Consumer complaint received 2017-03-21
Product: Mortgage — FHA mortgage
Issue: Application, originator, mortgage broker — 
Company: CITIZENS FINANCIAL GROUP, INC. (NY)

I applied for my conventional mortgage through Citizens back on XXXX XXXX 2016. I was told I needed to go FHA due to the rent and deposit money. I was told it would take 45 days. Instead it took 13 weeks to close on my mortgage loan when I have EXCELLENT credit and I was very fast to respond to all requests within 24hrs providing all document and it still took 13 weeks. I had the seller threatening to end the sale because we were still not closed and at 12 weeks & still had not received a closing date. I would have lost over {$40000.00} on this home due to everything we put into the property while we were renting to own it for the last year until our previous home sold. It took over 4 weeks to get an appraisal, and the communication was very disappointing and unprofessional. All documents requested from me were provided within 24hrs every time unless it was something we needed from the seller who lives several states away but was still provided in a timely manner. The first mortgage person, XXXX quit and it seemed like my loan just got pushed to the side, then her boss XXXX took over and he never had any updates or seemed to know what was going on. Then I was told to work with a new employee, XXXX, who did n't return phone calls or email requests. I was also given a number for someone named XXXX, who I was told could help and apparently he was no longer with the company for the last three months. Just to give you an idea of how messed up this process was, I had XXXX ask me at the very end of XXXX to satisfy all of the open items from the appraisal I had in XXXX. I had to inform her that I had the appraisal in XXXX and all items were satisfied and approved by the appraiser and the report was sent to her on XXXX XXXX 2016. I even followed up with the appraiser to ensure the report was sent. Which it was and he stated that citizens even requested him to make changes to it. No one told me I needed a water test but I knew that would be required due to the FHA requirements and scheduled it and sent the results in. In late XXXX I had to resign several documents from XXXX because XXXX said they are not allowed to be signed electronically for FHA and I need to hand sign them all. Finally on XXXX XXXX it looked like we were going to FINALLY close and I was provided another closing disclosure to sign. Then on XXXX XXXX I get a call at XXXX that I would not be closing on Friday and the {$15000.00} credits that were supposed to be applied wo n't be and that I would not need the {$15000.00} in closing costs!? I signed several Closing Disclosures from XXXX through XXXX and all of them included the {$15000.00} credit and had closing costs less than {$1000.00}. Now after 12 weeks they just tell me " Oh wait you ca n't use that and you need to pay {$15000.00} in closing costs or you ca n't close. '' Back in XXXX I even verified with XXXX prior to purchasing my new appliances and he stated that the closing costs would not be anything more than the {$700.00} on the CD and that I would be perfectly fine purchasing my appliances as long as I did n't open any additional credit which I did n't, I paid cash for them. Now XXXX XXXX I had to return my new appliances, took money out of my XXXX, and looked into doing gift money. XXXX provided me with gift money forms. She NEVER said it had to be a family member. Then someone else got involved and told me it must be a major family member. I NEVER ask to borrow money from others and I broke down and asked a few family members. I was able to come up with enough, had the forms submitted and then they proceed to tell me I need to go back and ask for bank statements from all of them even though they had their bank account info. Now I am facing {$10000.00} attorney fees due to the amount of time it took with this very horrible unprofessional experience.