Consumer complaint received 2022-09-20
Product: Mortgage — Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Struggling to pay mortgage — 
Company: Freedom Mortgage Company (TN)

I have been having issues ever since they offered a Covid Forbearance Plan. They kept calling offering the Forbearance and I declined. I finally got tired of the calls and told them to go ahead and tell me about it. I was told they were offering 6 months of no payments and nothing would be reported to credit buearus of anything so it wouldn't negatively effect my scores. I was told our account would just freeze and there wouldn't be any late fees or anything that we would literally just pick the payments back up where we left off after the 6 months were up. Ok that sounds great, yes I'll take the Forbearance. That was in the fall of XXXX. Well around XX/XX/XXXX our Forbearance was coming to an end. Freedom Mortgage called to inform me I would need to start my payments back up and asked how I would like to get caught up on the 6 payments I never made. Confused and completely shocked I asked them what they meant by that. They offered about 6 or 7 options on how to pay the balance we now owed. I was absolutely irate. I told them they were wrong for scamming people, for taking advantage of the pandemic, and for calling me and telling me lies! I talked to several people around that time with freedom mortgage and was even told by them that they weren't even sure how everything was going to go after a Forbearance was over because they just let the balances owed increase but never reported to the credit buearus. So now I'm stuck trying to figure out how I'm going to pay all this money back. Well after several conversations, we agreed to the loan modification process because I had to leave my place of employment during the Forbearance due to losing child care related to the covid pandemic. I had to leave my employment after almost 9 years. This took a huge toll on my income. Well XXXX  told me they would review my modification application and let me know. Well I was approved and my rate went down and my payments went down. Wonderful. They sent me the documents to get signed and notarized and sent back. Got all that done within the time allowed. My new modification went into effect XX/XX/XXXX with next payment due XX/XX/XXXX. Started making my new payment amount in XX/XX/XXXX as instructed due to 2 months being needed for all paperwork to be done after Forbearance was lifted and modification in place. After a few weeks I never heard anything back. Months go by and I'm still making all my payments as required. They finally call me and tell me my notary made an error on the date of my documents. I asked for proof and they couldn't provide it. Said the account was only noted but documents were never scanned into the system which they even found odd. Well they said no problem we will send new ones. Well, we are now into XXXX or XX/XX/XXXX and still not resolved. I called them again, they then said I have an issue because I had gotten married since buying my house and they have to update that with proper proof ; marriage license only. I had already told them I had gotten married and they said that wouldn't be an issue and there was nothing I needed to do and documents were on the way. Well, they couldn't accept those. So just trying to get this done I emailed my marriage license to the email they provided. Weeks go by and nothing. Call again. They said they never received the marriage license and to resend it along with my updated drivers license to a different email address. I was getting mad because I had already emailed the marriage license and once again another excuse for not doing their part. They told me the original email address was no longer in use. Anyways, I get another call that they never received my proofs again! I'm mad. I feel like they were just letting all my documents show to the world and didn't care about my privacy. They told me to send them again but back to the original email address! Someone had once again lied to me! Moving on, they finally got the proofs as I had the lady stay on the phone with me til they showed up. Anyways, name change completed. New documents were on they way, almost a year later. I requested they send their notary so mine couldn't be accused of making any errors. I received documents, notary showed up with her copies of the documents and said we would just use hers. They were the same. This was XX/XX/XXXX I believe. She was great, told me she would send them back to FM and they would call me. Never heard back. By XX/XX/XXXX, they removed the option to make any less of a payment amount than what your account balance showed in full. Well, my account showed several thousands of dollars behind. They were not applying my payments!! I had to call them to make my payments and every call lasted forever because I had to explain to every single person this entire mess! Anyway, while making my payment call, I asked about my modification. They said they didn't see anything about the received documents on my account. Here we go again!! They finally called me to let me know the underwriting team had made an error on the percentage rate. It was a small one but they would correct it and that's what stopped those documents. Well move forward to XX/XX/XXXX and they have now increased the percentage rate over 2.5 % higher and my monthly payments are different. I never received documents but rather was told to make a verbal agreement on the phone. Uhhh no! I requested that be sent back and told her I had been making my payments every month as it was agreed upon back in early XXXX. She agreed and sent it back with high priority. 10 days and I'll hear from them again. I've always been told that, never happens. However, she told me I did not need to make the XXXX payment because they were in the process of applying all my payments from over the past year and if I was to make another one they would have to start back over and make sure everything applied right. Well, that actually made sense to me because my account balance was starting to show less but still wayyyy off. I called again towards the end of XX/XX/XXXX because the 10 days were up and still nothing. I talked to another representative, explained everything, she was confused. She reviewed everything once again and said all my payments were behind and it showed 10 months unpaid. That's not true! 6 months Forbearance and 2 months while they were entering the loan modification in early XXXX. My account balance is completely wrong! She said they still showed the higher rate and that I need to make a payment like I originally wanted to do. I made another payment and told her I was not going to accept the higher rate as my loan modification was already agreed on in early XXXX. She noted the account and sent it back to the modification department. Here were are in XX/XX/XXXX. Called to make my payment and get the latest excuse for my messy account. Payment made, notes reviewed, they sent back the same offer. Higher rate, nothing changed. Declined it again. She had a supervisor review the account and the supervisor agreed with me and said they should honor the original modification and sent it back in. 10 more days. Mind you I have threatened with XXXX, switching mortgage companies, and a lawyer, but they don't care. Today, XX/XX/XXXX, I received XXXX of the XXXX calls I have gotten during this whole mess telling me my account is several thousands behind and I need to make a payment. I'm sick of the excuses and the wrongful accusations this company is causing. The harassing calls for more of my money when they aren't even showing my payments correctly!! The reps always apologize and say it's policy to call when there's a balance showing and they aren't able to review notes until after they talk to the customer. Well my account should be an exception to that. Anyways, she told me the decision hasn't come back yet and thanked me for being a freedom mortgage customer, HA yea sure! I dispise this company and the way they have used covid to trick innocent people into their scam is sickening. I will not accept this harassment any longer. They are horrible and I will never recommend them to anyone. I want my account fixed and my balance corrected. They never told us we would owe any of the 6 months payments back. It was a freeze!! Now they say I can't refinance, sell, or finish my loan term until I pay everything they show I owe from the Forbearance and no telling what all else they have added!!! Worst mortgage company around. I was advised from a legal standpoint to make this complaint as step 1. There will be more steps coming if this is not handled promptly and efficiently.