Consumer complaint received 2023-01-03
Company: Caliber Home Loans, Inc.
State: FL
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Closing on a mortgage

Complaint:
In early XX/XX/2022, we got in contact with Caliber Home Loans to begin the process of getting a mortgage. We were previously in contact with a different mortgage company, but we switched to Caliber because they immediately told us about a {$10000.00} down payment assistance loan that they could set us up with through XXXX  XXXX. They told us from the beginning and consistently throughout the process that the {$10000.00} would be an interest-free loan that would be forgiven after 5 years if we did not move from the house we purchased with that loan nor did we refinance. We decided to go with Caliber and we increased our budget as we searched for homes due to this promise of the {$10000.00} deal. 

We made an offer on a house, got our closing date, and proceeded to work with Caliber. It wasn't until the very last bit of paperwork at our closing ( XX/XX/2022 ) that we found out that what they had been telling us about the down payment assistance had been incorrect. The paperwork said nothing about the {$10000.00} being forgiven after 5 years. The program through XXXX  XXXX had changed its terms but Caliber still advertised the deal that no longer existed. The actual terms of the down payment assistance program make clear that the {$10000.00} loan must be repaid in full at the time of refinancing, sale of the property, or the final payment of the mortgage loan. I believe this is predatory lending because we would not have worked with Caliber had they not misrepresented this down payment assistance to us. 

I have attached a screenshot of a text conversation that happened on XX/XX/2022, where I brought up with a Caliber employee ( our main contact throughout the process ) that we weren't seeing the XXXX forgiveness information in any of the documents for the {$10000.00} loan from XXXX  XXXX XXXX We were consistently told things like, " Don't worry about it, '' and, " In XXXX  years of doing this work I've never had anyone ask me this question. '' I felt shut down and as if I could not ask questions to clarify what was really going on. As a first time homebuyer, I now have clarity about the process that I did not have when we were in the midst of it, and I am disappointed in Caliber for not doing its due diligence in making sure that the products they are selling are portrayed accurately to their customers. While I understand that there are a lot of moving parts in the mortgage world, when XXXX  XXXX changed management in XXXX and apparently changed some of its policies, Caliber should have put forth the effort needed to check if any changes had been made, rather than just assume that things were the same as they have been for the last 20 years. This was not quality service and they let me and my husband down and severely misrepresented the service that they were selling us. 

When the issue came up at the closing meeting and we definitively saw in the paperwork that the {$10000.00} would not be forgiven, our realtor called Caliber from our meeting and the Caliber agents still said that the money would be forgiven. It took some effort to convince them to look into the issue, and the whole thing made our closing last XXXX XXXXours. While they eventually called us back and said they had made a mistake, they did not offer us a solution. We requested that they do something to make up for their mistake, and they initially offered us only {$250.00} for the {$10000.00} that they falsely advertised to us, and then later offered to refund the loan origination fee that we were paying them as part of our closing costs. Both of these offers are measly compared to the sum we were originally guaranteed, and we have not received any refund at all from them to date. 

Additionally, during the process of working with Caliber, we experienced various violations of our and other 's privacy, like a confidential email meant for me being sent to someone with a similar name, or me being added to an email chain for an XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX buying process ( both attached ). This is an unacceptable way to handle business. 

Caliber did also offer to refinance our home for free in the future after we asked them for this directly, but Caliber has not earned our trust in this current transaction so it's going to take some serious deliberation to want to use their services again. Additionally, when we confronted them over the phone at the closing meeting, they kept mentioning that we can refinance at a better rate. While this is a possibility, it's not guaranteed and we were counting on this forgivable {$10000.00} bond to be a sure thing. I know that everyone is capable of mistakes, but this mistake affects my and my husband 's financial future for years to come and at this point Caliber has not done anything to make up for how they misled us and failed to properly do their jobs as a mortgage company.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation