Consumer complaint received 2020-01-08
Company: SUNTRUST BANKS, INC.
State: CT
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process

Complaint:
I believe that SunTrust / Truist  bank is fraudulently withholding insurance check payments from their mortgage customers. 

My complaint is on the insurance claim reimbursement process. Process is complex, convoluted and seems designed to fraudulently avoid paying homeowners. 
I am a mortgage customer of SunTrust ( now Truist  ). We are renovating the house and had an insurance loss on the house during the renovation. We have been working with our insurance company to finalize the payment amount owed to us to bring the house back to the condition it was in before the insurance loss. The insurance company issued some initial checks, including one large check made out to me and SunTrust. Per guidance from Suntrust, I registered at a site called XXXX that manages the process for Suntrust. 

Per instructions from that site, I endorsed the check and sent it to Suntrust. They received and processed the check on XX/XX/XXXX. In parallel, knowing that the insurance Co. had agreed to at least this initial amount, I signed a change order with our contractor for roughly half the amount of the insurance check and paid them out of pocket so they could get started, assuming that the process to get paid out by Suntrust should be seamless and relatively quick. I was mistaken. The process has been a nightmare - with changing goalposts, new documents needed during various parts of the process, ridiculous multistage ( and multi-day ) processes, and zero communication from Suntrust or this insurance claim processing site. The process seems designed to be fraudulent - for them to get paid and cash the insurance check as quickly as possible - while making the process to pay out to their customers as slow as possible. It has been over a month and I have yet to be paid back - and don't have a line of site to when I can expect to be. 

Some specifics : Their site indicated a number of documents that were required to be reimbursed : the insurance adjusters worksheet, a copy of the contractors license and insurance, a waiver of lien from the contractor, etc. I uploaded all of these documents. The site indicates that it takes 3 business days to process documents. After I uploaded all the required documents, there was no communication back to me that there were any issues. It was only when I called the number on their website that they indicated there were specific changes needed to some of the documents - information that they could have asked for up front as part of their document request. Multiple times I uploaded revised versions of the documents requested. Each time it took multiple days to discover that they were still not quite right - and each time there was no communication from Suntrust of any issues - I would have to proactively call to find out there was an issue. 

Moreover, as the process went on, they requested additional documents not indicated as required on their insurance processing website. Here I am over a month since I started this process, still out tens of thousands of dollars, without any indication of when I will get paid. Moreover, there seems to be no efficient escalation process. Each time I asked to escalate to a manager, I was told it would take 24 to 48 hours before a manager would be available. In general, it took at least that long or longer - and each escalation seemed designed to stretch out the timeframe for repayment. 

The inefficiency and lack of communication seems specifically designed to benefit their bank. For example, they could start to request and process the documents before they receive the endorsed check. But their process doesn't allow that. They could clearly indicate the documents either required or potentially required, and share some of the specific nuances to be mindful of. But they don't do that. They could proactively communicate where there is an issue with a document ( how hard would it be to build in an automated email that goes out to a customer to say that a submitted document was not accepted and that a follow up is required? ). Again, they don't do that. 

This feels designed to keep the cash on their books as long as possible.

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 non-monetary relief