Consumer complaint received 2023-08-08
Product: Mortgage — Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process — 
Company: Freedom Mortgage Company (CA)

Imagine putting your life savings into purchasing your dream home only to have it taken from you due to identity theft, a bank only interested in harvesting your deposit, and opportunistic real-estate investors swooping in and leaving you homeless. We are living this nightmare. We bought a house. 

We are XXXX and XXXX XXXX. 
In XXXX, the day after XXXX, we drove our XXXX small children and everything we owned 14 hours from XXXX XXXX to XXXX XXXX in hopes of a brighter future amidst the recession. XXXX got a job at a XXXX, quickly rising to XXXX and spending the next ten years with the company saving all the money we could from our combined incomes. Ten years passed and finally, in XXXX as we both approached our XXXX we had finally saved enough ( {$80000.00} ) to fulfill our dream : to provide a home for our family. 
We found the perfect house in XXXX. Neither of us came from backgrounds that made purchasing a home feel realistic. During XXXX childhood homelessness was a constant fear. Purchasing our home was a milestone and we were proud to set this example to our children : If you work hard enough you can achieve your dreams. It was the American dream come true. It was pure bliss. 
XXXX began working as a XXXX. Our new combined income was nearly {$7000.00} a month and our mortgage was a monthly {$1900.00}. We paid every month through the app. It was perfect until late XXXX. 
Thats when our financier XXXX XXXX XXXX began saying our payments were delinquent. We contacted them several times, as our payments were indeed leaving our account monthly and on time. They assured us this was an error on their part and we had nothing to fear. Things went back to normal for a bit, then we got the same notification : DELINQUENT. Again they assured us it was simply their system error. 
But then our credentials to log into their payment app were denied. We called XXXX XXXX and were told this was because they had sold our mortgage to FREEDOM MORTGAGE. They assured us this was normal and happened from time to time but they had neglected to let us know. We had received XXXX communication. 
We got in touch with FREEDOM and set up our monthly payments with them and continued to pay our monthly mortgage on time in full. For a while things were fine, then we got the red flag again : DELINQUENT. Again, our money was leaving our account. They were taking the money and saying we had not paid. 
Like XXXX XXXX before them, FREEDOM assured us this was an error in their system and we had nothing to fear. Eventually this became a monthly issue where they would take our payment then say we were delinquent then backtrack and tell us it was an error on their part, assuring us it was a problem they were working to fix. 
In XX/XX/XXXX XXXX was out in the yard when a man approached claiming to be a real-estate broker and asking what our plans were to vacate our home. He said he had listed our house for sale. He showed us the website where it was listed. This shocked us. We were still paying our mortgage and had received no communication of foreclosure. FREEDOM was processing our payments every month. 
We called FREEDOM. They said the man must be a scam. They assured us everything was fine. They were, after all, processing our mortgage payments every month. 
But the following month FREEDOM denied our mortgage payment, claiming our house was foreclosed in XXXX of XXXX. We ask why they took our mortgage payments for XXXX and XXXX. They dont have an answer. We had been in constant communication with them for months, every month, each time being assured everything was fine. They transferred us from department to department, each phone call lasting hours, much of it on hold. 
Finally we get a hold of their attorney who informed us our house was flagged for foreclosure in XX/XX/XXXX. We were shocked as we had never received any notice. 
In XX/XX/XXXX bankruptcy was filed fraudulently online under XXXX Social Security number in a case of identity theft that also racked up substantial credit card debt. The credit cards were shut down as a result. Again, this was identity theft, totally out of our control. We are not bankrupt, nor have we ever been. This fraud is able to be done through a loophole due to the whole COVID ordeal. People can file online without paying any money or providing any documents. The bankruptcy can not be completed unless you provide the proper documents and court costs are paid to process the case. None of that follow up happened as it was fraud and we are not bankrupt. 
The lawyer told us it doesnt matter if we are actually bankrupt or not because that initial filing is like throwing a stone in the pond. The creditors can see that original filing and make the judgment. As soon as that filing happened and our credit cards got shut down FREEDOM started the foreclosure process. 
We asked if there should have been any type of notice and they said yes there should have been a foreclosure served to us personally as well as taped to the house. No type of communication was ever received by us. 
We can prove we are not bankrupt, that we are the victims of identity theft and fraud, but FREEDOM said our only option to retain our home would be to buy it back from them conveniently at a new higher price, in turn demanding a larger down payment. That {$80000.00} original down payment was our life savings. We dont have that anymore. 
FREEDOM has made it clear that our identity theft nightmare will financially benefit them and they are all too happy to profit. It feels demeaning and insulting. 
We seek professional help and retain a lawyer who discovers multiple red flags, including records in the county deeds that FREEDOM took the house out of our name and gave it to a brokerage company for sale before the house was officially foreclosed on. 
We were hoping our lawyers could put a hold on the sale so that we could resume our trial. But FREEDOM was able to sell our home to an independent buyer, real estate investor and realtor XXXX XXXX, who owns multiple properties. As soon as the independent buyer bought the house and passed through escrow FREEDOM mortgage dropped the eviction as we were no longer their problem. 
The buyer has declared us unlawful detainers. We are unlawful in the home we paid for, the home we never missed a payment on, the home we put our life savings into. Like FREEDOM, XXXX XXXX wants to flip our home for profit and we are in their way. 
We went to the court to ask for resources but they had nothing that could help us. 
We went to court over being unlawful detainers and the Judge communicated to their lawyer that this situation was very unfair but unfortunately in that court we still had no case. Our home has been legally sold from under us, taking our life savings and leaving us with nothing. We had to make a settlement to leave our dream home, the only home weve had or could ever afford. 
This does not detour the main case between us and FREEDOM, but it will render us homeless. Our daughter will move to XXXX  to live with her aunt as she finishes high school. Our son is still weighing every possible option. 
Now we must split our family apart. 
It is a waking nightmare, watching everything you worked for get wrestled away from you by a system that does not care. Were still trying to fight and we hope there is a slight possibility of us winning against FREEDOM in the form of a settlement. FREEDOM has much deeper pockets than we do. A faint margin of hope that must be fed with legal fees is little solace. Barely a hope. But its all we have. In California there is no black and white real estate case law for our situation. We are at the mercy of a system that has shown they would rather we be homeless than treat us fairly. 
We keep asking ourselves what did we do wrong? We paid our mortgage. We communicated with our mortgage company, pursuing them for answers even as they gave us false assurances. 
In the end perhaps the real mistake was falling for this American scam. 
We bought a house. 
thank you, XXXX XXXX