Consumer complaint received 2022-02-20
Company: Freedom Mortgage Company
State: UT
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: FHA mortgage
Issue: Struggling to pay mortgage

Complaint:
This has been a case of one problem after another and it seems to stem from a huge lack of communication on Freedom MortgageXXXX end, failure to train effective employees, and extreme disorganization all around. 

We filed for a Loan Modification early in XXXX. After months of paperwork issues, we were finally approved in XXXX with 3 trial payments ( XXXX, XXXX, and XXXX ) and then a permanent modification immediately following the trial payments. 

We finished our trial payment plan in XXXX, at the acknowledgment of several different customer service agents, notarized the final loan paperwork in XXXX and again in XXXX due to an error on Freedom MortgageXXXX part, and was told we would receive the final paperwork at the end of XXXX and should be able to start making regular payments online beginning XX/XX/XXXX, at which time the foreclosure status would be dropped. 

That has not happened. 

Instead, at the end of XXXX I received a phone call saying they had not received the final trial payment, despite having paid it and it being confirmed as received by all the agents we had previously talked to. I immediately emailed proof of the 3 trial payments, and the next agent I spoke to was able to see and confirm that they had indeed received all 3 trial payments. We still never received the final paperwork, and I was unable to make the XX/XX/XXXX payment as discussed. 

We spoke to a handful of agents in the weeks following who all confirmed that 3 trial payments had been made and was told there was just a delay in the title company. However, in the middle of XXXX, I spoke to an agent who once again claimed that Freedom Mortgage had not received the final trial payment. This agent was able to go through the notes and see that we had indeed made it and he said he would escalate the issue and call me back within a couple days. I told him that I would make XXXX payment when it was finalized because I did not want the payment to get lost in the disorganized mess, and counted as the XXXX trial payment that had already been made. 

At the end of XXXX, we spoke to an agent who told us that because we paid the last of the trial payments early in XXXX, it appeared like we didnt make the final payment. He said we needed to make another payment to show we could make timely payments, despite having been told by Freedom Mortgage back in XXXX that it would be okay that it was paid early. The agent told me that if I just made XXXX payment, Freedom Mortgage would finalize the modification and it would be done. We agreed to mail the payment ( there was no other way to make a payment due to the status of the account ) but also requested to speak to a supervisor. I proceeded to mail a payment. We were told that a supervisor would call us back. That never happened. 

By the time Freedom Mortgage had received that payment, the Loan modification had been denied for failure to complete the trial payments ( once again, we made all XXXX! ), the payment was rejected and sent back to us. 

I was finally able to speak to a supervisor at this point who looked at all the notes and things that had happened and agreed that it should not have been denied. He proceeded to escalate the issue and promised a call back within a week. That was XX/XX/XXXX. I have yet to receive a call back from him or any other supervisor. 

I did, however, receive a phone call every week from XX/XX/XXXX- XX/XX/XXXX to update us on the status of the account ... and all I was ever told was that Freedom Mortgage was still working on it and would let us know as soon as they had more information. Ive had multiple promises of supervisors calling back ( Not one has ever called ), agents saying the account has put in priority status, agents who say theyll call me if the supervisor doesnt ( no one has ever called me back ), and guarantees that no foreclosure process would be started and that Freedom Mortgage truly was still working on it. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, during our weekly agent phone call, the agent I spoke to informed me that the reason all this had happened was that our final trial payment had not cleared and was sent back to us. He told me that if I could show proof of all 3 cleared payments, he could reverse all the issues and fix everything that had happened. I immediately sent the bank statements showing the three cleared payments as well as no returned payments to our bank in the months that followed. 

We didnt hear from Freedom Mortgage, with the exception of the normal monthly statements in the mail, for three months after this. I called them at the end of XXXX and was once again assured that they were working on it and we were not going into foreclosure. 

During all of this, we were and still are unable to make a payment, our credit is still being dragged through the mud, and have been contacted by the Foreclosure attorneys despite being told that wouldnt happen. 

At the end of XXXX, we spoke to an agent who informed us that the underwriters had denied our Loan Modification and the appeal back in XXXX and that in order to proceed we would need to start the process over completely. This was the first time we had been told that we needed to start over. It had now been over a year since the trial payments, we had been told over and over again that they were working on fixing the problem, and that there was nothing for us to do. Not one person before this told us to re-file the Loan Modification application. Thats now over a year of fees, interest, and bad credit reports and despite all of that, we proceeded to do what they asked and sent in a new loan modification application, which was once again denied because according to the agent, their system was unable to read the PDF files we sent in. 

We are at a loss on what to do. We just want to keep our house. We have tried making payments and they will not take them. We have tried to do our part to remedy the situation we got into and yet still are unable to get any results. We shouldnt have to pay the fees accrued from the past year and 3 months. Our credit should be fixed. We did our part. We made the payments, signed the papers, and did all that was asked of us. Freedom Mortgage has caused us so much stress and emotional turmoil because of this and it needs to be fixed!

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