Consumer complaint received 2021-03-24
Product: Mortgage — Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process — 
Company: Onity Group Inc. (NJ)

In XX/XX/XXXX, I closed on a 25 year conventional mortgage for a principal of {$170000.00}. In XXXX, I found myself unable to pay the current mortgage due to divorce and loss of my job. Although I had been keeping up on the payments, they instructed me that it would look better if I didn't make payments, so I was probably about 2 months behind or so at the time of the modification. I entered into a modification agreement with Ocwen, to reduce the interest rate to 2 % for a time, then annual increases for a period of 5 years. I specifically asked and was told that this would not result in an extension of the term, and there were no other repercussions - it was just a reduced interest rate to lower the payments so that I could keep my home. I have continued making my payments, and am now 8.5 years away from loan maturity. The mortgage is now serviced by PHH, and I decided to log in to their website to get more detailed information on the mortgage than is given on the statement. It caught my eye that although the loan matured in XXXX of XXXX, it showed a scheduled payoff for XXXX of XXXX. I looked at the amount of principal still owed, and the number of payments that showed remaining, and I realized that there is no way the loan would be paid off by the maturity date. After several calls to XXXX asking for information and an amortization table ( never did receive the amortization table ), I finally found out that there is a balloon payment of nearly {$110000.00} due at loan maturity. Looking through the papers provided, while there is a mention that there will be a balloon payment, nowhere did it state the amount that would be required ; I do recall thinking that it wouldn't be more than a few XXXX dollars ( e.g., {$3000.00} - {$6000.00} tops ), so I didn't worry about it at the time. This should have been disclosed at the time of the modification. I also found, that although the original loan principal should have been down to about {$150000.00} ( even with the missed payments ), the modification documents show an initial principal balance of {$160000.00}, so it sounds like there were an awful of of fees rolled in to the principal. This is deceptive, if not predatory in nature. After paying the full term of a mortgage, the remaining principal should NOT be XXXX of the original loan amount ; I don't know anyone that would consider that " reasonable ''. I'm currently looking into refinancing this loan with another mortgage company, and hopefully we will be able to do so, though sadly we will have to extend the term despite planning to retire in the next few years. I asked for a payoff figure from PHH, and after paying for nearly 17 years of a 25 year mortgage, the payoff figure is over {$140000.00}. I did ask the last representative we spoke to if the balloon payment could be removed, and I was told no. I was told we could reduce the balloon payment by paying additional principal each month, but in order to have the loan balance reach XXXX at loan maturity it would require an additional monthly payment of about {$910.00}, which is not in our current budget. I have no confidence or trust with this company at this point. I hope by filing this complaint it will prevent others from experiencing these predatory loan practices.