Consumer complaint received 2018-03-02
Company: Stearns Ventures, LLC
State: VA
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Struggling to pay mortgage

Complaint:
I have an issue with my mortgage lender Stearns. I bought my house a few years ago with a30 year fixed GSE XXXX XXXX mortgage through Stearns. It had taken me years of scraping by, but I was able to come up with the 15 % down payment. I have gone through multiple hardships that caused me to fall delinquent but have always tried to engage with Stearns and have even made a reinstatement payment to them at one point in time which they did not apply to my loan balance. I feel that they no longer are interested in working with me and are denying me access to government and internal programs that I should be reviewed for. I am back on my feet and working full time after a yearlong battle with XXXX and expect Stearns to work with me and review me for homeowner assistance options. Instead they have set a foreclosure sale date of XX/XX/XXXX! 

At the time I purchase my home I had a good paying job and was easily able to afford my mortgage payment. Not long after that my son was XXXX and there were XXXX XXXX and he needed the XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. This kept us in and out of the hospital for 9 months and I had to take a lot of time off of work to try and manage and care for him. As a result, I missed a couple of mortgage payments. I entered into an accelerated payment program in order to try and get back into good standing with Stearns. The problem is that these payments were not applied to my balance and I did not know where the extra money went. A few months later I made a good faith payment of {$9000.00} which should have brought me current. However, Stearns failed to apply the money to my loan and I was still reporting as behind on the loan and this money sat in suspense for a long time. 

In 2016 I was diagnosed with XXXX XXXX and had to begin treatment and also had multiple XXXX. I was unable to work and once again defaulted on my mortgage. While going through treatment I was shocked to find that my lump sum payment had STILL not been applied and that I was reporting over one year late. I am happy to say that I am now XXXX XXXX, and that I resumed working at my job this past week. I make a good living and I am able to afford a fair mortgage payment. The problem is that Stearns seems more interested in foreclosing on my home than giving me a chance to fix this matter. 

I really feel that I have been deceived and misled by Stearns. I paid the accelerated payments and then made the lump sum reinstatement payment but they still showed me as late. I continued making my monthly payments until I had to battle with XXXX and was physically unable to work. I was still trying to negotiate with your Stearns during that time but made no headway. My case was transferred from department to department and I never had a definitive account manager. Now that I am back on my feet I need Stearns to work with me.

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