Consumer complaint received 2021-08-04
Company: GATEWAY FIRST BANK
State: GA
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process

Complaint:
This complaint has to do with the improper behavior of Gateway Mortgage that occurred during/after hiring of a XXXX  : XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX ( XXXX XXXX ). There appears to be some sort of relationship between the contractor and the loan administrator of my escrow account. The contractor on at least 2 - 3 occasions ( verbally XXXX told me that she and XXXX talk all the time. I didn't believe her at first but now I have to wonder. The bank for some reason NEVER had her sign a contract before wiring XXXX $ XXXX. EVERY contractor prior to a background check completed one of these. Here is a quick time line : XXXX XXXX because the contractors ( who I fired ) would not vacate the property and and tried to make entry, I had to call the XXXX XXXX XXXX. XXXX XXXX wrote them a Trespass Warning. 
XXXX XXXX @ XXXX I notified my loan administrator, XXXX XXXX XXXX what had happened. However, I found out from another contact in XXXX that XXXX had already called XXXX and talked to her about the police being called. I have this email chain from XXXX. 

XXXX XXXX XXXX tells me in email but legally since you terminated her, I am not allowed to send over anything per attorney. All I can do is wait is for you all to provide me with a resolution. I asked XXXX to call me ( the only time I spoke to her ). I was told that the account was frozen until XXXX and I came to some sort of resolution. She again stated that she was not allowed to share anything with me per XXXX lawyer. This is the main reason I called/hired a lawyer ( XXXX XXXX ). 

XXXX XXXX @ XXXX XXXX  I followed up on my concerns about the phone call a. Coming to a resolution with XXXX the only resolution XXXX will agree to is letting her walk away with my money b. Concerns about the money being frozen XXXX XXXX @ XXXX XXXX  I asked XXXX to send the letter and communication from XXXX lawyer to my lawyer ( XXXX XXXX ). She pretended to try and fax the letter to him but said it wouldnt go through. I say pretended because on XXXX XXXX she finally admitted to me there was no lawyer. Again, on XXXX XX/XX/2021, XXXX admitted that she NEVER received anything from XXXX lawyer because there never was one. It was clear she was trying to coerce me into agreeing to XXXX demands for whatever reason ( s ). 

XXXX XXXX @ XXXX XXXX  XXXX sent me an email I already know there has been issues with the contractors before me, unfortunately I did not know that before I agreed to take on your project. The only way she would have known about this contractor issue was through XXXX XXXX. Why is my loan administrator providing the contractor I fired with personal information? What else did she share?

For months, they had the draw inspector use the terminated contractor 's ( XXXX  ) work scope. When I complained about it and stressed that we should be using the one for XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXX  ( the company currently working on the house ), that is when I was notified that we actually had to use the ORIGINAL work scope that I closed on ( XXXX ). Because of this, we spent $ XXXX that is considered misappropriated. I already lost several thousands to the contractor who stole my money and not counting the thousands of dollars it cost to fix the destruction they left behind. 

XXXX XXXX @ XXXX XXXX XXXX sent me an email claiming that I did not need to request an extension until 30 days prior to the 1 year anniversary of my loan ( XXXX XXXX ). It was a copy and pasted email from XXXX XXXX ( or at least it appeared that way ) XXXX XXXX @ XXXX XXXX  XXXX XXXX ( XXXX  manager ) told me that my extension ran out in XXXX. She also told me that they never did a background on XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. I was never informed that they were not going to do this since it was done for every other contractor I interviewed ( post XXXX  ). 


This contractor also submitted false receipts/work claim to the bank and nothing was done about that. They allowed her to keep the money. XXXX told me ( again, email ) that she would reach out to XXXX after the inspection to notify her of the amount due back to the bank. I found later from XXXX that she never did that. For whatever reason, she allowed her to keep the money even though the inspection clearly showed $ XXXX % work completed. 

I kept every email and text messages and can back everything up. There are just so many back and forth emails I wasn't sure what all to include.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation