Consumer complaint received 2020-11-19
Company: VALLEY NATIONAL BANCORP
State: FL
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Applying for a mortgage or refinancing an existing mortgage

Complaint:
My husband and I are buying an investment property for my disabled aunt, my grandmother recently passed and with us being able to put a downpayment and buy the collateral, this is making it affordable for my aunt to have a safe and access friendly home. I contacted XXXX Bank and was assigned XXXX XXXX from the Valley National Bank XXXX XXXX branch in XXXX. I was previously a banker for 12 years and am very familiar with lending, I contacted XXXX ahead of finding a property and sent all of our documentation over including our XXXX documents. XXXX had all docs by XX/XX/2020 in XXXX we went under contract on a townhome with a contractual closing date of XX/XX/2020. The entire time XXXX assured me not to worry, with our financials we would be fine and even asked if we might be interested in a portfolio loan, I told him at this time no we would like to test the waters with the one investment property for now. As of the XXXX the loan had not been submitted to underwriting and the XXXX doc 's where not verified or reviewed by the banks underwriting or compliance department yet. We pushed the close date to the XXXX, my grandmother had also passed and we were attending the funeral the weekend of the XXXX, all the while being assured that everything is fine and XXXX is doing everything he can. Well, as soon as we got back from the funeral XXXX was saying we needed to push the closing to the XXXX, during this conversation, I pushed back on XXXX and said that was not acceptable we had already moved the closing date twice and as per the real estate contract the seller has the right to walk from the contract with earnest money after the XXXX and we were already passed that, I did not think she would be willing to push it out that far. XXXX yelled at me and told me I don't understand how this works, and that this timeline just wasn't acceptable. My realtor emailed XXXX later that day, letting him know that the seller was not comfortable pushing the closing passed the XXXX. He replied to the email with two words only " not acceptable. '' I then called the branch manager who provided me with XXXX XXXX bosses info. I explained the situation on XX/XX/2020 and by today XX/XX/2020 the loan is approved and ready to close. XXXX XXXX boss apologized to us and said that XXXX knew exactly what to do to close the loan and asked that we continue to work with him. In the XXXX hours after, XXXX only emailed with a document request, he did not reach out to apologize or smooth things over, he did not reach out to my realtor to communicate anything about a potential close date so that my realtor could save the contract. While this was going on, I switched the contract to a cash offer and apologized to the seller and thanked her for her patience and for working with us through this hiccup. If I had stuck with XXXX I believe XXXX would have cost us the property and he know my aunt had to move out of her apartment on the XXXX. He also knew I was planning to have work done on the property prior to her moving in and that we were working on a tight timeline. I am not sure what personal issue XXXX took with us, at very least he is unprofessional at most maybe homophobic because two men were applying. One thing is for sure, I hope he is not able to do this to anyone else, especially during such a delicate time with my grandmother passing, here we are just trying to make sure our family is taken care of.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation