Consumer complaint received 2016-02-17
Company: JPMORGAN CHASE & CO.
State: CA
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Other mortgage
Issue: Loan modification,collection,foreclosure

Complaint:
This letter is a request to have the derogatory credit reporting related to this account removed. I have gone through numerous layers of bureaucracy and in-house complaint procedures to get this issue addressed without making any progress. 

This loan was originally XXXX of those infamous neg-am loans that reset in the middle of the big credit crisis back in late XXXX early XXXX. We had taken the neg-am option planning to use the time period of the introductory rate to remodel the house. The plan was to refinance into long term financing once the remodel was complete. However, by the time we were ready to refinance it was impossible to get any credit at all. 

We attempted to get a loan modification from Chase but, unbeknownst to us, were put into a situation which later came to be known as " dual tracking. '' The state of California passed a law banning this in, as I recall, early 2010. Chase and several of the other big XXXX banks paid huge fines. Unfortunately, none of the benefits of the new legislation nor any of the money from the big fines paid did anything to help my situation. 

The " dual tracking '' worked like this : On the side visible to us, we had a " single point of contact '' who took our loan mod application, discussed with us our options and told us what we had to do to get the loan modification. Basically, this person crunched the numbers with us, told us we were approved and that we needed to wait until the underwriters were finished with drafting the new agreement before making any payments. We were told that we could not make any payments during that interim or it would cause the loan mod to re-set and that the underwriters would have to start all over again. 

Despite numerous calls to my " single point of contact '' this story did not change. In fact, the longer it went on, the more that person stressed that making a payment would derail the process. 

Then, we were contact by the foreclosure department and told that we had 60 days to pay all of the outstanding payments plus an ungodly amount of late fees and penalties, or they would foreclose on the house. 

Between the " single point of contact '' in the loan mod department telling us that we would be getting our new paperwork " any day now '' and the foreclosure department giving us a hard deadline leading up to foreclosure, we decided to sell the house. Although we sold for much less than the property had appraised for, we did not have to ask for a short sale. 

Now, six years later, we are looking to refinance some loans which originated prior to the financial crisis. Being able to refinance these loans would result in savings of thousands of dollars a month. The negative reporting on the Chase mortgage loan is XXXX of the major obstacles preventing me from completing the proposed refinances. Plus, this reporting is updated every time I request an investigation from the credit bureaus causing this account to appear as if it were new. I 'm told that this single derogatory account is lowering my score by @ XXXX points alone. 

What I am asking Chase to do is report on the mortgage history as if reflecting the loan modification side and not the foreclosure side. You see, I was following the directions given to me by that " single point of contact '' which were that I must not make a payment. I agreed with those instructions and followed those instructions. 

My non-payment during that underwriting period not only reflected the agreement between myself and the loan modification department, I was told that there would be a penalty for making a payment, i.e. total reset of the agreed upon loan modification. 

Please update the credit reporting to show that the account was " paid as agreed. ''

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation