Consumer complaint received 2024-04-02
Product: Mortgage — FHA mortgage
Issue: Applying for a mortgage or refinancing an existing mortgage — Delays in the application process
Company: Freedom Mortgage Company (MA)

Entered into an application process for a potential buyer to assume my mortgage. I was told because of high volume by the lender that this would take a max ( 90 ) days from documentation submission for either an approval or denial. There statement was there is a high volume of assumable mortgages at this time and they do not have the appropriate staff to process any faster. Essentially it's a heavy administrative burden at this time. This occurred in XXXX of 2023. I decided to move forward with the process based off this information. Our original closing date was for the middle of XXXX. I received no communication or updates from this mortgage company on the application process. I reached out for updates from their customer service team but this was a separate department from their assumable division and I was never able to get through to the assumable department and was never provided a contact or assigned to a loan officer. I finally was able to get in contact with someone in XXXX of 2023 and they informed me that the potential buyer did not submit paperwork on time. I requested documentation of this and what their policy was. I received no documentation. I was provided with a statement from a manager over the phone that the potential buyer had ( 10 ) total days of mailing date to submit all required application documentation and he did not complete this in time they technically required. I was never provided any sort of proof. They stated we would need to reapply. At this point I communicated directly with the buyer as the mortgage lender was no communicating properly. We decided to re-apply and I discussed with the manager the timeline again. Essentially, re-starting the ( 90 ) day clock. We agreed to submit another application and the buyer would make sure to submit their paperwork on time. We submitted another application in early XXXX and extended our closing date to XX/XX/XXXX ( plenty of additional time ). I was communicating with the buyer on when he was submitting all documentation. Application was submitted in early XXXX. I continuously reached out for updates and would be responded to with " still processing '' or " in underwriting '' and that they would provide status updates. However, they never updated me once, I had to reach out multiple times before I would receive a response. On XX/XX/XXXX I reached out for an update and the loan processor stated 30 days or less for underwriting. I continued to follow up in early XXXX and was told " this is in underwriting for review ''. Then on XX/XX/XXXX the loan processor stated " the only reason for the delay is the volume in the department ''. I asked for an updated on XX/XX/XXXX in anticipation of our XX/XX/XXXX closing date. I received this response " Yes, this is in process, I'm working on the documents the customer sent in at this time ''. The same email I had received on numerous occasions. Thus I asked them to elaborate as we had a closing date of XX/XX/XXXX. I then received this response, " We aren't able to close on XX/XX/XXXX, we don't have a closing date at this time. I will reach out to the borrow to go over new items the underwriter is requiring at this time ''. I've asked for managers to call me and they have stated they don't have time. The unit I'm selling is a multifamily and I didn't release 1 of the units when there lease ended in XXXX in anticipation of our original closing date, as the buyer needs to move into this unit. Thus, I have been losing money since XXXX every month. I have been continuously miss lead on timeline and the approval process. If I was told up front about the true timeline, that it would take this long, I would never signed a contract.