Consumer complaint received 2018-07-31
Company: Specialized Loan Servicing Holdings LLC
State: LA
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: FHA mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process

Complaint:
The property was damaged in a flood. FEMA provided assistance in the recovery. The amount of assistance provided by FEMA was not enough to get the home back to a livable condition so it could once again be occupied.

When the mortgage company was contacted about the condition of the property they offered disaster relief. This relief came in the form of freezing payments with the promise to add any missed payments to the back end of the loan. At this time the household accepted this assistance and began using the money that was once designated for mortgage payments to now start rebuilding the home properly and to cover living expenses elsewhere while property rehab continued. 

Once the property was rehabbed to a livable standard the mortgage company was contacted and advised that the household would begin sending monthly payments immediately. At that time the mortgage company refused to accept payments. For over a year the mortgage company continued to refuse payments stating that no payments could be made until there was a loan modification. 

The mortgage company continued to use delay tactics and refuse payments until the loan was moved to a different company completely. The new company, Specialized Loan Servicing,  also refused monthly payments from the household while continuing to promise all missed payments would be tacked onto the back end of the loan and advised the household to continue to use monthly payments to further rehab the property. 

Suddenly the household was mailed a letter saying the property was in severe default and payment was expected on all missed payments, including the time the family had evacuated the home, immediately or the property would go into foreclosure. 

SLS also decided to charge interest on the payments that the mortgage company refused to accept from the household. 

The household owed {$200000.00} on the house before the flood. Now SLS is stating the household owes {$230000.00}. Most of the debt added to the loan is from the interest charged during this time of payment refusal.

The mortgage company manipulated a situation where the household now owes more on the property today than they owed when they first moved into the house four years ago. The mortgage company is also stating that {$30000.00} is owed immediately not to enter the foreclosure process. 

The family firmly believes they have become victims of a predatory company looking to take advantage of the positive equity the family owns in the property by using tactics to create a debt that would eventually become too overwhelming for the family to recover from in hopes to create an environment of hopelessness and helplessness that the family would eventually beg to walk away from. 

Because the family was promised payments missed would be added to the back end of the loan they continued to take all money to rehab the property. Now that this promise has been broken the family is being forced out of the home. 

If SLS had not been deceptive in their approach the family could have easily continued to make their monthly payments. It is believed SLS purposefully misled and delayed during this process so it could profit from forcing the family out of home and take advantage of the positive equity this family worked hard to gain.

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