Consumer complaint received 2015-10-28
Company: ONE REVERSE MORTGAGE, LLC
State: MI
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Reverse mortgage
Issue: Credit decision / Underwriting

Complaint:
I applied for a reverse mortgage to pay outstanding property taxes and remodel my home which does not currently have a mortgage. My wife and I own XXXX rental house and a building and were told that we had more than enough income for the mortgage. I paid for a inspection but the mortgage did not close because the banker took vacation on the last day that the appraisal was good, although we were told the mortgage was approved. Banker said I could reapply and the mortgage company would pay for the appraisal. 

The new application was processed in XXXX 2015 and an appraisal was done. The mortgage company required documents, work done on the house and multiple quotes for work to be done. For each requested document the mortgage underwriter responded with suspicion and required the submitting of additional documents. Hippa protected documents were demanded. Underwriter did not believe that extenuating circumstances of unemployment, unusual financial expenses and family members illness had created an issue with real-estate property taxes and federal/state tax issue. I was in fact in the process of clearing up the federal/state tax issue during the mortgage process. The mortgage was not denied because of these factors but the underwriter indicated that a escrow would be required for property tax and property insurance that would be over {$65000.00} which meant that there was not even enough money to pay for work on the house and would only pay for real-estate taxes on our home and outstanding federal/state taxes. All documents requested we submitted and work required we completed, even exceeding Michigan state law. We expected to close the mortgage which we continued in the process because of our desire to get our home real-estate taxes paid. We knew that the inspection expiring was an issue so we brought this up with the contacts from the mortgage company reminding them that deadline was XXXX XXXX, 2015. On that date we were told that the mortgage company did not have a closing planned and the amount needed for the escrow " XXXX '' was so large that their was not enough money to make repairs to the house. I continued to remind them that I had owned real-estate for over forty years and the XXXX was not determined using the overall financial assessment and the extenuating circumstances. The banker told us that preparation to close the loan would have had to have been done 30 days before closing and the underwriter had not allowed that and I was not told. 

According to the denial letter the reason the mortgage was not closed was : " Unverifiable information '' and " Credit Appl incomplete : Incomplete application documents. '' This reason is false because I submitted all documents requested some two or three times. At no time was I told that any information was unverifiable, but when requested for additional documentation I submitted it. On XXXX XXXX there was no documents that had not been submitted and no additional documentation that was requested and not submitted. 

From XXXX XXXX, 2015 to XXXX XXXX, 2015 my wife and I spent hundreds of hours and hundreds of dollars when it appears that our application was not fairly assessed nor was I allowed to participate on an even playing field because of my XXXX.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation