Consumer complaint received 2019-10-06
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: CA
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Closing on a mortgage

Complaint:
The process of applying for a mortgage began quite normally, I had individually received a pre-qualification letter in early XX/XX/2019 and went through the initial mortgage qualification process with a friendly and helpful mortgage specialist over the phone and via emal, upon which I began searching for a suitable property slightly below the pre-qualified dollar amount in order to get a preapproval I can use in the house purchasing process. I found a property and submitted a formal offer with a seller ( with a 45 day closing timeframe ending XX/XX/2019 ( originally ), a mortgage approval contingency and an earnest money deposit of {$10000.00} in the accepted purchase agreement sent to escrow ) on XX/XX/2019, upon which I began the mortgage commitment process with Citibank in order to be able to secure financing prior to the 45 day closing window. 

At this point, when the file was handed over to the loan processor and the underwriting team is when the process began to deteriorate. Our file, due to different requests for information as well as the addition of my wife as a co-borrower and her own, was sent back multiple times through Citibank 's underwriting and risk assessment teams, all the while that 45 day closing date was clearly communicated on multiple occasions to the mortgage specialist and loan processor respectively ( on the phone and via writing ). Initially I was assured that this date would be met, however it became clear about a week prior to the closing cut-off, and acknowledged by the loan processor in writing XX/XX/XXXX, that Citibank could not finish their process up and thus the loan processor requested an extension of the closing window in order to get a full approval ( which the seller also agreed to ), as Citibank were only able to supply a conditional approval as of that date. 

As I had business travel to XXXX already planned for XX/XX/XXXX and communicated this clearly to Citibank in writing as regards the logistic urgency of having a final approval issued prior to that, ultimately after some more underwriting review submissions and daily back-and-forth over the following 8 days I did receive a full approval Saturday XX/XX/XXXX ( I was advised by loan processor that it was issued Fri XX/XX/XXXX ... but computer system problems prevented its issuance until the next day ). 

My actual complaint revolves around the fact that, after Citibank issued me the approval and Closing Disclosure, and then notified me of a practical final closing date, and I in turn rightfully removed the financing contingency for the seller, that I assumed all was well UNTIL a senior mortgage sales agent from Citibank called me ON THE DAY OF CLOSING Thursday XX/XX/2019 and advised me the approval had been declined post-approval, prompting me to go in-branch, escalate and lastly work with Citibank 's Origination Advocacy team, who ultimately advised me that the approval was now declined ( even though I had already received it ). Obviously this caused no minor disruption in my personal life as now I was left in the lurch with the new home purchase falling through, existing residence already all packed up and ready to move out and a business trip overseas to go on that I would potentially come back from effectively homeless as a result of this extremely last-minute declination from Citibank under the most inconvenient of circumstances. The seller finally chose to cancel the purchase transaction that day and to keep my {$10000.00} USD earnest money deposit, and entirely due to what I feel is a major error here in Citibank 's handling of this matter.

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