Consumer complaint received 2021-04-05
Company: Freedom Mortgage Company
State: VA
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: VA mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process

Complaint:
Freedom Mortgage has placed an escrow on my account that damaged my ability to apply for land loans. I refinanced in XXXX2020 to lower my mortgage from {$1100.00} / month to {$900.00} / month, and my mortgage was sold to Freedom Mortgage. Freedom Mortgage then placed an escrow on my account of {$300.00} despite a perfect payment record and paying months of homeowners insurance and taxes in advance by rolling them into the total my refinance. 
/// ( Paragraph break for easier read ) /// So now when applying for other loans my debt to income ratio is thrown off. Loans I was previously approved for with the actual {$900.00} / month mortgage, now appear as though I have gone up to a {$1200.00} / month mortgage - and I have now been disapproved. Again, despite being sure to pay a large portion of this homeowner 's insurance and taxes up front. 
XXXX Starting on XXXX I was told my by loan officer that this escrow would be a problem and started working though Freedom Mortgage 's automated system to remove it. My initial request was denied due to " a lack of payment history on the mortgage '' - which is accurate considering I only refinanced in XXXX 2020. But I did have 1.5 years of perfect payment history before that before the refinance. 
XXXX I continued to try to reach an actual person and escalated this concern on my own until I got in contact with XXXX XXXX of Freedom Mortgage 's escalations department on XXXX. I told him I could provide a final closing statement that shows the homeowner 's insurance and taxes I paid in advance and any past payment history from before the refinance. He was initially very helpful. He provided me with his direct number and said he would raise the issue and get back to me in a week. One week passed and I still had not heard anything so I reached out via email and phone on XXXX - I have not received anything since. I have also made calls to the Freedom Mortgage escalations department in general and have not been able to find him again to ask about my case. 
/// On XXXX I sent XXXX an email to let him know I would be seeking Federal aid with this damaging situation. I have been keeping the property owner waiting for 3 months now on financing issue. And as property management is part of a side business I have been running since XXXX of 2020 - losing this property due to an error of some company ( that I have no power to hire / fire for my mortgage servicing mind you ) will really harm my ability to provide for my family. That is why I took time to make sure that I would be frontloading my insurance and taxes into the refinance total - so this specific roadblock would not manifest itself. 
XXXX XXXX is what I sent to XXXX letting him know I would be filing a complaint with higher authority / a watchdog agency : XXXX " Hey XXXX, XXXX To be perfectly honest. This has already cost me and my family a lot. The bank just told me they have to deny me for the loan Ive had lined up for a property Ive been working on for 4 months. 
/// I have been more than polite with everyone involved - yet due to a mistake, entirely on your companys end - I have been screwed over. I also cant seem to get an answer from anyone on what has happened with my case. But, at this point Im guessing that insulation from criticism is by design. Especially since I did not pick your company to work with, I have no option to change to a new mortgage processor, and I cant get past your escalations department. 
/// So I just want you to understand that I will be contacting my lawyer to find what federal agency oversees this interaction. I dont know what recourse I have yet, but from one man trying to his job to another man trying to do his job ; I wanted to let you know first that I will be going around your company to get this fixed. 
XXXX V/R, ( My name ) '' XXXX Thank you to the CFPB for looking into my case and please feel free to contact me anytime.

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