Consumer complaint received 2017-05-22
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY
State: CA
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Home equity loan or line of credit (HELOC)
Issue: Struggling to pay mortgage

Complaint:
Dear CFPB : Would you please assist us in stoppi ng Wells Fargo from  proceeding with a foreclosure on our home?     Our HELO C with Wells Fargo has a very high balance ( $  XXXX  ) becau se the cost of living in  XXXX  County, CA, is very high, and the interest rate and fees on this loan have been very high over the years. The payments have progressively become more difficult to keep up with. We applied for a loan modification i n  XX/XX/XXXX ,  XX/XX/XXXX , and twice in  XX/XX/XXXX . In each o f these cases we met the rat ios Wells told us ( significant drop in income, mortgage payments greater than 31 %, etc ). In each year t hey gave us reasons why we did not qualify and the reasons did not seem legitimate ( e.g. we had too many modifications in the past however we had only h ad 1 ).  Now in  XX/XX/XXXX  we are seriously behind in our payments a nd Wells  has filed an NOD and moved toward foreclosure.      Wells Fargo h as made large sums of money from our loan over the years we have had numerous accounts and the interest in some of these years wa s 7-14 %  which surely returned good profits to them on the size of our loan. Yet when we requested loan modifications they said they would work with us and we would likely qualify ; then we would spend months submitting documents and waiting for responses and then they would respond with denials.     Our first mortgage with  XXXX  is in good standing and they gave us a loan modification in  XXXX . The ratios they told us were quite similar to ratios tha t Wells tol d us.     We finally got frustrated and hired an attorney to sue  Wells. We had clear examples of times that they did not follow RESPA and TILA requirements, and we thought they were required to follow the loan modification guidelines that they had told us. The judge ruled in favor of Wells Fargo and told us that the bank is not obligated to approve any loans and can make their own decisions on whether a loan will be approved. This does not seem fair that our government bails out our banks yet when we want to get a loan they are not even required to follow guidelines of the loan modification programs. Wells had hired the highest priced attorney in town that torn apart and demeaned every part of our case. Our attorney stated that the judges in CA are mostly ruling in favor of the banks because the housing mark et is so fragile in CA these days and we can not affo  rd to have a mass falling out of home mortgages.
We believe that Wells should be required to put in a good faith effort to work with home owners on modifications or refinancing. We have lived in our house and paid our mortgage for 23 years yet we have little or no equity. It is very expensive to   raise  XXXX  kids in  XXXX  CA and we believe that banks should help people make their homes affordable rather than foreclose on the homes so they can make a profit. We ask th at Wells work with  us so that we can keep our family in our home, and we ask that they give us a reasonable interest rate without adding in fees and charges that continue to make our home unaffordable.     We also request that our government should not provide funding to banks for these loan modification programs unless the banks are required to follow the guidelines of the programs and use them to help our citizens rather than using them to make profits.   Thank you,

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