Consumer complaint received 2022-07-05
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY
State: WV
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Struggling to pay mortgage

Complaint:
Wells Fargo Home Mortgage engaged in a classic bait and switch maneuver on me during the Covid-19 forbearance and loan modification process. I am a XXXX XXXX veteran that just started encountering services related XXXX problems in and around XXXX XXXX XXXX. As such, I fell behind on a payment just prior to Wells Fargo extending mortgagee 's Covid-19 forbearance options in late XXXX and early XX/XX/XXXX. I reached out to Wells Fargo Home Mortage and was granted forbearance by letter dated XX/XX/XXXX. In the letter Wells Fargo Hoe Mortgage represented to me that any missed payments would automatically be moved to the end of my mortgage. By letter dated XX/XX/XXXX, Wells Fargo extended my forbearance period. The letter did not say anything about how any missed payments would be handled and whereas the letter represented itself as an extension, I assumed it was under the original terms as stated in the original XX/XX/XXXX forbearance letter. I continued to labor under this assumption until XX/XX/XXXX wherein Wells Fargo Home Mortgage sent me a correction letter stating that my missed payments may not automatically be applied to the end of my loan but by this time I was 9 months in to the 18 months forbearance period without the resources to do anything else but to continue in the forbearance program. I came out of the forbearance program in XX/XX/XXXX and made my first payment in XX/XX/XXXX and every month thereafter on time and in full. I immediately began working with Wells Fargo Home Mortgage on a loan modification and requested that Wells Fargo Home Mortgage consider me for any of the other programs that their XX/XX/XXXX XXXX or their XX/XX/XXXX letters stated I would be considered for. After a long and protracted process, Wells Fargo Home Mortgage claimed that they could not calculate an affordable payment under any of their programs even though I has more half way through paying off my mortgage and had considerable equity in the home and I am making more money now then when I purchased the home. The only program Wells Fargo Home Mortgage offered me was a short sell. They refused to apply the missed payments from XX/XX/XXXX to XX/XX/XXXX to the end of my loan even though they acknowledged their error in writing. They engaged in negative credit reporting for these missed payments which prohibited me from refinancing with anyone else and repeatedly sought to compel me to embrace a short sale when I told them that this house is a house my ex-wife and kids live in and I will do everything possible to keep a roof over their heads. In the end, I had enough resources to get the mortgage back in good standing paying an additional $ XXXX in missed payments over the 3 months I was appealing Wells Fargo 's denial of the loan modification on the grounds that I could not afford the mortgage I had been making consistently both before and after the forbearance period with the exception of this brief period of dealing with a new XXXX diagnosis between XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX right before COVID-19 hit.

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