Consumer complaint received 2017-07-29
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: VA
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Struggling to pay mortgage

Complaint:
My mother was diagnosed with XXXX XX/XX/XXXX and her life changed drastically almost overnight. XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. By XX/XX/XXXX she had a XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. By XX/XX/XXXX she was no longer able to XX/XX/XXXX, and by XX/XX/XXXX she was no longer able to XXXX. Through it all, she has fought and persevered. Being unable to work, I was forced to sell her XXXX and she went on XXXX. She was receiving $ XXXX/month, however her mortgage alone was {$1000.00} ; leaving barely {$200.00} to pay Power, cable, phone, toiletries, and her monthly {$60.00} patient responsibility for her home health care services. When my mother first became ill I asked her, what is one thing that is so important to you to have, or to get, or to stop, or somewhere to go ( basically the bucket list/make a wish request ) and without hesitation she typed on her eye gaze machine, I want to stay in my home. This is where I want my life to end..in my own home I worked so hard for. From that moment, it became my mission to ensure that it happened. After the way she so selflessly lived her life, it was the very least I could do. Unfortunately for my mother, she only had about {$7000.00} when she got sick, so between her minimum funds, and additional monthly expenses, her accounts were drained before the end of XX/XX/XXXX. Knowing the importance of remaining in her home, I took on the daunting task of making up the difference. This amount would vary, from $ 600- $ 900/month, all while paying my own bills and providing for my XXXX growing boys. While a significant strain on us, completely worth it..but as it will do, my money began to run out and my ability to pay her bills became harder and harder. Around XX/XX/XXXX I applied for a modification on behalf of my mother. After submitting tons of documents we were given a stipulated approval, contingent on our trial payments being made on time. I scheduled four payments to be automatically deducted from my mothers account. All payments cleared without any issue. In XX/XX/XXXX I had not received my new deed of trust documentation to sign and had not heard from Bank of America so I called them. Spoke to the representative that was working with us and told her that I had not received a package nor had I been given any direction in regards to the XX/XX/XXXX payment. She was surprised I had not received the loan modification paperwork and initiated a payment. Beginning of XXXX, I received a confirmation and congratulation that the loan modification had been approved. It included the loan modification packet, which I filled out that same day and had it scheduled for pick up the next day. About three weeks later I received another package with communication stating that the signatures were incorrect on the paperwork. As my mother 's power of attorney I signed my name, POA because obviously I ca n't sign her name. So I was n't clear on what the incorrect signature was about. There were sample signature pages included in the document however there was no power of attorney example for me to follow. Initially I thought that this was an error on their part ; that somehow they did n't realize that I was her power of attorney and the documents would not say her name. I reached out to the rep that had been helping us for some guidance. The representative informed me that unlike what was stated on the paperwork, signature was not the issue, but that my power of attorney need to be registered. I was not familiar with how to do that and asked for some guidance and she informed me that she did not know how to do that. I asked her if it was possible for her to ask possibly a supervisor or manager and she placed me on hold and went to speak to her supervisor. After consulting with her she came back to the phone and told me that I needed to have my power of attorney register. I told her that, yes I understood that, but my ask was around how to go about doing that. She said she did not know, neither did the supervisor. I reached out to the estate attorney that had originally drawn up my mothers estate documentation and asked had she registered my mother 's power of attorney. She asked me what did I mean by that. I told her that I honestly was n't sure and that I was hoping that when I spoke with her, she would know what I was talking about. She asked me to explain to her what it was I was trying to do it when I explained I was attempting to modify my mothers home loan and that the hangup was that it had not been registered, she said that that did n't really make any sense to her as a power of attorney paperwork is typically filed with the deed. She offered to call Bank of America for clarification however the only number I had was an XXXX number, which required you to enter your account information and such so she called me back and asked if I would like to have them contact her. When I called back XXXX, our normal rep was n't available so I spoke to a gentleman within her department. I and explain to him that I was in the midst of having my mothers home loan modified and that the agreement had been returned due to incorrect signature but that XXXX, the other rap had said that was n't the issue and in fact it was my power of attorney needing to be registered. I further explained that even the estate lawyer was n't sure what it was they were looking for and said that if they would call her she will get it figured out. He placed me on hold to review our case and came back and told me that it was n't the signature, was n't the power of attorney, and that an affidavit in fact is what was needed. Although frustrated that I was now receiving what was the 3rd explanation of what the hold up was, the affidavit in fact at least made more sense. I followed back up with the estate attorney relayed the information and she agreed that made more sense. She immediately drew up the docs for me, scanned them over to me. I had them notarized by my banker, and then sent it over to XXXX at Bank of America. A couple weeks went by and she called me again stating that they were waiting on me to have my power of attorney registered. I explained to her that I did n't know what she meant by that, nor did the estate attorney, or anyone at the county when I called not once but twice. Furthermore when I called back to her office the rep in her department told me it was the affidavit in fact that was needed. So now at this point I have been given three different reasons as to why there was a hold up on my completion of new deed. No one in their department seemed to be on the same page. So I spent the next week or so XXXX how to register a power of attorney. Over and over I came up empty handed and already knew Bank of America had stated they did n't know how to help me. Finally, I came across something about land records. Considering I had not found anything else relevant to recording a power of attorney and had been given no direction from Bank of America I was hoping this was it. I completed the paperwork and application, went to the courthouse, and paid to have my power of attorney registered. Now at the same time I was out of town and staying in XXXX for training for a few weeks for my new job. At this point, I had satisfied the registering of the power of attorney and provided an affidavit in fact. I had every reason to assume we would now be finalizing the approval I received back in XX/XX/XXXX. A couple of weeks later and I receive a phone call from XXXX from Bank of America stating that she was calling to notify me that we were not be able to move forward with the process. Obviously completely caught off guard, I asked her why that would be, considering we already had an approval and had met every and all stipulations. She stated that it was because I had not had my power of attorney registered. I immediately responded that I had in fact had it registered, no thanks to their help and she then replied that I never sent it to her. Feeling quite frustrated at this point again immediately responded that I had never been asked to send her anything. The only direction I was ever given was that I needed to have my power of attorney registered, which I did. She had no response. After a bit of silence she stated you needed to send it to me and again I reiterated that I would have no way of knowing that without you telling me that because for starters, there has been zero paperwork that ever even referenced anything to do with my power of attorney being registered ; not once did I receive anything stating that. What was mailed to me said signature was missing or. incorrect. Furthermore, after she stated I needed to have it registered, she was not even able to give me any instruction or direction on how to get it registered. Lastly, at no point did she ever notify me that I needed to make her aware that it had been done. As I explained to her I assumed that whatever method they used to confirm that it was not registered would be the same method they would use to confirm that I had in fact registered it. So essentially, you have overturned the approval to modify my terminally ill mother 's mortgage so that we can satisfy her one XXXX request and that was to spend whatever remainder of life she had in her own home. So clearly I was upset and I wanted to speak to a supervisor. XXXX informed me that they were not gon na be able to overturn the decision because of the time that had lapsed. The ironic part is as of XX/XX/XXXX they sent me a letter saying we are reviewing everything please allot us an additional 15 days and then XX/XX/XXXX they say that we are in serious default. But as of XX/XX/XXXX I 'm still making payments and we 're trying to complete the modification. I had successfully paid the trial payments and registered the power of attorney as directed without any guidance, so I could not understand why we were not being granted the modification as we had initially been awarded. I asked XXXX so what do I do now? Her response was that I could start all over if I wanted to. This process has taken almost a year at this point the likelihood that my mother would even survive another year was pretty slim, not to mention that I had exhausted all of my resources over the last couple of years paying the shortcomings to keep my mom in her home and no longer had the means necessary to do it for another 9 to 12 months. I told her at that point the only option they 've left me is to sell. I hung up the phone and began to cry as I knew I was faced with the awful task of telling my mother that as hard as we fought to keep the place and as much as we celebrated when I told her that we had been approved and had received loan modification documents, we now had no other choice but to sell her home. It was one of the hardest things I ever have to do and just as I expected, she sobbed and sobbed. We began packing her belongings and went ahead and moved her into my home. I received a notification stating that we owed just shy of six grand, and that it was due all at once. I reached out to XXXX to figure out how they determined this figure. She began by saying four months of payments for XX/XX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX, and XX/XX/XXXX at {$1000.00} was practically XXXX grand. I replied that yes that is correct, however we had made the modified plan payments in the amount of {$820.00} that entire time, so technically it was only about {$240.00} additional for those months, barely over {$1000.00} and asked where they were coming up with the additional {$4400.00}. She stated that it was the missed payment in XX/XX/XXXX. I responded the payment was not paid because of the direction provided from them in the modification approval paperwork. It stated first payment due was XX/XX/XXXX. She stated that now that it had not gone through it was due immediately and essentially we were being viewed as being in default even though we were in the process of modifying he loan. She also stated that we had not made a payment in XX/XX/XXXX, however going back to our paperwork I found that we did pay in XX/XX/XXXX and for the amount of {$1100.00}. At the time I did n't have that paperwork in front of me so I was just going off what she said. So I said even if we say XX/XX/XXXX payment and XX/XX/XXXX payments are due, the difference for the other payments, that 's still only about {$3200.00} so what are the additional {$2600.00} they 're demanding coming from?? She said well there are additional fees and things and I said {$3200.00} in fees? So essentially you 're telling me that you 're charging us more than 33 % in fees? And she said I 'd have to get the breakdown. I told her this was insane and made no sense and that it was not adding up and furthermore no one has ever provided me an explanation of why the modification was overturned in the first place. There was no justifiable reason it should 've been overturned. Frustrated and tired of getting the runaround I decided just to sell the house. I made a payment in XX/XX/XXXX and we began preparing the house to put on the market. In XX/XX/XXXX I sent in my payment and it was returned to me saying it had to be certified funds AND the full amount. Well, I absolutely did n't have {$6000.00} to send them and the amount was completely wrong! The statement they sent us only reflected payments due, and none of the payments made were reflected. So I called a friend who is a real estate agent, told him what was going on, that I needed to sell the house ASAP, and that time is of the essence. He told me he was on it but that I also need to be looking for any type of notification in regards to foreclosure. We did receive a letter from the lawyer 's office stating that they have been notified that the account was in default and that we needed to make arrangements to pay to avoid any further action. Additionally it stated that I would be sent a separate notification if they were moving forward with foreclose. We drastically dropped the price twice trying to generate an offer and had quite a bit of activity going on. We continued to go get the mail, keeping an eye out for notifications of a foreclosure intent. We had received nothing. Yesterday I received a call from the real estate agent saying that he received a call stating that the property was sold on the courthouse steps yesterday under foreclose. I was in absolute shock and disbelief! I had no idea how I was going to face my XXXX mother and tell her they sold her home. I reached out to the person that purchased it and explained that I had no idea that it was in foreclosure and all of her belongings were still there and asked if he 'd be kind enough to allow us the opportunity to get her belongings. So frantically we 've been packing things up last night and into this morning. Yesterday as I was there packing, a courier come by with a message from Bank of America saying please call us today. So I called up there and asked the gentleman what it is they needed to speak to me about and he said I 'm not sure why you would have received that today, we have your house down as being for sale under foreclosure today and then he said were you looking to retain the property? And I said you sold it today! What do you even mean? He simply said OK. I said should n't you have a third-party trustee that 's responsible for notifying me of intent to foreclose? He said yes and so I asked for the information. He gave me the lawyers information and said he could transfer me. Transferred me over and I asked them did they send notification of intent to foreclose and if so could they confirm when the notification was sent. She said they had sent it XX/XX/XXXX and it was attempted to be delivered XX/XX/XXXX but that there was no one there to accept it so the note was left that there was a certified letter at the post office. I asked her if she could confirm the tracking number. So I planned to track down how it was apparently left yet we never received it. Speaking with my brother, we recalled that about two weeks prior my brother had gone to get the mail as he always does and there was a notification for certified mail in there, however it was addressed to XXXX XXXX, who is my stepfather. He also used to live at the property so we never thought twice about it. All of us still receive mail there, why I 'm not sure ; but I have n't lived there in a decade and got a piece of mail there the other day. My dad said he had not gone to pick up the certified mail because he assumed it was a biller and was in no a rush to get it. Additionally we were actually out of town that same week that it was sent. He told me he did have the certified mail notification with him and when we looked at it, it was the same tracking number that the lawyers office had just provided me. This explained why we never received a notification of intent to foreclose. The more we tried to wrap our head around it, the more we kept going back to what lead to this in the first place. Had Bank of America not erroneously overturned the approval for the modification because I had met every and all stipulations, we would not even be in this position. My mother was only receiving about {$1200.00} for her XXXX payment and her mortgage was {$1000.00} and at one point jumped to {$1100.00}, leaving little to no money at all for power, cable, phone, toiletries, and the {$60.00} patient responsibility payment due for her home health care. I paid the difference, along with all of my own bills, because I desperately wanted to do the one thing she asked-let her XXXX in her own home that she had worked so very hard for. So now I have a XXXX  XXXX mother who had one XXXX wish ; to remain in her home. I spent every dime I had, maxed every credit card I owned, trying to fulfill that wish. I have to now tell my mother that not only did I have to move her out of her home and place it for sale, but now she wo n't be getting the equity from the home and the private care she was promised as a way to make up for the fact that she had to sell. So she 'll have to stick with the inadequate help we now receive through XXXX and I 'll be working overtime for the rest of my life just to be able to afford the minimum payments of these credit cards. We did everything asked. This is what happens when you do n't have the means to fight for what 's right..you 're left feeling helpless. I owe it to my XXXX mother to fight back and to right this terrible wrong.

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