Consumer complaint received 2021-08-04
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY
State: GA
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process

Complaint:
My spouse and I went into forbearance due to COVID, after his workplace closed down temporarily. After six months of forbearance, he was back to work full time and his industry was benefitting from COVID and doing well. We also did not qualify for further forbearances, and I asked my spouse to contact the bank to get the past-due escrow balance so we could pay off half and half. I sent a letter in with this payment around XX/XX/XXXX. 
Our marriage was not good, and my spouse had told others he wanted a divorce months earlier. 
My spouse contacted Wells Fargo on XX/XX/XXXX, XXXX without telling me and asked for a three-month forbearance. I found out when I got the statement in the mail in XX/XX/XXXX. I was furious and told him we needed to make these payments and stop this. The new forbearance he did was for XXXX XX/XX/XXXX. 
He moved out in XX/XX/XXXX and was unwilling to make mortgage payment. I asked him to let me keep the house and we could work it out through the divorce agreement. He refused to cooperate and insisted that we sell the house. Our XXXX minor children reside in the home and COVID, and my son was doing remote learning. I did not want to uproot my children or myself and I had resources to keep the home. My brother offered to take my spouse off the mortgage and put himself on it. I had friends also offer help. There were many ways I could have kept the home. My spouse was obstinate, however and would not consider this. 
My spouse has a very narcissistic personality, and he is extremely stubborn and will not listen to the word no. He also had a criminal past I did not know about when I married him, specifically entered into a nolo contendere plea for commodity stock fraud. He has other disturbing events in his past and his brother went to federal prison for a check cashing scheme that my spouse was also involved in, but he managed to not be implicated. I didnt know these things until recently. My spouse is a masterful liar and when you talk to him, he can be very convincing. 
I wanted out of this marriage too and wanted to get away from his control. I told him if he would not agree to work out the issues with the house, I would let it go into foreclosure or do a deed-in lieu of foreclosure. He refused to pay for anything and just wanted to punish me using the house as a weapon. 
After moving out, my spouse contacted Wells Fargo on Wednesday, XX/XX/XXXX, XXXX, and requested another forbearance from XX/XX/XXXX -- XX/XX/XXXX. He sent a text to me on XX/XX/XXXX saying that as I knew the house was in forbearance but I could not have known. He called them on Wednesday XX/XX/XXXX, Thursday and Friday were holidays, and he sent the text on a Saturday, XX/XX/XXXX. 
He sent the text to make it look like I was in agreement with it, but I have many communications and witnesses demonstrating that I was absolutely against it. 
Proving this point further, my spouse filed for divorce on XX/XX/XXXX and his attorney sent me an email on XX/XX/XXXX with a Standing Order. The Standing Order states all kinds of things you are not allowed to do during the divorce proceedings or you will be in Contempt of Court. You can go to jail and/or have serious financial and/or legal consequences. In the email, his attorney specifically advises me as follows : Dear Ms. XXXX : Regarding the XXXX County divorce matter of XXXX v. XXXX XXXX XXXX : XXXX ), attached hereto you will find a Notice to Attend 30-Day Status Conference along with a Certificate of Service pertaining to the same. I am also placing these materials in the mail to your residence.

Also, please pay particular attention to the Standing Order with which you were served, which I have also attached hereto for your reference. Numerical paragraph 5 prohibits you from selling, encumbering, trading, contracting to sell, disposing of, and/or removing from XXXX County any property, including but not limited to real estate. I understand that you may have initiated, or be inclined to iniate, a foreclosure, surrender, or similar process with regard to the marital residence. The Standing Order stands as notice that no such action shall proceed at this time, by order of the Court.

If you are represented by Counsel, please have her/him contact me. 

Regards, XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX - XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX, XXXX, GA XXXX Direct ( XXXX ) XXXX | Mobile ( XXXX ) XXXX | Fax ( XXXX ) XXXX Email XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX My position was that we either needed to pay the mortgage or he needed to work out a solution to let me buy him out. You can agree to this in writing and set it aside as an issue to be dealt with later in the divorce. I was totally opposed to lying to the lender about a COVID hardship and I was totally opposed to more forbearances. I actually wanted to refinance my loan and lower my payments. 
As you can see in this message, his attorney used the Standing Order to interrupt me from being able to deal with the lender or advise that he was lying about the COVID hardship. At this time, I still didnt know he had done this additional forbearance for XX/XX/XXXX-XX/XX/XXXX. By the time I got the statement, I had this order in place. He was just running up debt he had no intention of ever paying and preventing me from keeping the home and/or refinancing. 
My attorney communicated to my spouses attorney in XX/XX/XXXX that I wanted to keep the home, but both he and his attorney refused to cooperate. Instead, they accused me of not cooperating. Their definition of cooperating was agreeing to sell my home. 
My spouses attorney tried to force me to agree to another forbearance due to a COVID hardship in XXXX to continue from XX/XX/XXXX-XX/XX/XXXX. I refused but my spouse contacted Wells Fargo on XX/XX/XXXX and obtained another COVID-hardship related forbearance from XX/XX/XXXX-XX/XX/XXXX. We notified his attorney that this was fraudulent, but she did nothing. We filed documents with the court but they are so backlogged, it could take a year for them to respond. 
I continued to try to get control of the house through the divorce process, but my spouse and his attorney did everything they could to obstruct me. On XX/XX/XXXX, his attorney made a motion before the court to force the sale of the home. Part of the problem was that my spouse was also trying to use divorce court to claim the house was his when it was paid for with my separate non-marital property. He and his attorney had made a deal with a realtor as well for part of the commission. This is important because their intent was self-enrichment. 
The court refused to grant this and they also refused to allow any scenario where I could buy him out of the house. His attorney drafted a Temporary Order that stated there would be no more forbearances unless they were agree to by both parties. She put this in there pretending like I would be willing to lie to the bank and claim I needed a COVID-hardship related forbearance when she knew we did not quality. I was ordered to pay the mortgage and all the maintenance and utilities when we came out of forbearance, but she did not address the $ 100,000+ that had accrued from his nine months of forbearances. His attorney hoped I would be forced to pay it somehow, but it didnt work. She initially asked for an emergency hearing but was worried my spouse could be held liable during the hearing for the nine months of forbearance payments. 
When I came out of forbearance, my attorneys told me to contact Wells Fargo despite the message from my spouses attorney not to do so. As a result of the forbearances, the loan was in default. The only options my spouse and his attorney saw were for me to pay it off in full or they would do a deferral where they add this amount to the total amount due. 
I was exactly in the same situation as XXXX where my spouse refused to pay for the house and was trying to kick me out, except now I owed the bank a lot more money due to his fraudulent and deceptive behavior. 
As a result of this amount due, the house would be subject to going into foreclosure again. I wanted to again either force the house to go into foreclosure or negotiate the ability to keep it. I didnt want to be in this limbo. My spouse left me with all the debt, and I have to make all the payments. He wont contribute one XXXX toward the mortgage. 
I have had multiple conversations with Wells Fargo. They gave me all the dates of the times my spouse extended the forbearances as noted above. They were forthcoming with a lot of information, but various employees told me different versions of the truth. 
1. They said they had no obligation to note that my spouse told them he had a COVID-related hardship. ( XXXX with the Home Preservation Dept told me this ). I am not referring to providing documentation, but the CARES act states a person must assert a COVID hardship. Wells Fargo told me it wasnt their responsibility to do that. Even press releases from Wells Fargos CEO contradict this.

2. I told Wells Fargo that he was lying about the COVID hardship and about the court order, but they said it was not their problem.

3. I learned that there are all kinds of disclosures they have to give you about the forbearance and its impacts to your loan, credit, ability to refinance, etc. They did not provide this to me although I am on the loan. I asked how they provided it to my spouse and one woman said it was all done online via their website. I asked for a record of this and where he asserted his COVID-hardship and she said she didnt know what the website interface looked like.

4. I also asked them to please stop allowing my spouse to unilaterally do things like forbearance or the deferral. They said they could not prevent it. My only option was to call back and check regularly and reverse it.

5. Going forward, they said my spouse could request the deferral, but that I could also reverse that. I could not block it, only reverse it.

6. I was given a case number with the Presidents Office related to my concerns and they were supposed to be getting back to me. Each time I called and left a message, I would not get a call back. [ XXXX ( XXXX XXXX XXXX? ) at XXXX, ext. XXXX. The case # is XXXX. ] 7. I called on XX/XX/XXXX and learned my spouse initiated the deferral unilaterally on XX/XX/XXXX. During this call on XX/XX/XXXX, I asked that they stop it and they said they would. They said it had not gone through the settlement department yet and it was canceled. 
8. I got an email on XX/XX/XXXX that the permanent / mailing address had been changed to my spouses apartment. I went online and changed it back to the property address. 
9. On XX/XX/XXXX, I called Wells Fargo to check on the status of the deferral and they said they had spoken to my spouse that same day about the deferral going through in two weeks. I asked how that was possible when I canceled it and they did not have any answer. They said there was no deferral on the account, stating there was no open file.

10. I called several times and spoke to various departments on XX/XX/XXXX. Again, they said the Presidents Office had left me messages, but I didnt have any voicemails. 
11. On XX/XX/XXXX I learned my spouse had removed my cell phone from the account and all the messages had been going to him. 
12. On XX/XX/XXXX I learned my spouse had called in and changed the mailing address again. A letter from them had gone to his address, not to me at the property address. 
13. I learned that he had added his attorney to the account on XX/XX/XXXX so they could each have access to what was going on, even though he had removed my number! 
14. His attorney sent a message on XX/XX/XXXX asking my attorneys for a solution to this past due amount. 
15. My spouse sent me a text on XX/XX/XXXX asking to work things out with the house acting again like he was trying all along, but they had already initiated the deferral on XX/XX/XXXX. 
16. My spouse sent me another text XX/XX/XXXX acting like he wanted to work things out with the house all along again, but again, he had initiated the deferral on XX/XX/XXXX. 
17. My attorneys responded to his attorneys email of XX/XX/XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX attaching his text and proposing we set the house aside for me as part of the divorce and stating that I would take care of the loan going forward. They proposed that they would draft a Consent Order.

18. My spouses attorney never responded because she knew my spouse had already moved the past due amount to the back of the loan without disclosing that to me.

19. They figured that due to the change of address, I would only find out when it was done. In this way, they will have buried their fraud and put all the burden on me. 
20. On XX/XX/XXXX, I spent hours on the phone trying to reverse it again. I first tried to reach the case manager twice to no avail. I then spoke to the forbearance department again ( XXXX XXXX XXXX? ) and she said there was a deferral on the account from my spouses request on XX/XX/XXXX. I asked if she had a record of my call on XX/XX/XXXX and then she started talking about the Presidents office and that she had no control over what they do to the account. I asked if the Presidents office was forcing through the deferral despite my objections. She said that I could not state that my spouse did not have a COVID-related hardship. It was as if my spouse had rights to the loan and I did not. Its almost like they are trying to help my spouse just cover up the whole forbearance mess they created. 
21. On XX/XX/XXXX, I got a message that my permanent /mailing address had been changed again to my spouses apartment. 
22. On XX/XX/XXXX, I called Wells Fargo and they said the deferral had gone through XXXX XXXX in XXXX XXXX ). I asked how that was possible when I was told three times it has been canceled. They said the people who told me that did not have the correct information. She also said the loan was going into foreclosure, so they did it. Basically, I have no rights with Wells Fargo on my own loan, even despite what they tell me.

23. Wells Fargo has repeatedly told me they can not do anything about the fact that my spouse removes my number from the loan or changes the address to his address. They told me I could also call and remove his number or change his address. I am not going to play these kinds of games.

With respect to the COVID hardship, Wells Fargo repeatedly advised me it was not their responsibility or problem and that I had to deal with it in my divorce. Divorce court is not set up to adjudicate federal laws like the CARES Act or enforce federal COVID-related hardship forbearance regulations. I offered them the records from his attorney, and other documentation and they did not want it. Wells Fargo is aware of all of this, and their notes corroborate these events, but they refused to protect me as a consumer. 
Their emails to me about the forbearances state that someone has declared a hardship.

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 explanation