Consumer complaint received 2021-07-26
Company: CITIZENS FINANCIAL GROUP, INC.
State: MA
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: FHA mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process

Complaint:
My brother XXXX XXXX and I purchased this home using an FHA loan through CitizensOne ( Citizens Bank ) in XXXX of 2019. We always paid our mortgage on time, never missing or late to a single payment. When Covid19 hit, Citizens offered a forbearance program which allowed us to withhold our mortgage payments for a few months until business came back. We were skeptical about this ( due to having a balloon payment after the forbearance was over ), but Citizens promised us time and time again that there would be payment plans, this would not effect our credit, there would be no late fees, and we would not pile up interest. 

After the forbearance program was over we fully paid everything back and caught back up on the loan. Although there were a lot of headaches and minor inconveniences during this process, for the most part everything was running smoothly until we decided to refinance through another institution ( XXXX XXXX XXXX ). 

When XXXX and XXXX first started to gather info for our refinance ( XXXX of this year ), they asked for our FHA number which we did not know. We came to find out that Citizens hadn't sent our loan to HUD to get FHA backing before the forbearance period. Since they sent it to HUD during the forbearance period ( and not long beforehand like they should have ), HUD thought we were in default and did not give us FHA backing. Citizens promised us there would be no negative consequences to utilizing their forbearance program, so clearly they didn't properly explain the situation to HUD before sending them our loan. We were never sent a single document explaining this FHA situation, and it took us trying to refinance to figure out that Citizens has been pocketing our monthly Mortgage Insurance money ( and therefore our up front MIP payment as well ). 

To make matters worse, we paid our XXXX mortgage payment of {$4700.00}, and then received a statement saying we have an overdue payment with late fees / interest. The money has clearly been pulled out of our account, and when we call, we get bounced around on the phone for HOURS. Someone told us that there was a check sent out to us because they rescinded the payment ( since we were refinancing ), but refused to give us any info on tracking the check. We then received a foreclosure statement from Citizens (? ) and when we called to ask about it, they told us they never actually did send out a check for our XXXX payment, and that we need to talk to a supervisor. When we agreed to talk to a supervisor about our situation, they said there were none available, and they would have to call us back within the next few business days. This has been a complete nightmare, and we feel like we have been heavily taken advantage of ( especially during a global pandemic ). 

*EDIT* - Since typing this original draft, we told Citizens we would be submitting a complaint, and ended up getting the check for our XXXX payment. We still received foreclosure paperwork from them though ( even though we are already fully done with refinancing through XXXX XXXX XXXX, and Citizens loan was / is being paid off ). We are also disappointed in them pocketing our PMI, and would like this to be refunded to us since they never actually got us backed by FHA. This led to an enormous amount of time, energy, and resources trying to get refinanced as well.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation