Consumer complaint received 2020-11-08
Company: HIGHLANDS RESIDENTIAL MORTGAGE
State: TN
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Closing on a mortgage

Complaint:
My wife and I used Highland Mortgage recently to purchase a home. We had a difficult time throughout the experience with communication, delays waiting on appraisal, etc. While this was aggravating, we understood the local market is extremely busy, covid has impacted every area of business and life, and we tried to be as patient as possible.The appraisal came back almost {$100000.00} low on our property, so we ordered another appraisal under the impression that it would be considered by Highland only to find out 2 weeks later when it came back sufficient for our deal that highland still wouldn't budge, which I understand however we wasted two weeks for nothing that created an emergency for us to create a backup plan to save the deal whereas to not lose our {$10000.00} deposit on the home. We decided to take the difference from an equity line on our then current home in order to have the closing funds required for the closing in just under two weeks at this point. 

Our biggest problem, and what I am seeking resolution for, is when we recieved our 3 day closing disclosure ( which was actually on wednesday evening for a friday morning closing so not 72 hours if that is a requirement ) it was incorrect. I pointed out to the Mortgage Agent, the Loan Processor, and the SVP for the region that my wife 's commission was not credited properly. My wife is an agent that sells new construction for a developer and her company allowed her to represent herself and apply her commission to the purchase price of the house. 

When I explained to them the math did not add up and her commission was not credited properly they assured me that the closing attorney would apply handle that in the final closing documents. Trusting the professionals I accepted this answer in faith that the issue would be handled in the final paperwork however the night before closing I am contacted by the closing attorney who was trying to figure out the same problem of how their numbers were not adding up. I again started trying to clarify this with my local contacts who could not help but the closing attorney had a contact inside Highland she was trying to get clarification from.

It wasn't until 75 minutes before our closing that I got a call from the closing attorney that she had finally received clarification from highland that the loan product we were using required us to bring a certain amount of cash to closing and therefore they did not apply my wife 's commission to the purchase price of the home as per the contract. This was never discussed or disclosed to us and highland had the contract in their possession for two months, why this was never resolved is beyond ridiculous and completely negligent. 

At this point our only option was to default on closing and risk our XXXX deposit and losing the home in order to send it back to underwriting for correction, or have the commission paid to my wife through her company, which isn't permitted but they made an exception due to the emergency created by the situation. We elected in this case to go ahead and close and take the commission option in order to not lose our personal funds or destroy the deal the sellers had on the home they were attempting to purchase based on us closing as planned. The problem with this solution is we were forced to pay income taxes on the funds that should have instead reduced our home price.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation