Consumer complaint received 2022-06-22
Product: Mortgage — Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process — 
Company: Onity Group Inc. (CA)

XX/XX/2022 I requested from my mortgage company PHH Mortgage ( Parent Company : Ocwen Financial ) that the PMI removal process be initiated for my home, via an appraisal. Nearly a month after requesting this, on XX/XX/2022, I was met with an email saying I had yet to complete the required documents. This was erroneous because I had sent them in, in the beginning of XXXX. 

Regardless of this, I persisted and was finally able to get an appraisal ordered, through XXXX XXXX XXXX ( Parent Company : XXXX ) and after XX/XX/XXXX, the date of the appraisal, I followed up with the appraisal company only to find that the order had been canceled. Not sure how this happened, but nevertheless, I contacted my mortgage company only to find out that they had no knowledge that it had been canceled, which was very hard to believe. 

At this point, I ordered a new XXXX ( XXXX XXXX XXXX ) from my mortgage company, which was completed by XXXX XXXX, XXXX, NV and sent to my mortgage company XX/XX/2022. At this point, I waited a very, very long time and made calls to XXXX XXXX, PHH, and the appraiser. The appraisal company told me the appraisal was completed and sent over XX/XX/XXXX, and one agent even informed me that the value was high enough to have the PMI removed. I also spoke to the appraiser himself, who informed me it had already been sent out and that he had completed the XXXX to reflect the proper value of my home for the area ( which would be sufficient to have the PMI removed ). 

More than 40 days later, on XX/XX/XXXX, I was contacted by my mortgage company to be told that my request was denied on the basis that my home did not appraise at the proper value to have an XXXX of 80 %. 

I asked the value they had, and they told me a value that was {$5000.00} LESS than the value of my home upon purchase, nearly 1 year ago. This was when I knew something was amiss because not only did I receive confirmation from the appraisal company XXXX XXXX, but the appraiser himself too. 

In a conversation I had with the appraiser, he informed me that after he submitted the appraisal the first time, nearly 30 days later, the case was re-opened, and he was provided with alternate comparables that he was told to use. He suggested that the comps were not as relevant as the ones he used, but that in general, he does not like to rebuttal the banks, and instead, he bends to their will, because he claimed it would hurt his rating ( compensation ) for future jobs. I asked him if this was proper procedure, given that it should be an impartial assessment, and he confirmed that yes, it was more a reflection of what they wanted than a true, 3rd party appraisal. To me, it seemed like undue influence and leveraging compensation/a rating over the appraiser in order to achieve a desired development or reporting of a predetermined price point. 

At this point, my loan is transferring to a different mortgage company XX/XX/2022 and I am out of options to reconcile this with my current company. I have sought to resolve this with PHH Mortgage, but am stonewalled by my requests and am being told to 'send a physical letter to a po box to rebuke the appraisal. '