and issued a statement for the full payment due immediately. After several attempts trying to reach someone to rectify the loan got more and more behind. I tried logging into my account to make payments, but the system was down. I was told that they were still transitioning files and that I needed to reapply for a modification In the meantime, but not until they mailed me documents to do so which took almost a month. I was also behind on homeowners dues and had been since my divorce and the XXXX was no longer willing to make arrangements that would work for my budget. Though the homeowners association agreed to allow me to set up a payment plan, it was with an unrealistic down payment of {$2500.00}. Since I didn't have it, the property was placed in an auction on XX/XX/XXXX. Two weeks later I received a letter and check in the mail stating someone purchased my home at auction and the check was the difference from the sale. 
I took the money and moved my kids to a better school district and we became apartment renters for the first time in our lives on XX/XX/XXXX. Months went by and I received a call from the investor who purchased my property XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. He stated that he needed to get the mortgage loan information to pick up the loan payments because there is another lien on the home. I was completely confused and asked him, " didn't you purchase the property in full? '' The letter I received from the XXXX attorney said that the purchase included all outstanding liens, etc. 
I did some research, had him added as a third party to take over the loan and now we are here. When he found out how much the mortgage company was asking him to pay he was no longer interested in keeping the property and apparently all that was paid at auction was the outstanding XXXX debt. Not knowing my options at this point, I contacted the mortgage company and asked to get more information on a short-sale because I assumed that was my only option. They responded and gave me instructions to wait on the application in the mail and to get with a realtor for short-sale papers. I reached out to my realtor and she said she would make some calls to her investor friends to see if they are interested in the property. On XX/XX/XXXX I requested to begin the process of a short-sale on my property. On XX/XX/XXXX, I received an email that confirmed that I had requested a Mortgage Assistance application to be mailed to me. I was not given an option on the method of delivery and was told that I would need to allow sufficient time for mailing and that a realtor would have to assist me with this process. I let me broker/realtor know and we awaited the documents. On XX/XX/XXXX, I sent an email to the relationship manager stating that I never received the documents and that they needed to send them to me via email immediately to avoid the upcoming foreclosure sale date that had been set for XX/XX/XXXX. I received a response back on XX/XX/XXXX, that stated that they apologized for the inconvenience and emailed the documents to me also stating that they no longer had a sufficient amount of time to review the account for a short-sale. I immediately forwarded this to my realtor who stated she was going to call them and asked me to complete a XXXX party authorization so she could speak to them on my behalf. After gathering all the necessary sale documents, my realtor sent them to all 3 of the company 's email addresses along with the 3rd party authorization on XX/XX/XXXX. We already had a buyer in place and a current payoff amount to move forward. On XX/XX/XXXX, my realtor called to follow-up on the status of the short-sale request and was not able to speak to anyone because they stated she was not authorized. She contacted me and when I called they stated that the signature on the 3rd party authorization was not legible. Everything written was written in the same ink with the same pen. On the same day XXXX XX/XX/XXXX ) I emailed a 4th request to have XXXX XXXX XXXX realtor ) added to my account to speak on my behalf. On XX/XX/XXXX XXXX called me again frustrated because again they would not speak to her without " authorization ''. By this time drawing out the length of the loan and allowing more time and interest to accumulate. She connected us on a 3-way call where I explained to the agent that she was allowed to speak on behalf of me. The agent stated that the account read that there was missing documentation in the mortgage assistance packet, and XXXX told her that the documents being requested had either been sent in or was awaiting an updated payoff because the previous one had expired. The agent stated that she would put in a request for another payoff quote. When I got home I received a letter requesting Articles of Association, settlement disclosure statement, and the co-borrower 's signature ( what the agent had stated on the call ). I also received an email requesting the same information on XX/XX/XXXX however, we still had not received a payoff quote and the one currently in place was set to expire on XX/XX/XXXX. I emailed this information to my realtor and she contacted them on XX/XX/XXXX ( today ). To her surprise they still would not speak to her and the agent on the phone would not disclose the information discussed with the previous agent. We tried to obtain information on where the short-sale was in process to-date and he stated that we were missing the same 3 items. We requested the payoff, had XXXX added as the point-of-contact and have a pending foreclosure date set for XX/XX/XXXX. This company has not been diligent in its communication and it has cost me thousands of dollars in interest and mortgage payments as I have not lived in this property since XXXX of XXXX. I have been trying to resolve this by having the gentleman who purchased my home in an XXXX  auction in XXXX of XXXX take over the mortgage, but they would not allow the deed to be transferred over without 1 year of on-time payments.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation