Consumer complaint received 2020-10-02
Company: FIFTH THIRD FINANCIAL CORPORATION
State: VA
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process

Complaint:
In XX/XX/2020, we initiated the process of requesting cancellation of our private mortgage insurance on our primary residence. The mortgage is held and serviced by Fifth Third Bank. We made the request not because we had paid off 20 % of the original value of the house, but rather because the amount we had paid off, when combined with the large amount of appreciation the property had experienced, put it well past the 20 % mark. As part of this request, we were required by Fifth Third to pay {$500.00} to have a Fifth-Third-designated appraiser come to our property. We did so, and an appraiser promptly came to our home, conducted the appraisal, and provided us ( as well as Fifth Third ) with a report that indicated we were indeed well past the 20 % mark ( about 24-25 % in fact ) due to appreciation of the property. 

As of this writing, XX/XX/2020, our PMI still has not been canceled. When first requesting the PMI cancellation, we were told by one part of Fifth Third that it wasn't possible in any circumstance as we had not paid in 20 % when using the original value of the home when we purchased it. At the same time, another part of Fifth Third told us that it was totally possible that we could get it canceled, and sent us the documentation we needed to fill out in order to setup the appraisal. Once the appraisal was completed, Fifth Third informed us ( after weeks of waiting and calling to no avail ) that our PMI would not be canceled as the name on the mortgage ( my wife and I 's names ) did not match the name on the deed ( my wife 's trust ). We had changed the deed 's ownership as part of our estate planning after buying the home, and subsequently informed the mortgage servicer at that time ( XXXX ) that they should update the ownership of the mortgage. We never heard back from them and they presumably did not actually do what we asked, since they sold the mortgage to Fifth Third and the problematic names on the mortgage remained as they were.

At this point, Fifth Third would not respond to our appeal of the decision, and customer service agents claimed they could not see the refusal letter we had been sent ( they knew it existed per their system, but could not see its actual contents ). In frustration, I publicly tweeted at Fifth Third my complaint to try and motivate them to action. After weeks of missed calls from their social media team ( and calls we did not miss in which the service agent claimed we were totally wrong to have even tried this ), we found multiple customer service team members who agreed that we should be able to cancel the PMI, given

the facts of our case. They then consulted with Fifth Third 's legal  counsel regarding the name mismatch issue and a ruling was made that the mismatch wasn't relevant and our PMI cancellation request should be granted as a result.

The helpful customer service agent we were working with then informed Fifth Third 's escrow department that Legal had blessed the deed-mortgage name mismatch as being a non-issue. The escrow department then returned a message that seemed deaf to the original request : the names don't match, so the PMI will remain. As of the time of this writing, our customer service rep has pointed out that there is no longer any legal issue blocking this request at least five times, and the escrow department has refused to acknowledge grant the cancellation. So at this point, we have what appears to be a totally valid request, validated by internal members of Fifth Third, after months of tryi
ng to convince the company to even listen to us, and some of Fifth Third 's own employees still refuse to grant the cancellation. At this point, it seems as though there is either gross incompetence or malicious intent at play in the refusal to grant our request, possibly both.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation