Consumer complaint received 2020-06-30
Company: Dovenmuehle Mortgage, Inc.
State: OR
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process

Complaint:
As a quick summary, I contacted my mortgage provider ( Dovenmuehle Mortgage ) to understand what options there might be to help provide financial relief due to the pandemic. I received some information but had questions. The customer service representative I spoke with did not know the answers to my questions but said someone would call me back. No one called me back. I was then enrolled in this program WITHOUT MY CONSENT that actually charges MORE to the borrower than the borrower would have paid had they not enrolled in the program. This was my suspicion upon reading the information on the forbearance program and, specifically the question I had when I contacted their customer service department. I was explicit in saying that, if the program operated as I suspected it did, then I was NOT interested in participating. Lo and behold, I was enrolled in the program without my consent and now they are taking more money from me during this difficult period than they would have over the same period of time. You call to ask for help and their " help '' is to extract more money from people who are hurting financially. Just outrageous and shameful. 

Moreover, I think the CFPB and the public should know about what this company is doing. I am fortunate enough that I could have continued making payments on my mortgage to avoid longer term interest accruing but was asking for help because, given my unemployment & the state of the economy, I don't have much cushion left and, with 2 months of mortgage payments being withdrawn tomorrow, I can make it for *maybe* 2 more months before things get really dire. As the last Dovenmuehle representative I spoke to pointed out, I'm one of the " privileged '' ones since I could have made those payments. But how many other people either enrolled themselves in this program because they needed short term help or, as I was, were enrolled in this program without their consent, but they don't yet realize that they will have a bill coming shortly for double or triple the mortgage payment they are expecting? The " less privileged '' people, as their customer service representative explained to me, would be very happy with this program. Sure - IF THEY'RE MAKING MORE MONEY DURING THAT PERIOD AND/OR PLANNING FOR A HUGE BILL AT THE END. Based on Dovenmuehle 's confusing description of the program and complete lack of knowledge and information about the program 's specifics from their Customer Service representatives, I'm sure there are many, many other people who simply will not be able to pay the giant mortgage bill that they probably don't realize in on the way to them. 

For some additional detail on this matter I have copied the majority of my most recent email correspondence with Dovenmuehle below ( in quotations ) as sending an email to describe the situation was the only remedy anyone could give me : " The specific questions I asked the customer service representative when I called were a ) whether interest continues to accrue while the loan is in forbearance - she confirmed that it does b ) whether that interest is capitalized or not - she did not know and I STILL don't know c ) MOST IMPORTANTLY - whether, at the end of the forbearance period, if I would just be responsible for paying 2 mortgage payments at once to " bring the loan current. '' I was very explicit on that call that if that was the case, and I was just going to have to pay the same amount of money over the same period of time, while additional interest accrues to my account, then I WOULD NOT BE INTERESTED IN PARTICIPATING IN THE PROGRAM. 

I also explained to that customer service agent that, as I waited for the call back to confirm my answers to these questions, I was not moving forward with other options I had in other areas of my budget. For a variety of reasons, my interest in those other programs was CONTINGENT upon the answers to the questions laid out above. 

A few days ago I received my mortgage statement which confirmed that this program is doing the exact thing that I thought it might be doing and that, TOMORROW, you're just going to take 2 months of mortgage out of my account while interest continued to accrue. So, when I contacted you to ask for help, your solution was to put me in a program that has me pay the same amount of money over the same period of time, while putting more money in your pocket in the form of additional interest. And, again, I NEVER SIGNED ANYTHING OR GAVE MY CONSENT IN ANY WAY TO PARTICIPATE IN THIS PROGRAM. Quite the opposite, actually. 

Additionally, as I explained to your customer service representative, I did not participate in other programs that could have actually saved me money - so those opportunities are gone. I didn't make twice the money over the month when you skipped a payment, so pulling that mortgage out tomorrow is going to really cripple my personal finances. Also, I can't get back the hours I've spent sitting on hold and being bounced between various customer service representatives who were unable to provide any help. I definitely could have used that time to try to make some extra money to pay these bills I'm struggling to pay. 

But, you end up with more money in your pocket, so congratulations! 

This is truly reprehensible. To create a program that purports to help customers, but actually puts more money in your pockets ... .and to do so without the consent of your customers. You should really be ashamed. " I was clear that I was not interested in Dovenmuehle 's program if they were just going to charge me extra mortgage at the end of the forbearance period. I also told the customer service representative I spoke with that confirmation of the specifics on their program would be the determining factor in whether or not I would participate in a forbearance program on one of my student loans. 

No one from Dovenmuehle contacted me with the clarified information on their forbearance program and, since I did not consent to a program that would result in multiple months of mortgage payments due immediately at the end of the forbearance period, when I noticed that my XXXX monthly mortgage payment had not been withdrawn from my account, I concluded that I must have been enrolled in the program without having actually signed up. I also assumed that, since it was the expressed condition of my interest in the program, that the program would NOT involve multiple mortgage payments being withdrawn at the end of the program. 

Because of Dovenmuehle 's failure to answer basic questions about the program and to follow up as promised, I decided NOT to participate in a forbearance program on my student loans which would have saved me a {$350.00} payment during the month of XXXX. I figured that the savings from the mortgage program as I understood it based on my conversations with Dovenmuehle 's customer service representatives would provide sufficient relief that enrollment in the program on my student loan would be unnecessary and it would be better for me financially to continue paying my student loan payments as scheduled to avoid the additional interest that would accrue and capitalize on that loan if I enrolled in the forbearance program with my student loan provider. I WAS able to confirm with my student loan provider the key questions as listed above that Dovenmuehle could not answer, specifically that during the forbearance period interest does continue to accrue and capitalize but that, at the end of the forbearance period, you are not required to pay multiple months for the payments you missed, but you would resume monthly payments as normal, at a new monthly rate based on the additional capitalized interest. So my decision not to pursue that program was because, as I understood it, the forbearance program with Dovenmuehle, would provide sufficient financial relief to make it unnecessary to incur these long term additional costs on my student loan at this time. 

NOW, enrolling in that program on my student loan is one of the biggest levers I have to try to gin up some cash to try to survive the fact that there will be multiple months of mortgage payments being pulled from my account TOMORROW. So there are additional opportunity costs to Dovenmuehle 's negligent behavior : 1. I passed on the opportunity to save that {$350.00} student loan payment in XXXX ( which would have helped me pay this giant bill that is due tomorrow ). 
2. I will now have to enroll in that forbearance program on my student loans in order to try to make up enough to keep my mortgage current. That will result in additional interest and higher monthly payments on my student loans, which I have not yet had the chance to calculate. 
3. I've spent an extraordinary amount of time on the phone with Dovenmuehle, sending written correspondence, compiling documentation, filing this complaint. All time that would otherwise have been spent doing things that might actually have helped to make me some money ... .which I need to pay these additional mortgage payments. A conservative estimate of that time spent is 2 regular 8 hour working days ( 16 hours total ).

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation