Consumer complaint received 2023-01-02
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY
State: MD
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Applying for a mortgage or refinancing an existing mortgage

Complaint:
Based up the recent news related to Wells Fargo lending conduct, I am submitting the following complaint against Wells Fargo XXXX Wells Fargo or bank ) : History/Background I am a XXXX  XXXX XXXX XXXX  At the time of the foreclosure detailed below, I was living in a XXXX detached home located at XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, MD XXXX ( home ). I purchased the home in XXXX, and prior to the foreclosure, I had excellent credit, and I timely made monthly mortgage payments on the home to Wells Fargo for almost a decade. In XX/XX/XXXX, I lost my job due to budget cuts, and immediately following notice of my layoff, I notified Wells Fargo of my circumstances. At that time, Wells Fargo offered, and I accepted a temporary payment assistance program, where I made consistent and timely interest only payments, at approximately XXXX XXXX monthly for approximately XXXX  months, while I sought XXXX. Within the XXXX timeframe, I found XXXX XXXX, and once again, I immediately notified Wells Fargo that I XXXX XXXXXXXX XXXX 

As soon as I notified the bank of my XXXX, Wells Fargo demanded that I either pay a mortgage payment that would be twice the amount of the original payment or that I immediately repay the entire principal payments that I owed for the past XXXX  months. That was insurmountable impossibility, so I made several unsuccessful attempts to save my home. First, I requested that Wells Fargo allow me to refinance my mortgage to add the back payments into a new affordable monthly mortgage payment. Wells Fargo refused, citing its policy that allowed customers to refinance only XXXX times. In response, I indicated that I had only refinanced twice. Well Fargo responded that its refinancing offer, which I refused in or about XXXX, was defined as my third refinance pursuant to its policy. I requested a copy of the policy and Wells Fargo refused to provide the policy. 

Second, I requested that Wells Fargo allow me to set up a repayment plan for the back payments. The bank refused to allow me to enter into a repayment plan and provided no reason for its decision. 

Notwithstanding my ability to make payments on my home, in XXXX, Wells Fargo moved to foreclose on my home. At the foreclosure hearing, I was not represented, and Wells Fargos attorneys told me that because I had substantial equity in the home, it was not in the banks interest to allow me to refinance the home. 

Analysis Here, I submit that Wells Fargo treated me differently that other customers in similar circumstances in other communities. Specifically, Wells Fargos short-term payment assistance program put the bank in a position, which was beneficial to the bank to easily foreclose on my home, by demanding immediate repayment of back payments and refusing to allow refinancing with unreasonable and undocumented policies. 

First, I was transparent and cooperative with Wells Fargo at every stage of my XXXX XXXX  I notified Wells Fargo when I lost my XXXX XXXX and I notified Wells Fargo when I was gainfully XXXX. In addition, I made timely interest-only payments for the entire time that I was unemployed. Moreover, for more than a decade, I was a creditworthy customer of the bank. 

Second, when the bank demanded immediate repayment of the back payments, I made every effort to work with the bank to make the payments in a reasonable manner. Wells Fargo refused to work with me, and it responded to my efforts with unsupportable justifications for its refusal. For example, the banks refusal to allow me to refinance my home mortgage based upon a policy that a customer can not refinance more than 3 times. Even if it such a policy existed, the banks definition of refinance includes an offer to refinance, not an actual refinance. An offer to refinance is not a definition of refinance by any industry standard. Moreover, the bank acknowledged that I had not refinanced my home more than 2 times, but it used its offer to refinance my mortgage, which was made well before XXXX, as a basis to deny my offer to refinance the back payments. 

In yet another example, I offered to set up an installment payment plan to repay the back payments, and Wells Fargo refused. 

Simply put, it was clear that Wells Fargo wanted to foreclose on my home because it was valuable, so it put itself in a position to make it insurmountable for me to rebound and keep my home even though I was financially able to do so. Over the years, I have asked myself why the bank would refuse to cooperate with a long-term creditworthy customer, and the recent articles regarding Wells Fargos XXXX XXXX practices shed light on the banks decades long behavior and my past situation. 

Thank you for your valuable time. 

XXXX XXXX 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