Consumer complaint received 2017-09-13
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY
State: NY
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Struggling to pay mortgage

Complaint:
My complaint is against Wells Fargo and their predatory and abusive lending practices, which has brought an extreme amount of financial hardship and financial depression, as well as a severe amount of mental anguish to me and my family. This complaint began a long time ago ; however, I was very unaware of what was being done with my lending account ( s ) with by Wells Fargo and the unfair lending practices that they were employing. In my opinion, they are in clear violation of the Unfair, Deceptive and Abusive Acts or Practices Act ( UDAAP ). In addition, I strongly feel now that I look back at the entire chain of events that the lender and the bank engaged in sales practices that were used in order for the lender to maximize their sales incentives and commission for the transaction ( s ) that they performed with me, while not explaining anything on my part. Lending is not my expertise and I feel that it is the responsibility of the lender and the bank to financially educate their consumers on the specific types of transactions they are performing with them and what financial affect they may have in the future. 
This began in XXXX of XXXX, I was dealing with XXXX XXXX, a home mortgage consultant at Wells Fargo. She was from the office in XXXX NY, XXXX XXXX  XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX phone # XXXX. I have also never once met her in person. This loan was a re-finance mortgage on XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX in XXXX NY to lower the interest rate. The loan number was XXXX and the amount was {$180000.00} at a rate of 6 %. All of which was obtained based on a no income check. We also applied for a home equity line of credit in the amount of {$50000.00}. The loan number for that was XXXX. This was the beginning of many very bad financial choices that XXXX XXXX and Wells Fargo were all too eager to allow to happen. All of this was done based on my salary of {$25000.00} and my wifes of {$16000.00}. We continued paying our mortgage and as I see now just getting by. In XXXX of XX/XX/XXXXand having a second child and some extended family living with us to help make ends meet, we looked for a bigger home. We found a home we loved in XXXX NY, XXXX XXXX XXXX ; however, the price of the home was over {$600000.00}. We again contacted XXXX XXXX at Wells Fargo who over the phone only and based on an income of {$36000.00}, agreed that we would be approved and would be able to handle the payments. See attached files for loan and conditions. We still owned the property at XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX in XXXX and was given a second home mortgage for XXXX XXXX XXXX in XXXX NY, for which XXXX XXXX was aware. Also attached is the loan application which is completely falsified by XXXX XXXX and Wells Fargo, claiming we had {$81000.00} in assets but failing to mention that {$56000.00} of those assets was the balance of the home equity line of credit, for which I unfortunately did not educated on and was told to include those numbers for the application. The balance of which was no beyond the original {$50000.00} and now at {$76000.00} along with our mortgage amount of {$180000.00}. This was all based on an imaginary monthly income of {$9100.00} as stated on the loan papers attached and my tax returns for XX/XX/XXXX,XX/XX/XXXX,XX/XX/XXXX. The yearly income noted by Wells Fargo was {$100000.00} which was a quite a bit off from the amount I filed for my taxes of {$36000.00} for that year. But being nave and young and being assured by XXXX XXXX that the interest only payment wouldnt be much more and was the best option for me, again not educating me as the consumer, the financial affect and what would be financially expected of me in the future. We Went from a mortgage payment of {$2400.00} to {$3800.00}, all of which we did not fully understand the ramifications of the future in doing so. We closed on the XXXX home XX/XX/XXXX, even though we still owned the home in XXXX. XXXX XXXX had supplied us with bridge loans and mortgages that made my head spin and Im not sure I still even understand, but again was assured by her that everything would be OK when the XXXX home was sold. Also attached are the papers from that closing, I still do not understand them. But we paid off two lines of credit one was # XXXX in the amount of {$77000.00}, the second was # XXXX in the amount of {$76000.00} and the mortgage amount of XXXX. We now had our larger home and an interest only mortgage for the first 10 years and XXXX XXXX persuaded us to switch to a conventional mortgage after about 5 or 6 years when the rates were more favorable without, again, educating us on this type of mortgage, and she assured us it was in our best interest. So we once again just got by financially, paying the mortgage. As taxes increased, we were forced to rent out our basement to try and make ends meet. In an effort to make things easier we thought wed expand the home and put a large apartment on the second floor and we once again called XXXX XXXX who had us approved us for a second mortgage on our new home by XX/XX/XXXX for an additional {$110000.00} for home improvements, assuring us with our income that we could make these payments. This was a fixed rate loan # XXXX. All this with a tax return showing {$25000.00} in XX/XX/XXXXand {$32000.00} in XXXX. After taking the second mortgage, we felt the effects of all the predatory and abusive and unfair lending practices by Wells Fargo, and we began slowly drowning in interest only payments. To get ourselves out of the obvious bad loan decisions we had allowed XXXX XXXX and Wells Fargo to practically force us into, we immediately gave back whatever was left of the original {$110000.00} second mortgage and had called XXXX XXXX to have our interest only loan changed to a conventional mortgage so we could actually begin paying principal instead of just interest, as we had been doing. It was then that we realized how badly XXXX XXXX and Wells Fargo had advised and not educated us for all of these years. After being lent a first mortgage, two lines of credit, and a second montage, all totaling in excess of {>= $1,000,000}, we could not get refinanced for our interest only mortgage of {$420000.00} and the remaining balance of the second mortgage. All of this while showing the highest tax returns from XX/XX/XXXX-XX/XX/XXXX an average of around {$50000.00}. We had begun a vicious cycle of faxing in paperwork weekly always being told that we were missing something additional. We were given multiple options of government help from Wells Fargo ; however, we never qualified due to some missing paperwork that we again, were not provided any direction on from XXXX XXXX. This began on XX/XX/XXXX, XXXX XXXX was no longer available and we dealt with XXXX XXXX from Wells Fargo. She had advised us that we were at a deficit for our monthly payments and advised us to lower our outgoing monthly expenses. We tried hopelessly to do so to get qualified for a lower rate conventional mortgage from Wells Fargo. After faxing over 100 pages a week for months ( all of which had to be dated for the day being faxed ) we were denied from XXXX XXXX. So, XXXX XXXX advised us to declare bankruptcy. Once again, we followed what Wells Fargo said in an effort to save our home. We filed for bankruptcy in XXXX. We now began faxing paperwork weekly to XXXX XXXX and Wells Fargo for another year. We also stopped paying our mortgage because XXXX XXXX of Wells Fargo advised us that we could not qualify for any government programs if our mortgage was up to date. Of course, we were never approved for anything from Wells Fargo after being advised by them to stop making payments in order to get approved. So we retained a lawyer to try to help us get approved. This went on for the next two years and were once again denied by Wells Fargo. We received a notice that Wells Fargo was now going to proceed to foreclose on the home and, once again, hired a lawyer for help. After 7 months in court, he advised us that there was nothing he could do due to all the bad choices and transactions performed between Wells Fargo and us, all of which was basically pushed on us, as we were assured by the two Wells Fargo lending representatives mentioned above that we would be approved and able to afford the payments. We were then at this point informed that if we were lucky, we would have another 6 months in the home. I ask you what is lucky about that? Me and my wife, along with my XXXX children, have given everything to Wells Fargo, who we strongly feel that we were completely taken advantage of and every place we turn there is no help for those who want to pay their home mortgage. All I ever asked of them was to reset my mortgage to the current interest rate and let me make the payments. I have met every requirement that the XXXX XXXX and XXXX XXXX had advised us on and was still denied by Wells Fargo. Shortly, me and my family will be left homeless and with all of the years of paying Wells Fargo not only this interest only mortgage, but the previous loans I paid off and in good standing ( until we were advised by XXXX XXXX to not make payments in order to be approved for government assistance ) have all been in vain and I am left with nothing after close to 20 years of paying them. I have 2 apartments in my home and me and my wife both work, but yet Wells Fargo has denied us a loan which they previously approved via a phone call with zero proof, all of which, I feel, were to make their sales incentive goals and commissions. These methods in which they employ are not UNFAIR, DECEPTIVE, ABUSIVE, and PREDATORY and are in very clear violation of many, if not every law/regulation written regarding this. Is there no accountability on the part of Wells Fargo? Why did Wells Fargo not offer a modification to attempt to assist us throughout this whole process while we constantly contacted the two representatives to discuss? For all the pain and suffering they have and will continue to put my family through in the coming years? My children are embedded in this community and have friends in school and now I must tell them that because Wells Fargo lent us out of surviving financially, we will have nowhere to live. I implore you to please look into this entire situation and XXXX XXXX practices throughout this entire process and assist us so that we are not left with nothing and can not provide a home for our children. 

Thank you for your anticipated assistance and cooperation with the above. I can also supply any additional paperwork needed to support everything in this letter, there is way too much to scan and attach. I attached what I thought to be most relevant. 


XXXX XXXX

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