Consumer complaint received 2022-11-07
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: CA
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Closing on a mortgage

Complaint:
We tried to get a loan from citi bank with loan agent XXXX XXXX ( NMLS ID : XXXX ) and it took us 14 days longer than the closing date to close the loan and we had to spend XXXX dollars extra as our late penalty. 

During this whole loan closing process, XXXX failed to let us know what documents are needed in advance : we submitted the bank statement from an overseas account in the email on XX/XX/2022, she didn't mention anything to us about the fact that it wasn't in XXXX, until XX/XX/2022 she suddenly said that it needs to be translated and the translation wasn't completed until XX/XX/2022 which is the main reason that we are way behind our schedule of closing the loan. 

During this whole time, we've trying our best to work with XXXX on preparing the documents that are needed to close the loan, we were able to send the documents within XXXX day upon receiving the requests ( indicated in our email chain ). Yet, when the delay happened, citi bank is trying to blame us for not giving them the documents on time. How can we, as the customers know what kind of documents that we need to prepare since this is our first time getting the loan?! Also, at the beginning, my husband called XXXX to explain the details about how we got the gift money from overseas and why it might be complicated to document. Instead of guiding us to how to prepare more documents to make things clear for the underwriter, XXXX told us Not to mention too much before the underwriter ask for it. We trusted her during that time and didnt prepare anything extra as she suggested and thus resulted in the insufficient materials that we prepared for the first round of review and a further delay in the loan. 

During the whole process, there are multiple times that XXXX asked us to prepare the same documents. The reason about that is her assistant is on vacation, and she used to review your documents so when XXXX took over the work from her assistant, she took extra time to review everything again. Because of her lack of familiarity on our loan documents and status, we had to spend extra time going through everything with her again which results in misjudgment of our loan status and the documents we need to prepare for the loan. 

The reason we got the late punishment from the seller is that during the phone conversations that the listing agent had with XXXX, her unprofessional behavior and ambiguous words has resulted in the seller and the listing agent losing their trusts in us. They were furious and shocked about us choosing such an unprofessional loan agent whos incapable of her job to work on our loan. Because of that, in our text messages and phone calls, the listing agent mentioned more than once that he has completely lost his trust in citi bank, and he made us to agree to working with another loan agent at a different bank that he trust at the same time to make sure that someone reliable is working on our case. He mentioned that because he doesnt believe XXXX has the responsibility to close this case, he would give us late fee addendum for not moving to another bank sooner to close the case. 

Based on those, we think XXXX should be responsible for the delay in closing because of her inexperience in judging what documents are needed for the gift money, her failure in communicating with XXXX during their work pass down as well as her unprofessional communication with XXXX the listing agent on our the details about the loan status.

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 monetary relief