Consumer complaint received 2024-01-07
Product: Mortgage — VA mortgage
Issue: Struggling to pay mortgage — Applying for or obtaining a modification, forbearance plan, short sale, or deed-in-lieu
Company: PLANET HOME LENDING, LLC (CO)

On XX/XX/XXXX, I made my first application for homeowner assistance from Planet Home Lending via their online portal. I submitted all the documentation I could with my application. On XX/XX/XXXX, I received a " Check-In Trailing '' email from PHL, letting me know that my application and documents had been received and were being reviewed. On XX/XX/XXXX, I received a " Missing Items '' email, requesting additional documentation from me, which I sent on the same day. They sent the " We've received your documents '' email on XX/XX/XXXX, and that same day, closed their review, denying my application for assistance, with no explanation. I called to inquire why it was denied, and the person who answered couldn't tell me ; they surmised that my application should be fine & to submit it again, and to " just make sure you send in all the documentation they ask for ''. 
I then attempted my XX/XX/XXXX payment via telephone 3 times. It never went through, even though the funds were in my account. 
After the 3rd attempt was unsuccessful, I no longer had the full payment in my bank account, and asked about partial payments, to which I was told that " we don't accept those. It has to be the full payment, all at once. '' ( But on the mortgage statement, it states, " ** Partial Payments : Any partial payments that you make are not applied to your mortgage, but instead are held in a separate " unapplied '' account. If you pay the balance of the partial payment, the funds will then be applied to your mortgage. " I submitted my second application for assistance on XX/XX/XXXX ( the home had been active on the market for over 3 months by this time ). I received " Check-in Trailing '' emails on XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX, missing items email received XX/XX/XXXX ( those items were submitted on XX/XX/XXXX ). There was no correspondence between XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX, when I received the " new documents received '' and " package closed '' emails BOTH on XX/XX/XXXX, again, with no explanation as to why my application was denied. ( I had sent in absolutely everything they'd requested through their online portal for both applications, so I don't believe they simply " missed '' the email. ) I called for clarification again and was again told ( in my first call ) that everything was fine and I just need to submit all the documentation. I HAD already done that at this point. I called again to speak to someone else, and was told that they do NOT, in fact, offer assistance for homeowners who are no longer living in the home. ( XXXX had moved back to Nevada just after XXXX XXXX and I had moved out at this point so the home could be clean & show-ready for selling. ) I attempted a third time to get assistance from my loan servicer. I called XXXX and asked directly what assistance they DO offer for customers in my predicament. They told me I had to call HUD and gave me a phone number. I called that HUD phone number and was told that I have to talk to the VA and they gave me a phone number. I called the VA and they told me that they don't deal with loans directly, that my loan servicer is the one to offer assistance, and that I need to contact them. I called PHL and told them about the spicy journey I'd just been on ( through gritted teeth, if I remember correctly ), and they basically told me I'm XXXX. ( This was the tone and attitude of the agent who'd answered the phone that time. ) I had called a local HUD agency in Great Falls the same day and was told that they offer loans to help homeowners out, but I couldn't pay back the loan I already had, so that wasn't going to help me. 

We finally got an offer we could work with on XX/XX/XXXX. I called PHL to report that we had an offer and were in counter-offer stage and to request a payoff statement so I could calculate our bare minimum sale price so we didn't have to come out of pocket ( we hadn't paid the mortgage in 5 months at this point ; I was making barely enough to cover my daily bills with the children 's needs, so I couldn't come out of pocket anything ). They sent the payoff ( {$510000.00} good thru XX/XX/XXXX ), but the very day AFTER they printed/prepared it to send, they added over {$1000.00} in attorney fees ( I didn't know yet that they had sent our loan to the attorneys for foreclosure proceedings ) and later an exorbitant amount of interest, totaling {$520000.00} ( which is the figure on our closing statement ). ( We were initially set to close on XX/XX/XXXX, per our counter offer. Then the buyer had some issue with THEIR close on their sale, and we ultimately closed on XX/XX/XXXX, all of which had been communicated to PHL, meaning they had every opportunity to go over the updated payoff information with me, and didn't. ) ***The big deal with this is that I had calculated our bare minimum breakeven on the previous figure of {$510000.00}, so there was ABSOLUTELY NO WAY we were going to break even at any point in time. Nobody from PHL so much as attempted a courtesy call to me to let me know these numbers had been updated, and I only figured that out when I saw them on the closing statement. The ladies at Flying S Title didn't request a payoff until just a few days prior to our ( pushed out, but still scheduled ) closing. When I called in a panic to ask why the figures had changed SO DRASTICALLY, I was put on hold for a total of nearly 20 minutes so the person on the phone could go ask someone who might have any idea what PHL is doing what to say. She came back with a line about PHL charging interest in arrears, which I know is nonsense, because I paid additional interest when I purchased this home so I wouldn't be in interest arrears when the mortgage payments began, as is the way mortgage loans work. 
ll in all, the emotional turmoil I endured for a year ( the sheer frustration at speaking with ANYONE on the phone at PHL, the countless hours crying at work trying to make sense or figure it out, watching my credit score fall below the acceptable threshold, etc ), financial strain, confusion, anger, frustration, and feeling completely and helplessly LOST in dealing with these people, led to my lowered credit score, more stress than anyone should have to deal with, and I was denied housing when I relocated to Colorado late last year. I ultimately had to take a smaller & more expensive apartment for me and my daughter, because PHL put remarks on my credit report that a foreclosure had begun in XX/XX/XXXX, after the home sale had already closed ( when I NEVER received ANY documentation with any such verbiage. When I called their attorney 's office, they chuckled and said, no, there's no set date, we haven't started working on your account yet ). I called to ask them about THAT and they said that they filed the foreclosure in XXXX. I've had credit long enough to know that it doesn't take 90+ days for a negative remark/action to be reported on my credit. XXXX couldn't tell me when it was reported.