Consumer complaint received 2021-01-29
Company: Freedom Mortgage Company
State: TX
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: FHA mortgage
Issue: Closing on a mortgage

Complaint:
In late XXXX of XXXX, I was contacted by XXXX XXXX NMLS # XXXX who asked if I was interested in refinancing my current loan in house without doing a credit check. I advised to her I was interested however ; my current loan has a mortgage credit certificate linked which allowed me a tax credit every year. Ms. XXXX stated she did not have knowledge about the credit but would reach out to her supervisor to verify it would be transferred. I made it extremely clear during our phone call that they only way I would go forward with the refinance is if the credit program was transferred over to the new loan ensuring I would continue to receive the credit on my taxes. Ms. XXXX then emailed me on XX/XX/XXXX at XXXX XXXX stating she had gotten an answer and to contact her via telephone to go over a few things. On that phone call she advised two things. The first being that yes, I could transfer the XXXX to the new loan and that freedom mortgage would be giving me a credit on the closing disclosure to pay to refile the certificate which was XXXX. On XX/XX/XXXX at XXXX XXXX, she then sent the loan documents in which the credit was on them. I then received another email shortly after of a recap from the phone conversation in which Ms. XXXX attached the XXXX application and verified that the XXXX credit was on the closing documents as a lender fee. She advised in the email to fill out the form with my name, phone number, email, property address, and XXXX number and Freedom would fill out the rest in processing. The only form I needed freedom mortgage to fill out and sign was the Tab 6B formthe last of the application. 
The notary came to my home to sign all the documents XX/XX/XXXX. When he came, I asked him if he had the form to which he did not. He advised I could sign the forms and had 3 days to cancel the loan so if something went wrong with not being able to get the form filled out, I still had the option to cancel. I went ahead and signed because I did not think getting the form filled out would be an issue due to Ms. XXXX already submitting email verification that it was a part of the agreement to the refinance along with all the recorded phone calls. Immediately after signed the loan documents, I emailed Ms. XXXX. I asked for the form and other questions about conventional loans and nothing to do with the XXXX. I had spoken with her over the phone and she asked for me to email her the form and she answered my questions I had. Again, I did not think at this time, I needed to cancel the loan because I was being told the form would be filled out. After some time, I stopped hearing from Ms. XXXX. I left voicemails and never got a returned phone call. 
XX/XX/XXXX, I called and asked to speak to a supervisor, to which I spoke with XXXX XXXX NMLS # XXXX. She asked for me to send her the email and she would look into it. I forwarded her the email I had sent to Ms. XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX. She responded that she received it and was forwarding it to the serving department and to give it 24-72 hours to get a response. 
XX/XX/XXXX, I emailed Ms. XXXX and stated I still had not heard back from her and really needed the form filled out. It was then she replied and stated that Freedom Mortgage does not participate in the program anymore. This was told me a little after 2 months of closing and after multiple verbal agreements to sign the forms. I spoke on the phone with her and advised I wanted this looked into and brought up to the department head. On XX/XX/XXXX I emailed asking for a follow up on the situation and she advised she still did not have an update. I spoke with her for awhile on the phone. I asked to speak with someone higher or a complaint department and she refused to provide any information. She stated there really was no one above her I could speak to. After getting nothing resolved, I ended the phone call. This was extremely upsetting to me and I felt unethical as this company agreed to doing something to get me to refinance and then once the papers were signed and it was officialthey kept saying there was nothing they could do anymore and I was just out of luck. 
On XX/XX/XXXX, I filled a complaint with XXXX in the escalation department. I called on XX/XX/XXXX to follow up and spoke with XXXX XXXX who advised it was still pending investigation. XX/XX/XXXX I called and spoke with XXXX XXXX who advised XXXX was on leave, so she was unable to find anything out. She reached out to the VP of sales XXXX XXXX. I followed up the next week and she advised he closed out the complaint. She also stated she did not believe it was really looked into due to how quickly it was closed out. I requested to speak to someone when investigating the complaint and not one person ever reached out to me as of XX/XX/XXXX. 

It should be noted that Freedom mortgage records phone calls. 
The mortgage credit certificate is issued the Texas department of housing and community affairs ( TDHCA ). It allows you to receive a mortgage tax credit of up to XXXX annually as long as the home remains as your primary residence and you pay your mortgage loan, you will be eligible to file IRS form XXXX mortgage credit and claim your non refundable credit each year. Losing this credit means I will lose out on about XXXX of tax credit during this loan. This is unethical and I believe illegal in the way there was verbal contracts about the refinance only being completed on the terms of getting the tax credit transferred. 
I have all emails listed above if needed. 
I also wanted to point out that freedom mortgage did service my loan, it was an inhouse deal so all that changed was the interest rate and loan number so stating they no longer participated in the program makes no sense as they were using it on my previous loan.

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