Consumer complaint received 2018-05-17
Company: JPMORGAN CHASE & CO.
State: PA
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Home equity loan or line of credit (HELOC)
Issue: Trouble during payment process

Complaint:
In XX/XX/XXXX, my husband and I refinanced our home mortgage with Chase Bank for a lower interest rate. The previous mortgage had also been with Chase. At the time of refinancing, we had started the remodel of our home and applied for and received a Home Equity Loan in case we needed additional funds. We closed on the mortgage and Equity Loan in XX/XX/XXXX and the loan was open for use. 

In XX/XX/XXXX, during the banking financial crisis, we received a letter from Chase stating that Home Equity Lines of Credit would no longer be available for additional charges at Chase and that our available line of credit was now {$0.00} since we had not requested any funds from the line of credit up to that point. 

Please note, we have spotless credit ( both over XXXX ) and both were gainfully employed at the time. The cancellation of available funds AFTER ONLY 6 MONTHS was due completely to Chase Bank internal failings and mismanagement. Fortunately, additional funds were not needed to complete the remodel project and we didn't give the HELOC much more thought until XX/XX/XXXX when we started to receive notice from Chase that it would be necessary for us to complete payment on our {$0.00} balance by the time of the contractual HELOC end date in XX/XX/XXXX. 

After receiving several of these notices, I called Chase to explain our confusion at receiving notices saying we should be prepared to pay our final balance of {$0.00} by XX/XX/XXXX. Personnel at Chase then revealed that the reason we had received these notices was that when we received the HELOC a lien filing fee was opened with XXXX County, PA ( our county of residence ) in the amount of {$160.00} I argued that since we had not been given the opportunity to use the HELOC out of no fault of our own, that we should not be required to pay the lien pay-off with the County, that it should be the responsibility of Chase for their poor business practices. Initially I was told by Chase personnel that they would seek a deferral by management. 

But, it became apparent that the issue became more high profile internally ( perhaps a series of complaints from others? ) and the personnel I spoke with later had a " canned answer '' and replied there was no option except to pay because when we signed our closing documents and the HELOC contracts, we agreed to pay that lien fee. We were bound by contract. I did call our County Real Estate offices and verified that the lien does in fact exist in the amount of {$160.00}.
I do not know if their contract with us states that they can cancel HELOC funds due to certain specified causes and that some verifiable reason existed when they did cancel the HELOC funds. I don't have time to pull out the documents and read them again to ascertain whether they have that contractual right. Nor would it be a particularly feasible endeavor for the amount of {$160.00}. It will be much less effort just to pay the fee. I'm sure that that is what Chase is counting on. However, we still feel as if we are being forced to comply with the contract and pay for a lien which never held any risk for Chase. But Chase, by virtue of their bad management practices, was not required to complete their contractual obligation to us. I suspect there are many others who have fallen prey to this situation and that Chase is now holding a line on deferring these costs because they would have to part with more of their ill-gotten rewards.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation