Consumer complaint received 2015-10-21
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: MA
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional adjustable mortgage (ARM)
Issue: Loan modification,collection,foreclosure

Complaint:
I have a big problem with my mortgage and need help! 
In XXXX of XXXX, I began the process to Short Sell my house. There are XXXX lien holders and they all accepted the justification for the Short Sale. Bank of America ( XXXX mortgage ), XXXX ( XXXX mortgage ) and XXXX XXXX ( equity loan ). An offer was made and accepted, and everything appeared to be going according to plan. Then the problem : a dispute between Bank of America and XXXX XXXX about who has XXXX lien position. As it turns out, the XXXX XXXX equity loan predates the Bank of America mortgage loan. Bank of America has refused to accept this and stalled the short sale. I contacted the Attorney General 's office, and through the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, lodged a complaint about this dispute ( Case number : XXXX ). As soon as Bank of America was served with this complaint and asked to respond, they insisted that they be recognized in XXXX lien position, even though they legally are not, a Title search has proved this out. 
Bank of America then sold the mortgage in a " bundle '' to a private investment group represented by XXXX XXXX. XXXX XXXX then picked up the reigns of the Short Sale. I again completed and submitted all of the short sale request forms and again, as before, it appeared that the short sale was going to move forward. An offer was made and accepted. Then, XXXX XXXX did a Title search and discovered to their chagrin that the mortgage is NOT in XXXX position as purported by Bank of America. They have now terminated the short sale process. Since Bank of America assured the investor that they were in XXXX lien position, the loan has been submitted for repurchase by Bank of America and XXXX XXXX is waiting to hear from the investor. They have told me that they will likely not have a response until XXXX XXXX. They are sorry for the inconvenience. 
It appears that Bank of America ( Countrywide at the time ), back in XX/XX/XXXX neglected to dot all the i 's and cross all the t 's at the time this re-fi mortgage was granted, because even though the existing XXXX XXXX equity loan was paid down to {$0.00} balance, they did not have it closed. Countrywide failed to " Clear Title ''. Since the equity loan was still open and viable, XXXX XXXX sent a book of blank checks, which I used down the road. Actually, Countrywide was represented by Best Interest Rate Mortgage Company ( now defunct ) who spearheaded the process and apparently in their rush to get it done, failed to " Clear Title ''. There apparently was never a HUD statement completed. If one exists, it can not be found. The way this was done seems almost fraudulent, bringing to mind " Predatory Lending Tactics ''. This situation is metaphorically reminiscent of the classic " Shell Game '' : hide it and shuffle it around in an attempt to obfuscate what went wrong and who was responsible. 
It has been over a year now since I first initiated the Short Sale Process. Bottom line is that even though I qualify for a short sale, and have had several good offers, I am prevented from selling the property because of a major mistake by the lender. It 's like being held hostage with no end in sight. The lender made a mistake and needs to quit playing hot potato with the mortgage, accept their XXXX in line lien position and allow us all to move on! I 'm not even sure anymore who the current lender is. It was Bank of America, but they passed it on to XXXX XXXX. However it was misrepresented and XXXX XXXX says Bank of America must buy it back.

Company public response: Company chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation