Consumer complaint received 2017-09-05
Company: FIFTH THIRD FINANCIAL CORPORATION
State: MD
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Struggling to pay mortgage

Complaint:
I have exhausted all methods presented to me by the Mortgage servicer 5th 3rd bank. 
The Mortgage is held by XXXX XXXX. 
I was laid off in XXXX of XXXX and in order to try and lower payments, I refinanced with 5th 3rd in XXXX of XXXX. That single act prevents me from using the HARP program. 
I kept working off and on in a poor economy for many years and struggled but made my mortgage payments. 
However, In XXXX I filed for bankruptcy and subsequently in XXXX, I was no longer able to make my mortgage payments. 
The servicer filed for foreclosure in XXXX. 
After recovering financially in XXXX, I approached the servicer and asked about my options. One option was a new mortgage, 40 year term, same interest rate as before which was 4.75 %. They wanted all of the back payments, their attorney costs and their late fees rolled into the new mortgage. 
The house is not worth this much money. The house is worth {$100000.00} less than that total. 
I tried to negotiate that with them but got nowhere. I even tried by contacting XXXX XXXX. Their answer was that there was no program in place to cover a reduction in principal. Did n't my tax money bail them out in XXXX? 
Anyway, I am now in a short sale situation with a buyer who has cash. It took one year of market time to get to this scenario. 
I have showed with an appraisal, qualified contractor estimates, and an inspection that the house is worth {$50000.00} less than 5th 3rd 's simple and quick BPO ( which is solely based on comparable closing prices in the area ). It took many attempts to get 5th 3rd to not rely on their armchair property appraisals and request a BPO. Before that, they never involved actually looking at the property and valued the property another {$50000.00} higher. 
They ( the servicer ) has delayed the closing by not approving the sale, but also by not disapproving the sale. 2 closing dates have been missed. The first was scheduled 90 days after the servicer received all required paperwork and documentation they asked for - scheduled for XXXX XXXX. Docs were sent XXXX XXXX. The second closing was scheduled for 30 days after that on XXXX XXXX. We are now over 5 months out from the initial closing date. The servicer had all of the documents they were asking for and the servicer continues to delay the process by not returning calls or emails. The servicer used to have a single point of contact in place early on in the short sale process. That person has been promoted and his supervisor is now handling my short sale. The supervisor will not give me a phone number, so I need to call the general phone number to 5th 3rd every time I try to get a status update. I am required to go through the entire history in order to get transferred to the supervisor who is never available and never calls me back. They have not scheduled a second BPO yet. XXXX XXXX said the previous one is expired and they need it as a part of their process. It has been over one week since I spoke to XXXX XXXX on XXXX XXXX about them needing a new BPO, and no action has been taken by 5th 3rd. The only reason a second BPO is required is because of delays from 5th 3rd. When the supervisor ( XXXX XXXX ) took over my short sale case, he said there were no docs to support my assertion that the property value was less than the first BPO. I have email documentation that XXXX XXXX ( the  previous handler of the short sale ) received the supporting docs from me 2 months earlier on XXXX XXXX. He was supposed to forward those docs to XXXX XXXX in order that XXXX XXXX can make the decision regarding the short sale. They never forwarded them because why? nobody seems to know. at month XXXX, those docs were finally sent to XXXX XXXX by 5th 3rd. Now XXXX says they need a new BPO. The delays and ineptitude is more than staggering. They seem to be trying to delay in order to push the foreclosure along while delaying the short sale indefinitely. I have opened up 2 complaints with XXXX XXXX that also go unanswered. I keep calling but I do not get called back and I do not get any satisfaction with these so-called escalation calls to XXXX XXXX. In the 2 months I have been dealing with XXXX XXXX at 5th 3rd, I have received 2 emails and one phone call from him. I call weekly and leave messages. Both times he called, he said, yes I will get to your case. And then more delays and things seem to stagnate. I am at risk of losing this buyer and I have done everything that 5th 3rd and XXXX XXXX have asked me to do.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation