Consumer complaint received 2024-02-11
Product: Mortgage — Reverse mortgage
Issue: Struggling to pay mortgage — Applying for or obtaining a modification, forbearance plan, short sale, or deed-in-lieu
Company: Onity Group Inc. (NJ)

This property originally belonged to my mother. The property was also occupied by tenants. She received a reverse mortgage loan from XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX. It was subsequently serviced by PHH Mortgage. After my mothers death, the Estate was notified of the conditions of the reverse mortgage. At the time, the Estate wished to retain the property. However, we also learned there was a large Medicare debt and a lien placed on the property. We were notified of a foreclosure, but we struggled to evict the tenants with a pandemic moratorium in place. In order to resolve all the estate debts, I hired several lawyers to assist with the eviction as well as settle the Medicare debt so that the property could be retained. And we could avoid foreclosure. However, all combined debts exceeded the value of the property, therefore the Estate decided to short sell the property. 

I hired several real estate firms to help sell the property. However, PHH has been a hinderance to this process from the beginning. They have used tactics that have prevented me from selling the property in order to proceed to foreclose on the property. For example, when evaluating the propertys value they have used the same appraiser for several years who values the property with vastly different numbers from one report to the next. However, he never manages to report values that are anything competitive to the surrounding properties. In fact, no property in the local area has ever sold for the value that PHH has placed on this property, which has been vacant for several years and is smaller than most in the surrounding area. There are thousands of qualified licensed appraisers but PHH only sends the same person to the property to inflate the value of the property and make it difficult for me to sell it on the open market and settle the foreclosure. 

Next, they continue to require excessive amounts of paperwork after they have scheduled an auction. When I think we have concluded our loss mitigation application, and I am only waiting on final documents, they send me scrambling for additional paperwork, delaying already scheduled closings. Once they receive the paperwork as requested then they stop communicating with my representatives, sometimes for several weeks as an auction sale approaches. Messages go un-responded to and this has been an ongoing pattern for more than a year. While we wait on final short sale approval documents, in the meantime, their foreclosing attorney will reschedule an auction sale at the same time. 

Once we submit all documents and secure a buyer they stop communicating for weeks waiting for a scheduled auction sale to be executed after we have worked diligently to settle. They make false promises of providing the final documents to us to close, when in truth, they are waiting for the house to be sold at auction after I have completed all their requests and worked hard to settle the estate debts.

I have had several auction sales scheduled that I had to beg a judge to stop or file bankruptcy to try and settle the matter. I have been granted several stays by judges just to have repeated delays from PHH, which puts me back in the same situation. PHH continues to give me the run around. Their foreclosing attorney goes after the family estate while the mortgage servicer allows me to believe we are in settlement negotiations. I am dealing with multiple entities, and they are being disingenuous the entire time about their intentions. All I want to do is sell the property for the true value and settle all the outstanding estate debts that are linked to this property. I have paid numerous 3rd parties to help me and I keep trying to settle this foreclosure while they keep trying to auction the property. They are disingenuous and have not acted fairly in their dealings.

They promised to provide a final short sale approval and then they turned around and said THEIR OWN appraisal had expired that they failed to reorder. They denied my application and proceeded to move forward to an auction sale. After another auction sale was stayed by me, they reordered the same appraiser to come back and he concluded the home have jumped $ XXXX in values within a few months by using comps sold across town and neglecting all the ones sold on the same block.