Consumer complaint received 2018-01-19
Product: Debt collection — Mortgage debt
Issue: Took or threatened to take negative or legal action — Threatened to sue you for very old debt
Company: PNC Bank N.A. (IL)

Around XXXX, I took out a HELOC with XXXX XXXX ( XXXX ) for approximately 250k. Within a year or so, I refinanced to a larger HELOC of XXXX. The XXXX  HELOC was a secondary lien to my first mortgage of approximately 600k held by XXXX. 
At some point in XXXX the XXXX HELOC was turned over to PNC BANK. 

My income started to decline in XXXX ( during the mortgage crises ). I could no longer afford the payments on my primary residence. So I looked to sell it. I listed my house for sale in XXXX or the beginning of XXXX. It was on the market for about 9 months to a year. I kept lowering the price until I received an offer for XXXX, but I owed over 1M. The lien holders ( XXXX and PNC ) agreed to release the liens and let me sell the house. I spent the last 7 years building my credit back up. My income increased over the years as the economy started doing better. 

At the end of XXXX, I had saved enough money for a down payment on a house for my family. One month after I purchased the new home, I was served paperwork for the court case with PNC seeking a XXXX judgment ( XXXX original balance plus XXXX in interest ). 

XXXX over extended me with liens on my property due to an overvaluation of my home. 
I believe that they did not use a third party or impartial appraiser and knowing valued the property at way more than it was ever worth. Then when PNC took over the debt, they were unwilling to work with me on settling this debt when I was in the process of selling my home. They agreed to accept 10 % of the balance owed, from the proceeds of the sale, to release the lien. I spent many hours on the phone with PNC during the short sale process to attempt to pay them more money and they did not accept it. After the short sale, PNC did not reach out to me one time in the last 7 years and just recently PNC filed a federal court case requesting a XXXX judgment. 

At no time during or after the short sale did PNC ever report my loan or bad debt to me or to the credit bureaus. I would not have purchase my new home if PNC would have had a collection account on my credit or if they contacted me in the last 7 years to work out a payment. 

PNC should have been trying to collect or settle with me during and immediately after the short sale so that I would not be stuck with a judgement, that includes an additional XXXX in interest, that I now have no way of paying. 

A judgement will ruin my credit and possibly make me unable to cover my current bills and mortgages resulting in the same situation I was in 7 years ago. 

XXXX and PNC have some responsibility here. XXXX  over extended me by appraising my house for more than it was ever worth making it impossible to sell the property and cover the debts. Both XXXX and I went under because of this misstep. I lost my house and XXXX lost its business. The Government stepped in with TARP money to help banks like PNC to stay afloat and take over bad debts from other banks that went under, but it was my understanding that this TARP money was also supposed to be used by the banks to work with homeowners and cover some of the bad debt and help people that lost their houses get back on their feet so that we could all remain in a functioning society. 

I believe that my HELOC was granted in poor practice and I believe that PNC refusal to accept money from me years ago and not contacting me or the credit bureaus for 7 years is deceptive and harmful.