Consumer complaint received 2021-11-23
Company: Flagstar Bank, N.A.
State: CO
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Applying for a mortgage or refinancing an existing mortgage

Complaint:
Complaint Against Flagstar Bank XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. 
XXXX XX/XX/XXXX On XXXX XX/XX/XXXX my wife XXXX and I began a process of refinancing our existing loan with Flagstar Bank. Our existing loan with Flagstar was in good standing, but we wanted to take advantage of lower interest rates. We had no idea of the difficulties we were about to face. 
The initial loan application process was handled by XXXX XXXX ( XXXX XXXX ), and it proceeded acceptably well, except for some contradictory information on the form regarding whether or not the mortgage property in question represented the primary residence or not. XXXX part of the form stated that the property was the primary residence, while another part of the form stated otherwise. ( The correct answer was that the property is indeed our primary residence. ) I was told by XXXX that this discrepancy would be rectified. 
In XXXX we received our conditional loan approval notification from Flagstar, along with a new loan processor XXXX XXXX. It was noticed that the contradictory information mentioned before had not yet been resolved. I was assured by XXXX that resolution would come prior to the finalization of the loan paperwork. 
By the middle of XXXX all additional requested information ( W2s, paystubs, etc. ) had been forwarded to Flagstar, along with a message sent to both XXXX and XXXX to please update the mortgage paperwork. We did not receive any further communication until XXXX XXXX, when XXXX asked us for newly updated paystubs as well as a letter of explanation that additional requested funds would be used for paying off a XXXX on the property. No acknowledgement of the need to update the paperwork was given. 
On XXXX XXXX we now had a third loan processor working on our case XXXX XXXX, who phoned me up with an apology on how slowly the loan application had been proceeding. He presented himself as the one who would come in and fix everything. I mentioned to him again the need to update the paperwork, and he assured me that it would be handled. He also requested a current statement from our XXXX company, which we provided on XXXX XXXX. 
On XXXX XXXX we got another email from XXXX, requesting a XXXX payoff statement regarding our XXXX. Such was provided. 
On XXXX XXXX we received the final mortgage documents, and noticed that there were still errors on them. The county listed for our residence was XXXX County, when it should have been XXXX County. ( XXXX is a city in Wyoming. XXXX is a county in Colorado. ) We also noticed that the closing documentation did not properly reflect the correct payoff figures from the latest XXXX payoff statement. Since an email to XXXX resulted in an auto-generated Out of the Office message XXXX I posted a message to the official Flagstar loan application messaging app : Hello XXXX - Per request from XXXX XXXX XXXX days ago, I have obtained a XXXX payoff statement and uploaded it. Unfortunately these figures are different that what is on our closing documentation, so the closing documentation will have to be updated prior to our closing at XXXX XXXX  on XXXX  XX/XX/XXXX. You have mentioned to me repeatedly that any issues with the documentation can be quickly remedied, so I would ask that that be done now. Thanks. XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX XXXX With closing scheduled for noon on XXXX XXXX and still no response, I emailed XXXX, XXXX, and XXXX to the effect that closing would not occur. I asked to speak with a supervisor. No response. We refused to close, and we refused to continue the loan processing with Flagstar. 
Here is where it starts getting strange. We went to the Flagstar website in the first week of XXXX to make our usual mortgage payment. Flagstar had apparently closed our pre-existing mortgage account, although no refinancing had taken place! There was no option available for us to make our mortgage payment. It was only after a call to Flagstar customer service ( where we reminded them that we still owed them money ) that days later we were able to make an albeit late payment. 
In XXXX, we decided to try the refinancing again with a different company. All went well except that in XXXX an issue was encountered with the property title search. The title company escrow assistant emailed us on XXXX XXXX with the following message : Good morning, XXXX XXXX! I searched the county records yesterday and found that the reason we were not showing the Flagstar Mortgage that was opened in XXXX is because it was released in XX/XX/XXXX. Did you refinance your first mortgage around that time? 
We explained to her our history with the attempted Flagstar refinance. Her response : I understand now. In order for the mortgage to be refinanced they will need to reinstate and record a new Deed of Trust. I know it is inconvenient but please call Flagstar Mortgage and let them know that the Deed of Trust for the mortgage was released, please ask that they record the Deed of Trust the reinstated the mortgage. 
On XXXX XXXX my wife spoke with XXXX ( XXXX ) in Flagstar customer service regarding the reinstatement of the deed of trust for our current mortgage with them, because it had been released in error. She indicated that she was sending a ticket to the Release Team and that we should allow XXXX XXXX business days for the processing to go all the way through to XXXX County. 
On XXXX XXXX we received notification from the escrow assistant that the county records still did not show a filing for the reinstated deed of trust. 
On XXXX XXXX I followed up with XXXX at Flagstar customer service, and they confirmed that they had not reinstated the deed. The procedure for doing so was reinitiated, and we were told to allow for another XXXX XXXX business days. 
On XXXX XXXX, after confirming that the Deed of Trust still had not been reinstated, I spoke again with Flagstar customer service ( actually with the same customer service agent, XXXX, again ), and found out that apparently there had been some issue Flagstar had with reinstating the Deed of Trust something about restrictions in the state of Colorado. I was informed that the issue had been moved to Flagstars legal department. The agent told me that she submitted another ticket with urgency to the team, and that we should expect a response sometime next week and that was only to get an estimate of how long it would actually take to fully resolve the issue. 
At this point my wife and I simply dont know what to do. Will we be able to refinance with this XXXX  company in time before the terms expire? We simply have no control over this. We are at the mercy of a large company that appears to care nothing about the needs of ordinary people.

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