Consumer complaint received 2019-08-30
Company: Freedom Mortgage Company
State: MS
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: FHA mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process

Complaint:
This mortgage loan, account # XXXX was originated by my deceased  brother, XXXX XXXX XXXX, loan documents and Deed of Trust were executed on XX/XX/XXXX and he took possession of the home shortly thereafter. 

XXXX was diagnosed with XXXX three months later, and then passed away on  XX/XX/XXXX leaving me as the sole beneficiary and executor of his estate. I immediately notified Freedom Mortgage of my brothers passing, as well as notice that I was the soled named beneficiary, and as such the rightful heir to the subject property as well as being named the Executor of his estate. 

Shortly thereafter I provided Freedom Mortgage with a certified copy of the death certificate created by the State of Mississippi, followed shortly thereafter with the Letters Testamentary as signed by the XXXX Court for XXXX County in the State of Mississippi, thus completing all necessary compliance with initiation of the probate of my brothers estate, and notifying Freedom Mortgage of the legal record of address to send all documentation to the Estate of XXXX XXXX XXXX. 

During the two plus years since my brother has passed away and I as the Executor of his Estate have been making the monthly payments on his mortgage loan, purchased by Freedom Mortgage after originated by XXXX XXXX XXXX and closed at the end of XXXX, I have been provided now four different PO Box addresses in which to submit payments to, including one in XXXX IL which three checks were sent over a period of four months from XX/XX/XXXX through XX/XX/XXXX and which were in the amount to pay the balance of the XX/XX/XXXX payment, the payment which was the center of a CFPB complaint in XX/XX/XXXX, as well as the XX/XX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX payments in full, along with overages in the event of what appears to be normal and repetitive unknown fees which attach to the loan on a regular basis. 

Upon receipt of my third Qualified Written Request and Notice of Error sent CMRR after the first two were mailed via USPS and were not answered whatsoever, and my submitting of a complaint to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, I finally received an answer to my requests, and the justification at the time for continuing to report the XX/XX/XXXX payment as late, even though Freedom Mortgage had received the official check from XXXX XXXX, and it had long since cleared the bank, was that more of those repetitive, and unknown fees had been applied to the account, even though it is documented by payments and clearing of official bank checks that the loan was never late. 

I did not agree with their summation regarding the XX/XX/XXXX payment which was paid in full, however in the effort to possibly and finally get an accurate reporting of the loan and to move forward and hopefully have the accounting correct, I agreed to send the purported deficient amount created by the unknown and repetitive fees assessed to the account. In doing so I once again sent a certified check from XXXX XXXX for the amount of {$1300.00} in XXXX which would cure the created insufficiency of the XX/XX/XXXX payment as well as make the XX/XX/XXXX payment in full. This check was sent to XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX, IL XXXX as instructed by Freedom Mortgage after my receipt of the results of the third QWR sent CMRR. 

Then in XXXX another check was sent for the amount of {$1000.00} drafted off my joint account at XXXX XXXX in Mississippi for the full and complete payment of the XX/XX/XXXX due date, as well as an overage, once again in the event of unknown fees, this check was also sent to the aforementioned XXXX IL PO Box as instructed by Freedom Mortgage. 

Then the first of XXXX, a third check in the amount of {$2900.00} was sent via official check drafted on one of my accounts at XXXX XXXX, MS and was for the full and complete payments for XX/XX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX, plus an additional overage in the event of the repetitive and unknown fees  that seemed to be routinely assessed to the mortgage loan. This third check was also mailed to the XXXX PO Box as instructed by Freedom Mortgage. 

Approximately three to four weeks after sending the third check for the payments of XX/XX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX, my youngest brother, who has been occupying the subject property for going on a year now informed me that he had received a notice from XXXX XXXX XXXX, the foreclosure mill for Freedom Mortgage, and that the home was in foreclosure and the letter was to provide notice of potential vacating of the subject property once Freedom Mortgage assumed the Deed of Trust via foreclosure sale. 

At that time I immediately called Freedom Mortgage and spoke with a representative named XXXX, ID # XXXX and told him about the notice and questioned its being sent as three checks had been sent over a period of four months with the amount to pay payments in full through XX/XX/XXXX which payment was not even due yet, along with overages in the event of the normal Freedom Mortgage fees that continue to be assessed without notice. When asked where I sent the payments, I told XXXX, ID # XXXX, that I was instructed by Freedom Mortgage to mail them to the referenced XXXX IL, PO Box , which XXXX said, ooops, that is not an active PO Box , the payments should have been mailed to a XXXX CA address, the 4th PO Box address I have been instructed to send payments to. 

I was also informed that there was no mechanism in place for payments sent to the XXXX PO Box to be forwarded to Freedom Mortgage. I informed XXXX, ID # XXXX that this issue was created by an error by Freedom Mortgage, but that I would go to XXXX XXXX, stop payment on the checks and get checks re-issued for the same amounts as the ones previously sent to the XXXX PO Box on instruction of Freedom Mortgage, and that if the account had been placed in foreclosure due to an error on the part of Freedom Mortgage, that it needed to be corrected, and any and all foreclosure activities should cease. 

As I agreed, I went to XXXX XXXX and stopped payments on the checks, fees I incurred based on the error by Freedom Mortgage in the instruction to send payments to a purported inactive and non functional PO Box in XXXX IL, and I got the three checks in the exact amounts re-issued and sent them to the overnight address listed by Freedom Mortgage in XXXX IA, receipt of delivery I have in my records. 

Three weeks had passed since sending the checks and receiving proof of delivery when I started to get Foreclosure notices sent to my brother, heirs of my brother, occupant of the subject property both via USPS and later CMRR via USPS. At that time I called and spoke to someone in the loss mitigation department at Freedom Mortgage and was informed that the checks had been received, but Freedom chose not to apply them as they totaled {$5200.00}, which was sufficient for the principal and interest due on the loan, but not enough to cover P and I as well as attorneys fees, and all other normally and routinely assessed fees by Freedom Mortgage. I notified the representative that there was approximately {$600.00} in a non applied bucket account and that that brought the total to {$6000.00} and that was only {$200.00} short of their purported reinstatement amount including all attorneys fees and other fees, and well over the amount to pay the P and I due on the loan. 

The representative informed me that there was no money in a bucket list, and it must have been used for MORE of the continuously occurring fees, and that the account had been sent to their attorneys to proceed with the foreclosure sale. 

This is now the second time that checks have disappeared into the black hole of accounting at Freedom Mortgage to sit for weeks at a time, even beyond a month, and then returned after a default was created on the note and the account was placed with their foreclosure mill to drive up additional fees. 

This is also the second time that there has been NO Notice of Default and Acceleration of the Note sent to me at the legal address of record for the Executor of the Estate of XXXX XXXX XXXX, nor at the subject property address. This is in direct violation of HUD requirements, as well as the Deed of Trust itself. There has been no notice to meet face to face, no notice of my legal options, and the only mention of a reinstatement amount is a notation on the regular monthly mortgage statement. 

This default, the second one created by Freedom Mortgage on this account is one created based on the error made by Freedom Mortgage regarding its instruction on where to send payments. Interestingly as well, the third and final check, in the amount of {$2900.00} sent the first of XXXX was returned to me two weeks ago with a notice that the check was insufficient to reinstate the loan. The first issue here is that I was informed that this PO Box address was not active, yet this one check seemed to be forwarded or received by Freedom Mortgage, second at the time the check was mailed and received by Freedom Mortgage, even without the processing and application of the first two, still remaining lost checks, the third check had it been applied in a timely manner would have brought the loan to only 60 days late, and that is without the XX/XX/XXXX payment being correctly applied, which would have made the note only 30 days late. 

It is apparent that Freedom Mortgage is completely incapable of servicing the vast number of loans they have purchased, and have a payment processing system that is abysmal at best, and lastly seems to place more focus on applying fees whenever and for whatever they can verses correctly serving a loan, not to mention a comfort with creating defaults and placing loans for foreclosure with their foreclosure mill, XXXX XXXX XXXX, a chance to create more fees and all for the bolstering of their bottom line.

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