Consumer complaint received 2021-05-11
Company: Freedom Mortgage Company
State: IN
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: VA mortgage
Issue: Struggling to pay mortgage

Complaint:
In XX/XX/2020 I started in a forbearance with XXXX XXXX due to the Covid pandemic. I contacted them in XX/XX/2020 to let the know I was ready to start resuming payments again and to see what my options were, and they informed me that before they consider any mitigation options I would need to show I could make my payments again, and they set me up with a 3 month payment plan for XXXX, XXXX, and XXXX. 

Around mid XXXX I tried contacting XXXX again and they informed me that Freedom Mortgage had bought my loan and I needed to contact them. After exhausted efforts I reached the correct departure at Freedom Mortgage and spoke with someone about my options going forward out of this forbearance. I was then informed that I have no options but a loan modification and that they are backed up and it may take some time. I mentioned the other options the VA had counselled me on that I was more interested in that would have better served me, but they were dead set on my only option was their loan mod or pay the whole balance, and if I wasnt pleased with that they would be more that happy to just start the foreclose process. Thats not the answer I was hoping for so I asked if they needed anything from me as far as documents or anything, and they said, no just to complete the 3 month trial payments the XXXX set me up with then contact them after the last payment. I thought it was odd that they didnt or wouldnt offer me any other options with my VA loan especially since they arent wanting any documentation from me either. 

I contacted Freedom Mortgage after my last trial payment, and they said they would get a package together and sent it to their underwriting department. This was XX/XX/XXXX. I have been making payments for three months already now since XXXX and I missed 6 interest payments before that. Freedom would not send me anything that had to do with the loan mod to sign so that I knew what was going on until XXXX when my first payment was due in XXXX. I called them almost every week to check on it so that I could make sure to maintain payments, but they kept insisting on me to wait until I get the loan mod papers and sign them and turn them in until I make another payment that way I know how much they were. 

One I got then documents in the mail to get signed and notarized I realized that from XX/XX/2020 my mortgage had went from owing {$240000.00} to owing {$250000.00}. I contacted Freedom to have them explain such the huge variation. The only answer that the representative would give me was that there are lot of cost involved with housing applications, now Ive bought quite a few homes and Im not an ignorant person, so an answer like that didnt go very well with me so I started to lose faith in this company at that point. I contacted a local private financial counselling firm to go over my mortgage documents with me along with the CARES ACT and other pertinent Instructions that have to do with these fraudulent business practices in my opinion. 

What the outcome of our results look like from the beginning of the forbearance the outstanding balance would have been {$240000.00}, and when I informed them Im ready to start making payments again and starting apply funds towards my account the balance should have only been {$250000.00}, but somehow my loan mod is for the amount of {$250000.00} remember Ive been making payments for 3 months now and had funds in escrow also, and this is where things got really Interesting and sketchy from the mortgage companies stand point. We started going through everything now with a fine toothed comb and magnifying glass and found all kinds of fraudulent things even as far as {$500.00} incentive fees, why in the world am I paying an incentive fee when the law specified states no fees and in all technicality before my actual loan mod even started in the CARES ACT, and thats when VA and government backed loans werent supposed to be charged fees and extras for who knows what. This company has done nothing but steal money from me and lie to me since day one. If they would have let me try other mitigating options I believe that something else would have suited me better, also instead of them dragging their feet and possibly intentionally adding 2 extra months of extra uncalled for payments in XXXX and XXXX onto my new mortgage due to their lack of motivation and/or willingness to care about their customers even if they are veterans, but then again that wouldnt change the practices of the actual company or the training of their employees. Im sure there are some things that Im forgetting in this complaint, but there was just so many things I couldnt remember them all or wrote them all down. Documentation will be downloaded with this complaint to further justify validly.

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