Consumer complaint received 2016-06-21
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: CA
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional adjustable mortgage (ARM)
Issue: Application, originator, mortgage broker

Complaint:
My wife and I have been working with Bank of America for the past month in trying to get our mortgage application approved. When we first started this process, our issues with other lenders have been ( i ) having my wife 's income included in the calculation of our debt to income ratio ( my wife commences her graduate residency on XXXX XXXX ) and ( ii ) closing as scheduled on XXXX XXXX, 2016. We were assured from the beginning and multiple times throughout the process that this would not be an issue for BofA. The only reasons we agreed to work with BofA were my prior relationship with BofA and their promise ( after being made fully aware of my wife 's start date and nature of her job ) that they would include her income and get the loan funded in time for our scheduled closing. In reliance on this assertion, we worked expediently in getting our application processed as quickly as possible and provided all documentation asked of us promptly in order to complete our application. After a long and arduous process, we were informed the week before the scheduled closing that BofA would not be able to live up to its promise and would not be able to include my wife 's income until she actually started working and that closing could take place no sooner than XXXX. After submitting a complaint, BofA suddenly changed its tune and now says that it somehow managed to obtain the information it needs to include my wife 's income, but at this point, given the timing, the financing we need will not be available by the scheduled closing. 
We are extremely disappointed with BofA 's handling of our application. Had we been informed from the beginning that BofA would ultimately have the same problem that each other lender has had, we would not have wasted so much time, energy and expenses in trying to push this forward. The entire process could have been halted many times. Instead, we were promised in no uncertain terms that the documentation provided to date was satisfactory ( we had even had my wife 's graduate school revise language of an existing letter at BofA 's request to satisfy concerns by the underwriter ) and that the underwriter would have no issue with including my wife 's income and approving the loan in time for a XXXX XXXX closing. As such, we demanded reimbursement of the expenses ( i.e., appraisal and HOA certification fee ) that we incurred during the course of the process. BofA agreed to reimburse the appraisal, but because the HOA certificate fee was not paid directly to them, they could not reimburse the amount. This is despite the fact that we were told by BofA that we needed to order the HOA certificate in order to process our application as soon as possible, and were immediately urged to have it ordered on an expedited basis ( which added additional fees ). Altogether, the unnecessary HOA certificate order fee came out to {$300.00}.

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