Consumer complaint received 2022-03-06
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY
State: FL
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Closing on a mortgage

Complaint:
This complaint is about Wells Fargos deceptive personnel and their unwillingness to work with customers. They do illegal things with your account without your knowledge and then write letters to deceive others so that they can not be approached legally. In my complaint I will discuss two incidents that occurred because of Wells Fargo making changes without my authorization. I know that Wells Fargo has taken well over {$3500.00} from me by putting me into forbearance without my knowledge or authority. 
The first problem I had with Wells Fargo was in XXXX of XXXX. I purchased a condo in XXXX and set up an automatic pay system with Wells Fargo. I never missed a payment in 13 years. I live in Florida and was hit pretty hard by hurricane Irma in XXXX. I had damage to my garage door, roof and the house electrical system wasnt working ; the breakers were tripping all the time. After insurance I still had to pay over {$24000.00} to complete all the repairs. I had to use each contractors financial loan system to get the work started. It took 2 years to get everything fixed and my final payments were due at the end of XXXX or I would have to pay over {$10000.00} in interest costs. I put off my property taxes that year because my penalty was going to be only {$120.00} for paying late. I spoke to the XXXX XXXX office and they were aware that I was going to let my taxes lapse until XXXX of XXXX. Then without my knowledge Wells Fargo paid my property taxes and said I was in danger of losing my condo because I didnt pay my property taxes in time!? If they would have notified me I could have told them about my property damages from Irma and I had communicated with the treasurers office. Now Wells Fargo set me up with an Escrow account to pay for my property taxes forever. My monthly payment went from {$530.00} to {$770.00}. I made several calls to Wells Fargo to complain about how they did not notify me that they were going to pay my taxes and start a permanent escrow account! Every time I called to complain they would send me a ream of paper that explained why they paid my taxes. As more packets of paper came in my wife noticed a letter dated in XXXX of XXXX that we never saw before, it was a warning from Wells Fargo that I was late on paying my property taxes. In my many complaint calls I was informed that they tried to call me about the late taxes. The number they gave me was my first business cell phone I got in my mid XXXX. Currently I am in my XXXX ; they never tried to get a hold of me at all. We are convinced they fabricated the letter after the taxes were paid to cover their butts. So now at the end of XXXX I am paying {$240.00} more a month to cover the escrow. Legally I know Wells Fargo could do what they did but I don't understand why they did not discuss it with me prior to or after they paid the property taxes. 

I was frustrated with the way Wells Fargo handled my tax issue and put my loan in escrow. My loan has an interest rate of 5.85 %. I tried to refinance with Wells Fargo because during this time you could get interest rates as low as XXXX to 3.0 % so it was a no brainer to get refinancing. However, I was told that I was a bad risk for refinancing? I never missed a payment Wells Fargo for 13 years and I have a credit rating of XXXX and higher. Wells Fargo said I didnt qualify for a refinanced loan. Its obvious that they want to keep my interest rate at 5.85 %. XXXX XXXX was working with me and I was told I was approved, they were getting information from Wells Fargo and they would tell me what they could do with a new mortgage at a lower interest rate. I never heard from XXXX XXXX again after they discussed my account with Wells Fargo. I was getting extremely upset with Wells Fargo and my only option was starting to look like that I would have to sell my property and get away from Wells Fargo! 

Now in XXXX Covid 19 became a real issue and Wells Fargo saw an opportunity to capture their customers and to get them to remain a customer for life! I was automatically paying {$770.00} each month because of the fun escrow episode the past three months, but that changed in XXXX of XXXX. I noticed that Wells Fargo did not take my payment in XXXX. I called to ask what was happening and I was told that because of Covid 19 they were helping their customers to get through their difficult financial time. I told them that I am still working and I have money, Wells Fargo can continue to take my mortgage payments. They said they were helping people in need, I dont know why we stopped your payments when you didnt request help. I called again because I do not trust Wells Fargo and I was assured that they were suspending payments for 3 months to help everyone and they will extend the time on the end of the loan to cover the loss payments. After the 3 months past I called to find out what was happening. I was told that due to the CARES act I can extend the suspension for 3 more months if I wanted and my credit rating will not be affected. I again asked about how the 6 months of non-payments was going to be handled. I was told again I will get to extend the length of my loan. Again I had money and because I live in Florida I never lost a day of work during the Covid 19 pandemic. I opted to keep saving money and build up my savings. During these 6 months I was working on refinancing my property with other mortgage companies. 

My wife and I had a conference call with Wells Fargo. They told us we were 6 months late on mortgage payments and we were facing foreclosure!! I asked what happened to moving the payments to the end of loan payment schedule? They said that is not the official offer from Wells Fargo. They are offering a loan modification. I said good because now I can get a lower interest rate. They said no, for convenience of calculations they are keeping the 5.85 % interest rate!? We ended up agreeing to a monthly payment of {$600.00}. The new loan went from 15 years left on my 30 year mortgage to 40 years. They sent paperwork and we signed the new loan modification so we didnt go into foreclosure. I was paying the {$600.00} right along until I received an e-mail saying that I was paying the wrong amount. I was to pay {$600.00}? The odd part of this is that the modified monthly payment in the agreement I signed is {$590.00} I contacted XXXX XXXX and tried to find out what happened to our agreement. They and other mortgage companies said that once you are in forbearance and have a signed modified loan agreement with your current mortgage company that loan can not be refinanced? So I am locked into this agreement. Wells Fargo stopped my payments and put me into forbearance and essential made it so that I was locked into them with a ridiculous agreement at 5.85 % interest rate for 40 years! I called to complain about them increasing my principal balance. They said you signed the agreement so the increase will stay. I received a phone call stating that the legal department did not like the modified loan agreement I had signed. That agreement is null and void and they will send me new documents to sign. When I received them I decided not to sign to see if I could renegotiate a better agreement with Wells Fargo. Renegotiate because of the increase of my principal balance of {$3800.00}, so now it is {$71000.00}!? I can not believe that they could just add money to my principal. So since the phone negotiation I have paid {$600.00} or {$600.00} per month for my mortgage. Even though the signed agreement says the monthly should be {$590.00}. I received the new agreement dated XX/XX/XXXX, XXXXwith a return XXXX envelope with paid label already attached. I still have this document, I never signed it and I never returned it to Wells Fargo. In XXXX somehow I received a letter congratulating me on completing the payment assistance process!? The fact that I never paid {$590.00} which was the amount I was to pay monthly per the agreement, signifies that Wells Fargo never thought the agreement was finalized! 

My only option now was to sell my condo to get away from this corrupt company. I paid my {$600.00} each month and I sold the condo in XXXX of XXXX. If the signed agreement had been finalized I should have been paying {$590.00} each month. So to me the agreement never happened. Even though there was not an agreement when the property sold, Wells Fargo used the principal balance of {$71000.00}. This is upsetting when the principal balance that XXXX XXXX received was {$67000.00} in XXXX XXXX XXXX. I made payments throughout the year so the principal balance should be lower. To confuse things even further I received my Form XXXX from Wells Fargo for my taxes this year and the outstanding mortgage principal is {$67000.00}. 

Everything I have been through the past 2 years with Wells Fargo has been frustrating. Wells Fargo has made many decisions on my behalf without notifying me prior to making changes. I have looked on line and for years this is how Wells Fargo has operated. Wells Fargo just does things without their customers consent and then write letters that tell a different story. Please help me with my issues with Wells Fargo. I am just trying to live life paycheck to paycheck. I am no match for a large corporation and bank that makes things up as they go and covers themselves with paperwork that is a series of lies. I would like Wells Fargo to use the proper principal balance when I sold the property. They did send me a check for the excess money in escrow. I would like another check to rectify the use of a principal balance in an agreement that was never finalized. Thank you in advance for considering this case.

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