Consumer complaint received 2021-04-02
Company: U.S. BANCORP
State: MD
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Applying for a mortgage or refinancing an existing mortgage

Complaint:
As an existing US Bank mortgage customer since XXXX that was purchased from a mortgage company I used for my closing I applied to refinance my property to decrease my interest rate from 4.2 to 2.5 APR. 

I filed a complaint with US Bank internally in regards to the underwriting process and experience I have had that has been in limbo due the underwriting stating a ground rent agreement filed with the superior court within the city of XXXX didn't specify verbiage related to the below : The lease or sublease must : permit the mortgaging of the Leasehold Estate ; permit assignment without the lessors consent ; and grant to the Leasehold Estate mortgagee the right to acquire in its own name ( or in the name of its nominee ) the rights of the lessee upon foreclosure or assignment in lieu of foreclosure. 

The last documented land rent agreement was processed in the year XXXX. The transaction was recorded in the ground rent registry as well as the confirmatory deed specifying the parties involved, date of transaction, lot, address, boundaries and ground rent bi-annual payment. 

Underwriting have refused to accept these legally binding court documents record that represent the most transfer of ownership to the most recent owner of lot # XXXX on which the property XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX was built on in XXXX. 

On XX/XX/XXXX US Bank conditionally approved the refinance loan application with the caveat to provide additional information. The final required document was the ground rent agreement. Ever document provided by the title company that represents me and confirmatory deed I provided has been deemed insufficient. 

Despite the statement the provided documentation being deemed insufficient underwriting has not approved nor denied the application and continues to request I find a document that will satisfy their requirement. I have continuously asked for either an approval or denial and still having received one. I have also asked for the loan officer and loan processor to cancel the application which hasn't been done. 

In an attempt to confirm US Bank has been mailing the ground rent to current ground rent owner bi-annually as specified in the ground rent agreement, I requested this information from both US Bank escrow and tax department. Neither has been able to confirm US Bank has sent out ground rent checks since XXXX or later. 

As a US Bank mortgage customer whose loan was purchased by US Bank shortly after my closing in XX/XX/XXXX, I chose to use US Bank to refinance because I assumed the process would be streamlined because my existing banking relationship. 

The experience has been the worst, due to the lack of communicating, the extreme subjectivity of the underwriting department and the inability for me to get clear and concise answers to my questions. 

We have exceeded the assume 90 day closing period and US Bank underwriting still hasn't provided an decision on the refinance loan. 

Due to my concern of how my application is being handled I am filing a formal complaint with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to investigate the underwriting process to determine if it was unfairly administered due to some form of bias, discrimination, or unwillingness to approved because US Bank doesn't want to provided me with a lower APR to avoid monetary loss.

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