Consumer complaint received 2024-02-06
Product: Mortgage — FHA mortgage
Issue: Struggling to pay mortgage — Trying to communicate with the company to fix an issue related to modification, forbearance, short sale, deed-in-lieu, bankruptcy, or foreclosure
Company: Data Mortgage Inc. (SC)

Back in XX/XX/XXXX or before, I made Essex know I was having financial difficulties and requested for a deferment of payments, they told me they didn't offer deferments. told me to go online and apply for financial assistance, i did, weeks later, they send me an email saying i was approved for forbearance, no start nor end date. 3 months of forbearance went by, i called back the XXXX rep said I'm eligible for 9 months of forbearance a year, the one said, 6. In speaking with HUD counselor, they asked why did Essex give me a letter informing me of start and end date of forbearance. When i asked them about it they said, it's up to them if they want to send one out. As the buyer i have a right to one. now a new year has rolled in my forbearance is scheduled to stop end of this month which means payments will be due again. they talked about the partial claim for after this 6 mos forbearance, that i could have a partial payment of around $ XXXX but we never discussed that that would be the route I was taking. We are in a new year now if I wanted to extend forbearance i should be able to do that but they are deciding for me what needs to be done and i'm the buyer. i did XXXX search on them and i can see alot of people have issues with them. the customer reps are rude and nasty. on XX/XX/XXXX, i received an email saying the following : Urgent : Return Your Documents. They had the forms attached to the email. this is the very first time i heard of these forms and them wanting me to complete them. This email didn't have the amount of time that I had to return the forms at all. The email did state this : If you haven't received the documents or have misplaced them, worry not! You can download them directly from our secure online portal. Simply log into your account at www.essexmortgage.com/myaccount, and you'll find the necessary forms readily available for download ... ..After so many months of being behind they disable the online portal so you can't login so there was no way that I had any knowledge about these forms. The system is not setup to send me notifications when and if documents are uploaded in the portal. By me not having access to the online portal I had no knowledge about these forms. These forms were dated XX/XX/XXXX. I first found out about them XX/XX/XXXX in an email, then the hard copy came in the mail about 4 days or so later. I saw the XX/XX/XXXX date, called Essex to inquire about the XX/XX/XXXX date and why am i just getting these documents. i also asked them when they mailed them, they said they didn't know when they mailed them but that i had 30 days to get them back to them if i wanted to be approved for the partial claims because forbearance ends end of XX/XX/XXXX for payments to resume beginning XX/XX/XXXX. I said 30 days?? I just got them and that I thought i had more time being that they only let me knew about it first on XX/XX/XXXX via email. they advised me it doesn't go by the date i received the forms but when they actually created the forms and that it is business days and not calendars minus the few holidays. according to them this would give me till XX/XX/XXXX to have the documents into their office. i was told because i live in XXXX XXXX i had to have XXXX witnesses and that the notary would serve as XXXX witness. when i asked if i could use an additional notary as my XXXX witness they told me no they would not allow it. i don't have any family here and the neighbors i don't really know enough to have them in my personal business like that. so i was needing that extra time i knew i was supposed to have being that i first received them email on XX/XX/XXXX and then hard copy about 4 days later in the postal mail. so i didn't make their deadline which was totally unfair to me no having the full 30 days to get that back to them. it's like they are trying to setup me so they can take my home. they are deciding for me which financial product i can get instead of letting me decide which one i wish to get. this is not right nor fair. it seems to be unfair unethical practices taking place here. they have no right to tell me i have XXXX business days to get these docs back to them when i never received them til XX/XX/XXXX and later than that in the postal mail. i will not allow them to take my home and will take every measure to keep that from happening. The document about " information on avoiding foreclosure they send with loan documents each month if having financial problems clearly states that our options available to use if we are having a hardship. The options are as follows : Reinstatement ( this i was not able to do didn't have the fund since employment issues ), repayment plan ( same thing here, didn't have the funds to do so ), payment deferral ( this is what i requested, they told me flat out no they don't offer this however it is XXXX of the options on the form ), forbearance ( this is what they gave me but I didn't ask for ) plan, modification ( i was advised not to do this by the hud counselor right now since interest rates are high and it would put me in an even worse position ) or short sale ( this isn't an option as i will be keeping my home ). 
But they have now put me in a bad situation where i couldn't get the forms back to them in time. when XX/XX/XXXX comes i will be expected to pay the delinquent payments in addition to the current XX/XX/XXXX payment, which i will not be able to do, they refuse to extend me for forbearance since we are now in a new year, they refuse to give me a payment deferral trying to trap me so they can try to take my home. that won't be happening. i am asking you to investigate there practices, as this seems illegal and unethical.