Consumer complaint received 2017-05-17
Product: Mortgage — Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Struggling to pay mortgage — 
Company: CITIBANK, N.A. (FL)

In XX/XX/XXXX I contacted XXXX XXXX XXXX in XXXX to see if I could qualify for a loan on a house to be built in XXXX. I spoke with XXXX XXXX, who was my loan originator. She assured me that they could do the loan, so in good faith I filled out application paperwork. During the process she would call my mother, who had referred me to her, and ask fr information as my mother and father were helping me with the down payment on a house and my mom was also going to by on the deed to my house, but not on the mortgage. It took about 2 months to close and to my knowledge, I applied as a first time home buyer and needed to be homesteaded in the state of XXXX to get a discounted rate on my taxes. Up until the time we closed, she constantly asked for more paperwork and for me to show more income. Right up until the day of closing to where I had finally had enough and said, XXXX, I have no more money, I make what I make and all I have in savings is all I have. Magically that afternoon we closed because she " worked it out. '' At closing I discovered I had a second home rider attache to my mtg and a lot more fees added than expected. My original good faith estimate had around {$6600.00} in closing costs. At closing they wanted over {$12000.00}. I was very upset but by that time my parents had put down around {$27000.00} in deposit on the house that was being constructed and would n't get it back so the title company said to just sign the paperwork and we 'd work it out after. That started a chain reaction of almost bankrupting me. I closed on my house IN late XX/XX/XXXX. I moved into my house on XX/XX/XXXX. I had no job as I had to quit the one I had in XXXX, which my loan officer knew, and did not get a new one until XX/XX/XXXX. In between the time I moved to XX/XX/XXXX, I found out the mtg company severely underfunded my escrow and did n't file my homestead so my taxes went sky-high and took my payment from just under {$1200.00} to {$1700.00}. At that point my loan was sold to Citimortgage. I called their loan servicing area to negotiate my escrow shortage based on the escrow analysis paperwork they sent and asked in the meantime if they would just accept the amount of the P & I until I could straighten out the tax exemption on my house. They said yes, fine, send your P & I monthly. Which I did, however, what I did not know is the following months they were applying my P & I to the escrow shortage thus making my payment shortened and all out of whack. I ended up having to rent my house out after just living in it for 10 months because I saw no other way to catch up the shortage. Citibank called me to work out a modification and asked me for my financial paperwork, which I submitted. They told me they could do it. They they said they could n't. Then they said they could do an internal modification. And then they said they could n't. This dragged on for months. But as I was collecting the rent I was adding to it to make more than the regular payment so I could catch up. They also discussed in the meantime, doing a " strategic '' payment delinquency. So in order for me to qualify for their modification I had to be delinquent 90 days. They said they could definitely modify me. While this was happening the lease was up with my current tenants and I asked if I had to move back to the property or if I could rent it out again. XXXX, whoever the servicer was at the time ( it changed a lot ) said yes, I could rent it again because they had non-owner occupied modification programs. So I signed another lease renting to the grown children of my neighbors ext door. Not even a month passed before my tenants, I and my parents were served the notice of Lis Pendens. I called Citimortgage irate because they lied to me and said oh no, they could n't modify me because I did n't occupy the property to which I replied that they told me I did n't have to, that I could continue to rent my house out. They said no, they Must have misunderstood and in order to modify I had to occupy the property. So I had to start the process of getting my tenants out, and they did not take kindly to that as they stopped paying rent so therefor I could n't start making the mtg payments back after the " strategic default ''. Eventually after many months of non payment I was able to get the tenants out and move back to my house to live in it. XXXX did modify my loan but I still could barely afford to make the lowered payment, which was close to {$900.00}. My income was not cutting it and I was actively searching for a higher paying job. I attempted to cut down some of the mortgage payment costs by contacting my insurance company to re-evaluate my house to see if I was carrying too much insurance and they did estimate it at a lower value so my premium decreased. XXXX then informed me they were force placing insurance on me, even tho I was insured adequately according to the insurance company. They said the force placement would be from the time I got the value re-estimated to the time they initiated the force placement. Then I lost my job. We tried then to short sale the house and had a cash buyer for $ XXXX. All parties agreed to it but then the servicer sat on it for over 30 days. The real estate company called them every day asking how things were going and they said everything was fine. When I originally did the loan I was working for a XXXX in XXXX in XXXX XXXX. When I moved to XXXX I became a XXXX XXXX. Looking back over everything, the 2nd home rider, the shortened escrow, something did n't seem right. So in once of my many phone calls with XXXX I asked them if they would send me the DU as this was a FNMA loan and they did. What I found out was breath taking. My loan actually was n't approved by FNMA until the end of XX/XX/XXXX. But I closed on my house in XX/XX/XXXX ... They sent me a few copies of the DU they ran. The early findings around the time I closed said I did n't qualify. But then magically, in late XX/XX/XXXX I was approved. A few things had changed. My 401k that I had balance was inflated and an investment that I did n't actually have, one that was made up seemed to have just enough to " qualify '' me. I guess that 's what XXXX meant when she said she " figured it out. '' My parents ending up taking out of their life savings almost $ 100K to put as a down payment on the house because I could n't afford it on my own. I had to cask in my 401k to live between XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX. In XX/XX/XXXX I only made around $ 22K and yet I paid over $ 10k in mtg interest leaving not a lot left for bills and needs. And the simple thing was, if I did n't qualify for the loan, why did n't they just turn me down? Instead of ruining my credit, my life savings, taking money from parents I 'll never be able to repay? I 'm XXXX now with a XXXX XXXX XXXX and it will be some time before I can afford a home for her to grow up in. All because it was more important for a bank to make their yeald spread. Disgusting.