Consumer complaint received 2016-05-13
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY
State: CA
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional adjustable mortgage (ARM)
Issue: Loan modification,collection,foreclosure

Complaint:
I have spent over one year attempting to get Wells Fargo to review my financial information for modification. I was unfairly and purposely obstructed by a relationship manager named XXXX at Wells Fargo. Because of his egregious disregard for the facts my review stayed in limbo. As I got back on my feet financially and tried to resume making payments to Wells Fargo I was told that it was too late, I was too far behind and they would not accept my payment. As the process continued to drag on, the hole got deeper and deeper and now I have a sale date set for XXXX XXXX. It never should have come to this. 

I love my property, it is my dream house. It is basically a ranch, with a main house and some other cabins and structures located near the top of XXXX XXXX. In 2007 I was able to come up with a large down payment and a loan from Wells Fargo and purchased the property. Of course just a few months after I bought it the market crashed, and my business began slowing down. I was in a difficult spot but was able to hold everything together. However, I soon found that my ex-business partner had been embezzling money and found myself in dire straits and could not keep up with my mortgage payments. 

I began reaching out to Wells Fargo about 18 months ago in an attempt to get help. I could make no headway and began working with a law firm to help. My property is remote, and I do not have traditional gas, electricity or water from the utilities, instead I am set up with solar power. I get my water from a well. Because it is difficult to access my property my mail is delivered to a PO Box . My property is, in a word, OFF THE GRID. When we began the review process my relationship manager was XXXX. He claimed the file was ready for underwriter review, but needed a utility bill to move forward. We explained the situation to him that the property was off the grid ; there was no utility bill, no water bill etc. He acted like he understood what I was talking about, then after 10 minutes of explaining he said that he could not move the file forward without a utility bill. 

This went on for several months. We would continually and constantly try to convince XXXX, who was the gate keeper at Wells Fargo, of the fact that this property was OFF THE GRID and unique and the cookie cutter template conditions he normally collected did not apply. We attempted to provide him other alternate documentation to back up our assertion, but XXXX was not swayed. We could not get a manager on the phone, we could not move our file forward, and he simply did not get it. I fell further and further behind, simply because someone at Wells Fargo could not acknowledge the facts or the truth. 

I finally caught a break when Wells Fargo tried to put the house up for auction and sent an appraiser out. The appraiser was able to report back that I did live there, and that we used well water, solar power etc. we were off the grid. I was then told that Wells Fargo would do a review, but shortly after that they simply told me I did not qualify. I tried to find out why ... .one person said it was because my value came in to low. Another one told me it was because of the income. I never found exactly why I was denied, I do n't know what information they were looking at since I had sent the paperwork in so many times during the debacle with XXXX and I do not recall receiving any type of formal denial in writing. 

The bottom line is that my business has been steadily improving and my financial circumstances have changed and I qualify for help. Wells Fargo is required to give me a full and comprehensive review based on my most recent financial circumstances, and to date this has not occurred. Instead they obstructed the process for a year, and then when I proved my case that I deserved to get reviewed they rush through and just say sorry, do n't qualify

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