Consumer complaint received 2022-05-13
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: MO
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Struggling to pay mortgage

Complaint:
XX/XX/2022 was the ending of a mortgage forbearance. Unbeknownst to me, the payments were not placed on the back of the loan. Instead, Bank of America expected all 3-months plus the current month in bulk. This information was not the agreed-upon process. Unfortunately, I did not have the amount the bank stated was due and they did not authorize partial payments. I paid one monthly payment in XX/XX/2022 which applied to a one-month back payment. 

XX/XX/2022, I applied with the State Assistance for Homeowner Relief. The agency sent a request for engagement to Bank of America on XX/XX/2022. By XX/XX/2022, the agency 's system showed my application status as Record Exchange With ServiceXXXX. On XX/XX/2022, the SAFHR team responding my inquiry for status. They advised verbatim : XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX PM Dear XXXX XXXX, Thanks for reaching out! At the moment, the SAFHR for Homeowners team is diligently pursuing your loan servicers participation in this program. We have contacted them to engage them and let them know that we have borrowers of theirs that have applied and are awaiting their action. Unfortunately there is no estimated time for this process. 
Thank you for your patience while we diligently work your application. 

On XX/XX/2022, I finally connected with a Bank of America associate willing to answer my questions. The individual assigned as a Customer Relationship Manager refuses to provide any information, answers, or direction beyond offering modification options. Nevertheless, after two days of phone calls, a bank representative updated their database allowing SAFHR to communicate with them regarding my mortgage. 

On XX/XX/2022, I followed up with SAFHR to confirm whether Bank of America had engaged with their request for mortgage data confirmation. Again SAFHR responded with the following information verbatim : XXXX XX/XX/XXXX, XXXX PM Dear XXXX XXXX, Thanks for reaching out! At the moment, the SAFHR for Homeowners team is diligently pursuing your loan servicers participation in this program. We have contacted them to engage them and let them know that we have borrowers of theirs that have applied and are awaiting their action. Unfortunately there is no estimated time for this process. 
Thank you for your patience while we diligently work your application. 

I began calling Bank of America hoping to gain information on whether they were working with SAFHR. Each phone call resulted in no useful information. On XX/XX/2022, the SAFHR system was updated again to show my application status as Record Exchange With Servicer. This status means the agency has contacted Bank of America to confirm account details and move to the next stage of the application. This is the critical phase of application approval. 

Despite multiple attempts by myself and SAFHR, Bank of America seems to be intentionally not engaging. Consequentially, on XX/XX/2022, the bank sent its Notice of Intent to Accelerate with a " date to cure '' of XX/XX/2022. This notice comes in the middle of SAFHR 's request to engage. On XX/XX/2022, I outreached to SAFHR to see if Bank of America had engaged. 

This follow-up came after my phone call with a Bank of America agent who stated the team who works on SAFHR requests is in another department and she did not have access to their files. I requested to speak with or receive an email to connect with that particular unit. She advised there was no way for me to speak with or email the team directly. She placed me on hold for approximately XXXX minutes. Upon her return, she advised that an email was sent to the department and if an update was provided she would notate my account. 

On XX/XX/2022, the SAFHR team responded to my inquiry with the following verbatim : Safhr Homeowner XXXX Thu XX/XX/2022 XXXX PM Greetings XXXX, Please be advised that we sent your servicer the information they need to complete their part. 
Your servicer has the option to choose to participate in our program and we can not move forward until they make this decision and send the necessary information. 
We are waiting on a response from your servicer. 
Thank you, SAFHR for Homeowners Team Bank of America provides SAFHR as a resource homeowners can use to help them survive during this devastating period. I have been actively trying to engage and so has SAFHR but they appear to not intend to engage. It seems like their intention is to force the foreclosure process despite having the option to receive past due payment in full. 

I would like to also add to this complaint the several attempts to make partial payments toward my mortgage. The Customer Relationship Manager and the online team have ignored my request for support in this regard. While my family continues to recover from drastic income loss during COVID, I have attempted to set up weekly payments but the system will not allow anything except the full mortgage amount.

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 non-monetary relief