Consumer complaint received 2024-07-31
Product: Mortgage — FHA mortgage
Issue: Struggling to pay mortgage — An existing modification, forbearance plan, short sale, or other loss mitigation relief
Company: M&T BANK CORPORATION (NY)

M & T Bank initially charged $ XXXX in additional fees to my FHA XXXX XXXX XXXX then intended to send thousands of undue costs in services not provided to be reimbursed by the US Department of Housing, essentially overcharging me with a mortgaged lien containing 20 % undisclosed fees then frauding the US Gov into paying them for it. Here 's how they did this to me along with thousands of others : In XX/XX/XXXX I was approved for an unemployment forbearance regarding my FHA home loan which covered me for XXXX months. In XX/XX/XXXX my forbearance plan ended and I was sent notice my mortgage payments were due as of XX/XX/XXXX. In less than XXXX days due, on XX/XX/XXXX M & T had referred my file to their Foreclosure Attorney 's office and I received a notice from their office a few days later. By XX/XX/XXXX I had submitted the information needed to their loss mitigation team for review and received an approval for a loan workout. I was told all foreclosure proceedings would be stopped which meant the file the attorney 's had would not have been processed beyond a few days time. Then I received the Approval package in the mail a few weeks later but in addition to the past due payments there was a much higher total that was not broken down in typical disclosure fashion where the $ XXXX mortgage note they sent me was explained in any type numbers or amounts broken down for costs. After several calls back and forth wih multiple escalations simply trying to get an explanation as to why I was being charged 20 % more above the past due amount owed, I was told by a Single Point of Contact Supervisor indicating that there was over $ XXXX in additional " Corporate advance fees ''. This was not part of an escrow advance or shortage. It was fees associated with the foreclosure process that was referred on XX/XX/XXXX and then requested to halt based on the loss mitigation approval on XX/XX/XXXX. So, essentially I was being told I was charged foreclosure fees of $ XXXX for XXXX days of active foreclosure status and services allegedly rendered during that time. Please note, none of this was disclosed to me and I only figured this out when I did the math adding up my past due payments, escrow and subtracting those totals from the total loan amount they had in the new mortgage they wanted me to sign without disclosing any of these discrepancies. It took over a dozen calls over half escalations to their attorney 's office, customer service billing and their single point of contact ( which was a different person each time so the term multiple points of contact is more appropriate ). The most shocking part was that I was told by an M & T XXXX " NO ONE HAS EVER ASKED THIS OF US DURING THIS PROCESS. '' Finally after sending a direct request to the attorney 's via email for a breakdown of these fees and costs, their amount was actually less than what M & T was charging me directly by THOUSANDS. But, M & T and the attorney 's office had both stated the fees and costs were billed on work completed from XX/XX/XXXX to XX/XX/XXXX. XXXX specific claim that was made indicated that they reviewed title history during this period. There is not a single example where a title search could be requested and completed and reviewed fully by any attorney 's office within the timeframe of a business days especially when the attorney is in Georgia and the property is in New York. In further discovery they accidentally sent me proof they also received the file in XXXX and began working on foreclosure proceedings before my forbearance was up in XXXX. So why would they be referring a process of foreclosure while I was in an active forbearance plan of which it clearly stated that my loan would not be at risk of foreclosure during this time?? Furthermore, IF I HAD NOT INITIALLY ASKED ABOUT THE $ XXXX DISCREPANCY, THEY WOULD HAVE NEVER TOLD ME ANY OF THIS! And of course the biggest part is after all that would have slipped by, the then send a full bill to be reimbursed for all these undue fees and costs that they more than doubled in excess of thousands of dollars to the US Department of Housing to send a blind check back. This is definitely what constitutes fraud not just to homeowners, but to the Federal Government. And it's not limited to my once in never incident with just my FHA Partial Claim. During Covid, they expanded these Partial Claim programs to Covid forbearances, along with anyone else that might have had corporate advances related to alleged foreclosure proceedings. These fees were literally programmed in and generated into the system to effect every single partial claim or modification meeting these criteria across their entire approvals which were then billed off to the US Dept of Housing and left thousands of homeowners with overbilled liens on their homes. But unlike most mass injury cases, these are all trackable because each one would fall under a trail of claims made by M & T of which each homeowner that was victimized can be obtained. But again, none of these amounts were ever disclosed to any " approved '' homeowner and none of them would ever know if they didn't do the math themselves, and honestly how many people question math when they are fearing they might lose their homes? Desperation makes easy prey. 
Ultimately this information should be used to open each case that has been filed for reimbursement with the US Department of Housing because they paid the bill and now hold mortgaged loans against the victimized homeowners. This amount is most likely in the millions of dollars considering the amount of homeowners that were affected by not just unemployment but Covid across the boards.