Consumer complaint received 2018-10-20
Company: HUNTINGTON NATIONAL BANK, THE
State: OH
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: FHA mortgage
Issue: Applying for a mortgage or refinancing an existing mortgage

Complaint:
In XX/XX/XXXX I inquired about the process of becoming a home owner with Huntington Bank. I was provided with information to reach out to the Mortgage Loan Officer at Huntington Bank. My initial contact person was XXXX XXXX XXXX. I had a few questions he couldn't answer so, he referred me to XXXX XXXX. She did a credit check and told me that I had a bankruptcy that was showing up on my credit report from XX/XX/XXXX, so the computer would not allow a pre-approval letter to be generated for a Conventional loan and my student loans would not allow me to go FHA at this time. She told me to work on my credit while I waited for the bankruptcy to come off and we would revisit a pre-approval at the end of XXXX or the beginning of XXXX. 

On XX/XX/XXXX XXXX reached out to me and emailed me a pre-approval letter for a FHA loan. At that point I started looking for houses because the letter stated I had until XX/XX/XXXX to find a house. When I spoke to her a few days later she told me that she had made a mistake because she forgot I had student loans. We did a three-way-call with XXXX, XXXX and I. XXXX and XXXX suggested that I wait until XX/XX/XXXX and they would run all of my information back through the computer and it show generated a pre-approval letter at that time. 

On XX/XX/XXXX I received another pre-approval letter for a FHA loan with a deadline of XX/XX/XXXX. My realtor and I went out looking out houses again. I found a house at XXXX XXXX XXXX We began the process of purchasing the home with a estimated close date by XX/XX/XXXX. I did my first loan application on XX/XX/XXXX. I gave my apartment complex a notice to vacate on XX/XX/XXXX. I paid for a home inspection on XX/XX/XXXX in the amount of {$320.00}. I got a quote for home insurance on XX/XX/XXXX. Then I was told that I would need a co-borrower. XXXX spoke to my Father about being a co-borrower. My Father declined because he is close to retiring from his employment. There was talk about my Father placing the house in his name and then eventually doing a FHA Streamline Refinance. The problem with that was my Father 's name was not on the original agreement. Next he ran my Mother 's credit and her score was too low. Last, he ran my sister 's credit and added her to the loan. When my sister was added to the loan, I was generated a denial letter on XX/XX/XXXX. In that letter my credit was checked again for the second time on XX/XX/XXXX. Then my sister and I were told that she had a student loan in the amount of {$2000.00} that was in default on her credit report. We were advised to have her reach out to the agency and arrange payments. Once payments were arranged, they would send her a letter and we could proceed. My sister did as we were advised. We sent the letter of payment arrangements to XXXX and he then told us that we needed a letter stating the loan was removed from default. My sister contacted the credit agency and they informed her that they would not remove the loan from default until she made at least 3 payments on time. She then inquired how soon she would get a letter if she paid it in full. The told her it would still take 3 months. At this point we were days away from closing. I reached out to XXXX to advise him of what we had been told by the agency. He stated that we would need to close the loan process because it would be denied and there was nothing else we could do. The loan was supposed to be closed on XX/XX/XXXX. Almost 2 weeks had gone by and I never received a denial letter so I reached out to XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX. He told me that the file was in the denial process already and it should be out soon. I was confused because I was under the impression that the loan had already been denied. 

All of this left me in a bad position and I could have been homeless. I had already given my apartment complex a notice to vacate, so they could have made me move and I had a child younger than one at the time. My apartment complex was going to raise my rent, but since I had been here so long that extended my lease. I also, missed out of the chance to rent the house I was trying to purchase because the seller had the option to rent and I could have revisited the option to buy within a year. The seller ended up placing the house back on the market to sell. This could have also resulted in me paying for movers twice. Once to move somewhere else then again to move once I was in the position to buy. 

This whole process started in XX/XX/XXXX and ended in at the end on XX/XX/XXXX. After seven months, two pre-approval letters, three dings on my credit and three potential co-borrows, I am still no closer to owning my own home. Also, upon reaching out to another Mortgage Officer I was advised that I would have never been approved for a FHA due to the fact that I have student loans and that loan goes by 1 % of that debt. This would always cause be to be over my debt to income ratio. I feel as if my realtor and I wasted a lot of unnecessary time and effort, looking at houses, gathering information and phone calls.

Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief