Consumer complaint received 2022-10-20
Company: Lennar Financial Services, LLC
State: FL
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Closing on a mortgage

Complaint:
We began the process of purchasing a home with Lennar. They were very insistent that we take our loan through them. We were promised that if we went through Lennar Mortgage, we'd receive an {$11000.00} credit towards closing cost - an amount which disappeared after we placed our downpayment and it was too late to get a refund on our deposit. At this point, they sent us an updated higher interest rate with {$0.00} credit towards closing. They had no explanation as to why this suddenly changed other than that " interest rates are up from last week ''. So we decided to shop around for different lenders in search of a better deal. We landed on XXXX who had offered us the best rate and a closing cost far less than Lennar 's. The loan officer at XXXX also warned us that they've had tons of customers who had gone through Lennar Mortgage and learned that Lennar Mortgage promises " credit towards closing '' at the surface, but they find ways to hide it in the " fees '' they charge in the closing costs, which you won't find out the true numbers of until 3 days from closing day. We thought the agent was just trying to sell us on their loan - but to our dismay, we would later discover he was spot on. When Lennar learned that XXXX had offered us a much better rate, they scrambled, changed their numbers, and came back to us matching the XXXX rate, and somehow the {$11000.00} credit re-appeared. We thought this was great and we went ahead and locked in the rate as we were now within the window of time before closing where we were eligible to lock. As soon as I sent the email to Lennar Mortgage that we would take their offer, the response I got was " Received, your rate is locked in, but keep in mind the closing costs etc are not updated at this stage, the purpose of this is disclosure is only to show your rate is no longer floating ''. Upon receiving this email, i was concerned that they were going to play with the closing cost numbers to make up for the $ XXXX. Surely, i was right. About a week before closing, we were sent the initial closing disclosure and suddenly the closing cost jumped significantly from the previous estimates we were given. The loan officer sent us an email with a poor " explanation '' of where the $ XXXX credit was incorporated. They fluffed up the numbers to make it seem we were getting a credit, but truly we weren't. When I emailed him back requesting an elaboration on these numbers, it was clear that his intention was to confuse the XXXX out of us and take advantage of the fact that we are first time homebuyers. Lennar Mortgage forced us into signing the closing disclosure that we did not understand or agree with, and we were also forced to wire the full amount of the closing cost, otherwise we would forfeit our downpayment. After this, we spoke to a fellow loan officer with another company, as well as 2 of our lawyers, who informed us that the fees we are being charged for are fraudulent. This is a scam at it's finest and clearly we are not the first to experience this with Lennar Mortgage. This is a class-action lawsuit in the making. We are requesting a full investigation and that we be made whole. We want this to be corrected and every single item that we are paying for to be justified with no confusion and no XXXX

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