Consumer complaint received 2022-12-07
Product: Mortgage — FHA mortgage
Issue: Struggling to pay mortgage — 
Company: CARRINGTON MORTGAGE SERVICES, LLC (MT)

XX/XX/XXXX To whom it may concern, I am writing you today to file a complaint against Carrington Mortgage. I applied for the Covid Forbearance on XX/XX/XXXX. While on forbearance, my account was marked as overdue. They stated that if I didn't bring my account current by the end of my forbearance, in 90 days, they would be reporting me to the credit bureau and my account would be reported to the lost mitigation department. I could not believe that they were penalizing people that legitimately could not make their payments and yet were approved for forbearance. I was only behind on 2 payments for a total of {$4500.00}. Note : My loan was sold to Carrington Mortgage without my approval and they referred themselves as a debt collector.

I was told by the manager that my only option was the " Stand alone recovery partial claim '' in which I needed to call in and make additional payments every month. If I failed to make these additional payments every month, after 90 days, I would be reported to the credit bureau and my account would be referred to the lost mitigation department. I requested information but the manager refused to send me any literature supporting via mail or email supporting these claims. At that point, they referred me to the home retention department. I still do not understand what the stand-alone recovery option is.

I reached out to a local housing counselor, and she stated that I have the following 4 options for repayment : Repayment plan, deferment, modification, or reinstatement. None of these options were presented to me by Carrington Mortgage. I later spoke to a representative in the home retention department who suggested I sign up for the stand-alone payment option in which I would take out a second loan that would be added to the end of my initial loan with the same initial percentage rate. To me this sounded a lot like a loan modification. Before I agreed to sign up for this option or any of the option, again I requested information regarding the options. She too refused to provide me any literature via email or mail. I told her I would have to get back to her to do some homework before I signed up for any repayment option. 

Overall, they refused three times to provide me any literature in which I could make an educated decision about the repayment options. I spoke to a housing counselor in XXXX and she provided me with all the information I needed and suggested that I file a complaint with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau or the Federal Housing Administration.

I did my own research and discovered information regarding the Cares Act, which states, I am eligibe for 180 days worth of forbearance. This option was never presented to me. They even sent me a letter stating my covid forebarance was expiring on XX/XX/XXXX, six months after I intially applied. After finding this information, I went back to their web page and applied for an extension of my forbearance. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I went online to make my payment, only to discover they removed my ability to make on-time monthly payments. Rather I had to call the company and pay over the phone to make this payment. I called the company on XXXX to make my payment. I asked her why the online payment option was removed and she said it was because my forbearance period had expired on XX/XX/XXXX. In my opinion, this is wrong in that they are deliberately messing with my ability to make timely payments in addition to wrongly supporting the Cares Act which states I am eligible for 180 days worth of forbearance. On this call, the representative told me that I had {$2000.00} in unapplied funds that I could use towards my payment, but she would not tell me where it came from. Thus at this point, I chose to use this {$2000.00} and paid two months worth. I am only one month behind, or {$2200.00}. Up to this point this company has been extremely difficult to deal and has made it very hard during a time when I needed the assistance. 

Respectfully, I request that my loan be transferred to a reputable mortgage lender such as XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX, or XXXX XXXX with my approval. 

Please feel free to contact me with any questions and thank you for your time. 
Sincerely, XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX