Consumer complaint received 2024-04-26
Product: Mortgage — Reverse 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: Longbridge Financial, LLC (CO)

Longbridge confirms residency via non-certified mail. Mailers are sent and you either mail, fax, or email it back. The question is whether or not the person receives the mailer not only because mail can be lost, but also if they are actually sending the correct information. We were on customer service with these folks for months and it appears that the customer service representatives kept leading us to the wrong forms even after we kept telling them we didn't receive what they were telling us. Instead of verifying residency, it was paperwork unrelated to it. They led us on a wild goose chase for months and finally we were in pre-foreclosure because of misinformation from their own staff. 

My concern is lack of training and verification of actual receipt to borrowers and potentially sending inaccurate paperwork to borrowers. From my own experience I think an investigation will result in an abnormally high pre-foreclosure and foreclosure rate. I don't think they have an efficient system to keep track of these letters to prove occupancy and I think their is lack of knowledge amongst the representative. 

Even further as we were navigating the re-foreclosure process, their rules made it impossible to get any information. My father is a non-borrowing spouse and according to them because of the lapse they refused to talk to even him who would have been XXXX of the owners on the house. They required the letters of testamentary which gets submitted to the courts. Had we not acted in time we would have lost the house for their absolute refusal to provide any information. We were also authorized to communicate on the loan when my mother was alive and once the pre-foreclosure process started, they say the authorization is invalid based of their own rules. 

Further, they inhibited the process by only providing payoff letters valid for 7 days. When requesting a payoff letter from them, their turn times are listed as 5 days, but according to an email, they were understaffed and their turn time are 7 days. A refinance has a 3 day recission period, by the time you get the letter your closing could have been pushed out beyond the valid dates and at that time you can foreclose and have to restart the wheel again on the payoff letter. There is no reason that a payoff letter shouldn't be made available for longer as any excess interest is refunded back to the borrower. Even more support that they make it very difficult for borrowers to save their homes. Had I not been in the mortgage industry, I would not have been able to work with them and refinance in a timely manner. The foreclosure process is time sensitive and Longbridge does it's best to inhibit that. Their customer service agents also appear to give incorrect information and the information is not consistent.

It is my opinion that this company needs to be investigated and all foreclosures need to be opened for their validity and if it is actually the fault of the client or a lack of systems and ethics within Longbridge. I have been in the mortgage industry for years and I suspect foul play and hope they are investigated to ensure that people aren't unnecessarily losing their homes.