Consumer complaint received 2021-01-28
Product: Mortgage — Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process — 
Company: Onity Group Inc. (CA)

STATEMENT OF FACTS : On XX/XX/XXXX my wife and I bought the property at XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX TX XXXX as an investment property. From the date of purchase to the present time, we have been paying the mortgage, interest, taxes and insurance XXXX XXXX XXXX. At first, our mortgage payments were being made to GMAC, our original mortgage company. In XXXX, we received a letter instructing us to start sending our mortgage payments to Ocwen Loan Servicing, which we did. Then in 2019, we again received a letter with instructions to send our mortgage payments to PHH Mortgage Services, which is our current mortgage servicing company. We just recently learned that GMAC sold our loan to Ocwen effective XX/XX/XXXX, and Ocwen merged with PHH on XX/XX/XXXX, which resulted in PHH Mortgage Services becoming our current loan servicing company. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, we signed a Real Estate Listing Agreement with a Realtor who immediately proceeded to market the property. We immediately received many offers. In the meantime, the Title Company started to look into the deed records, and on XX/XX/XXXX, we were informed that we could not sell the property as we " did not own the property ''. The records showed title was in the name of XXXX  XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, not in our name, and that there was a record of foreclosure in XXXX. Our records indicate that this foreclosure action was cancelled when payment was made to GMAC on XX/XX/XXXX prior to the trustees sale. GMAC confirmed receipt of the XXXX on the same day, and we were assured that the default was cured. 

Shortly after being notified by the title company about the ownership issue, we immediately contacted our current mortgage servicing company ( PHH ) and asked for clarification. We were told that no action was necessary because it was normal for title to be in the name of the Investor, in this case XXXX  XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, and that title would not transfer to our name until the loan was fully paid. We disagreed since this is the first time we are hearing this, after having sold a number of properties ourselves in the past. Additionally, the title company was certain that the title had to be in our name before we could proceed with the sale. We were also told by PHH that there was nothing that would prevent us from selling the property the way the records were showing, i.e., without correcting the ownership on record. We asked for copies of the Deed and the Note associated with the property, and the copies we received were the ones we signed when we purchased the property in XX/XX/XXXX. Further, we did a search at the XXXX XXXX XXXX Clerk 's Office for any record of foreclosure for the subject property in XXXX, and none was found. 

For months we expressed our concerns, spoke with three different PHH representatives, had 3-way telecons with PHH and Texas Title, were told they were doing the research, were told they were verifying the records to dismiss the erroneous entry, were told we could go ahead with the sales process, only to be told later that we could not. Finally, the most recent communication we received was an email from PHH dated XX/XX/XXXX stating that they were taking legal action which was creating a delay. There was no mention as to who they were taking legal action against, but advised us that it could take up to another 60 days.