Consumer complaint received 2022-04-26
Company: Freedom Mortgage Company
State: NJ
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: FHA mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process

Complaint:
I applied for a refinance loan with my current loan servicer, Freedom Mortgage in XX/XX/XXXX. I was quoted XXXX fees for the loan. I was approved for the loan and closing was scheduled for XX/XX/XXXX. I asked for hard copies of the Closing XXXX and did not receive them. When I called a rep told me that they could only be sent electronically. When the closing notary arrived and I started to review the paperwork he told me to just sign and that he had no time for me to read through the paperwork. The fees for the loan were listed as approximately {$7100.00}. I continued to review, noted a mistake- this is a two-family home and on the closing papers it was listed as a XXXX family. I mentioned it to the notary and he got upset and said either I sign or I could reschedule. I said that I could not sign without review. He left. Freedom Mortgage contacted me and rescheduled the closing. I again asked for hard copies of the closing disclosures and again did not receive them. At closing I noticed that the fees had been increased to $ XXXX. I brought it up to the notary and he told me that I could sign the papers and that I could dispute it with Freedom and still had XXXX hours to cancel if I couldn't resolve the issue. I refused to sign and asked that the paperwork be corrected before I signed. Freedom Mortgage called me and I told them that again did not receive my hard copy disclosures, and that the fees were almost triple to what was agreed on, they asked me if I was cancelling my application. I told that I wanted the fees that they agreed to and that was displayed on the 1st set of closing papers. They reiterated that I was cancelling the loan application. Then in XXXX they reported me as late to the credit agencies, dropping my scores by XXXX points. I called them and they admitted that they had made an error because of an escrow shortage. But there was never an escrow shortage because I never received any escrow refunds. I asked them to put a trace on the escrow checks. They verified that none were ever cashed. I became alarmed that Freedom was now showing my escrow was short and afraid that they would not pay my real estate taxes. So I paid the taxes and notified them that I had paid the taxes myself for XXXX. To date they have still not applied the missing escrow amounts, they continue to report me late to the credit agencies forcing my score even lower to prevent me from refinancing my loan and have neglected to reanalyze my escrow account and adjust it after the tax payment. Freedom Mortgage tried to force me into a predatory loan and when I refused, they retaliated by incorrectly reporting me to the credit agencies. I have been on bi-monthly mortgage autopayments since XX/XX/XXXX. Freedom Mortgage adjusts the amount of my payment accordingly as demonstrated by all previous incidents of payment adjustments. Freedom Mortgage changes the payment amounts based on their escrow analysis and then adjusts my payments. The account from which they draw if always funded and never short. Freedom Mortgage has damaged by credit rating, causing me monetary damages by denying me the opportunity to apply for credit with a higher credit score at a time when the interest rates were lower. My complaints have not yielded any resolutions, my money is still missing and has not been returned to my escrow accounts, and they continue to report me as late. Please note that I have notified the credit agencies of the error, sending them the documentation to prove that I have not been late with my payments to Freedom Mortgage. The credit agencies did remove the late payment but did not return my scores to what they were before the late payment report.

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