Consumer complaint received 2016-10-18
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY
State: RI
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Reverse mortgage
Issue: Settlement process and costs

Complaint:
As the executor of an estate, my complaint concerns the actions taken by Wells Fargo in connection with my efforts to pay-off a reverse mortgage that was held on the decedent 's property. Seeing there was a significant gap between what was owed on the mortgage and the appraised value of the property. I believe that it was their intent to harass me with as many road blocks as possible so that I would decide to just walk away from the property by signing it over to the bank. There is just no logical way to explain their actions throughout this whole proceeding. 

Within three days of the owner 's passing, I called Wells Fargo to notify them. They immediately arranged for the property to be appraised. I received a letter assigning a contact person who was there " to help me in any way possible. '' When I called this person, I got a message to leave a message and that she would get back to me within twenty-four to forty-eight hours. For approximately five weeks, I called that person and never once was my calls returned. 

After six weeks, I received a letter naming a new contact person. Within days, I heard from her and she made suggestions - most of which I had already done as a matter of common sense. I would hear from her sporadically. If I was n't available when she would call, I would always call and leave a message. If I called her - again she NEVER returned a call. 

Many times when she did call, it was to ask me to submit the same information. For instance, one of the first things that was asked was what was my intentions with the property. At least three times, I had to send an email, that I wished to sell the property for fair market value and pay off the mortgage. 

Remembering that I never failed to respond when getting a call from them and they never once returned one of my calls, after three months, I got a letter saying that due to my failure to respond, they were going to begin foreclosure proceedings. I called immediately and for the only time ever, got through to the representative. I was told not to worry about that and the next week, I got a letter from an attorney 's office saying foreclosure proceedings had begun. 

At that point, I contacted my attorney to have him deal with them. Again, I had to submit an authorization for them to talk to my attorney at least three times. He had no more luck than I had in getting them to return calls. Just to give you an idea of what they were doing, when my attorney called for a final pay-off figure from them for the closing, he was kept on the line for two hours ( mostly on hold ) as they switched him from person to person. In fact, while seeking this information, they switched him to the foreclosure attorney 's office who said he had no idea why they would have sent him there. In contrast, my attorney told me that he recently needed a pay-off figure from XXXX 's bank, and it took him less than three minutes to make the request and within five minutes of hanging up the phone, he had an email with the information he had requested. 

The amount my attorney 's time that they just wasted by Wells Fargo cost me more than {$5000.00}. This just was not necessary. If they had dealt with me with honorable intentions, communicated with me, stopped their multiple requests for the exact same information, etc., this could have gone very smoothly. 

I can assure you that I have plenty of documentation to support everything I have written including other areas that they just acted irrationally as far as I am concerned.

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