Consumer complaint received 2018-01-16
Product: Mortgage — FHA mortgage
Issue: Struggling to pay mortgage — 
Company: FIFTH THIRD FINANCIAL CORPORATION (NJ)

My family went through some major health issues and workplace injuries and as a result we missed some mortgage payments. We have an FHA mortgage loan and immediately contacted our servicer, Fifth Third Bank. We tried to go through the process of fixing this problem by applying for a modification. We were told by their agents that we were approved, but then a few days later they told us we were NOT approved. This happened a SECOND time, being given misleading information and false hope. We were then told we needed to submit our financial information. This was an exercise in futilitywe provided all requested documents and would be told by Fifth Third that they had everything they needed. Then we would check back a few days later and be told that the same things that were signed off earlier were now needed again. It was an endless cycle and frustrating and we were never able to get a full review completed. We hired a third party to help but that went nowhere and now we are further behind and facing foreclosure. This was avoidable, if Fifth third were to conduct a review of our current and accurate financial income sources they would have been able to qualify us but all we got was the runaround. We believe that Fifth Third has misled and deceived us and denied us access to government programs that should be made available to struggling homeowners and wanted to file this formal complaint. 

I worked for years as a XXXX XXXX XXXX but ended up getting injured in an accident at work which started our hardship and problems with this loan. Due to my health issues I was forced to take an early retirement and survive on my pension as well as a part time job. My wife XXXX is still working as a XXXX XXXX and has been in this field for 17 years. When I got hurt at work I was unable to work and had major pain in my XXXX and XXXX. My company did not give me workmens compensation, they did not have sick days for me and I did not have any benefits. Just basically one day everything was fine and the next I was not working or earning any money and was overwhelmed with medical bills. Not long after that my wife XXXX also had health issues with XXXX XXXX in her XXXX and was forced to miss a couple of months from work as well. This led to default on our mortgage payment approximately two years ago.

The following month we contacted the Fifth Third loss mitigation department to see if we could be considered for any homeowner assistance programs. As explained, we received conflicting information from the loss mitigation department and this quest for review for assistance programs became an exercise in futility. Their agents would give us false hope that this was going to get solved but instead we were being misled while we fell further behind. I dont know why it is so hard for Fifth Third to provide straight and accurate answers. These same people who initially told us we were approved became very agitated when we tried to call them out on their misrepresentations. Additionally, we have been receiving many nasty collection calls at all hours from Fifth Third and these just add to the stress we are under. 

My wife and I are both working and bringing in income. Our son and daughter both live here and contribute to the monthly bills and live here with us along with our XXXX grandchildren. We also receive money from a rental unit. When you add all the income together we have the means to make a reasonable payment again. Our hardship was temporary and we want to get back into good standing with Fifth Third. We want to fix this problem but need Fifth Third to play fair