Consumer complaint received 2024-03-26
Product: Mortgage — Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Struggling to pay mortgage — Foreclosure
Company: Specialized Loan Servicing Holdings LLC (OH)

I have been in contact with Specialized Loan Servicing since I inherited my fathers home after his untimely passing in XXXX. I have made it abundantly clear to the mortgage servicer, since his passing, my family has no interest in selling or letting go of the property. I have always maintained that my only goal has been to assume my fathers loan and to continue payments on the property and at a rate that is more in line with my income. I lived in the home prior to his passing and did not plan to move in the near future. The day after his passing I immediately began trying to understand the status of my fathers mortgage and the path going forward while continuing to make regular payments on the mortgage. I was able to add my phone number as the primary number to contact via their automated phones services in XXXX. It was the middle of XXXX before SLS allowed me to become a point of contact to discuss this account without restriction and only with the ok of the executor of my fathers estate ( despite the years of daily phones sometimes XXXX or XXXX a day about my intentions for the home ) When I began to struggle to pay my fathers current rate I was able to put the home with forbearance until XXXX, with the plan to be confirmed as successor in interest and file the appropriate paperwork to get the home back in good standing. I was repeatedly assured by many agents this was possible and that in the meantime, I wasnt responsible for my fathers debt. I was advised that becoming a successor in interest and applying for loan modification was the ONLY way to put my name on the loan. I repeatedly emailed over the appropriate documents to be confirmed successor in interest and assumed they were working on their portion. I would not hear from SLS and would call to ask the status of my interest we didnt get the documents or we couldnt read them. I would email the documents again and then call back to hear were waiting on a death certificate and/or quick claim deed both of which they had on file. In the meantime, SLS began sending XXXX XXXX Foreclosure and other threatening letters. I also received phone calls from customer service reps threatening to push my home into foreclosure regardless of what I did. That my best option was to sell as I would not be able to afford payments, despite my full-time federal employment. They did send XXXX offer to send the delinquent payments to the back of the loan and put the house back in good standing, which was addressed to my fathers estate. When I called customer service, however, I was advised NOT to accept this offer. If what I wanted was to put the loan in my name, it was not a good idea to take that offer as I could not apply for further assistance after taking the offered package. So, I waited for SLS to confirm me as successor, repeatedly. In XX/XX/XXXX, after sending in all the requested forms of ID once again, Specialized Loan Servicing finally told me I was confirmed Successor in Interest, and I could finally apply for loan modification. They also informed me that the company had filed foreclosure documents to begin the process to take back the home for the principal balance. So, I accepted the loan modification sent to the home after an automatic review of our file and began making the trial payments necessary to complete the long modification. Shortly before making the first trial payment, I reached out to a customer service rep to make sure I was aware of what the process of loan modification was and what I could expect after making the payments. I was told after making the XXXX payments necessary to complete the application, there would be in final review, and I would receive documentation which required a wet signature. Return the paperwork and the process would be completed. I would be able to take over the loan. So, I made my XXXX on time payments and waited for the final documents. They never showed up. I called Specialized Loan Servicing to inquire where my final documents were. I was informed by the customer service rep that the modification was denied because I had not sent back the final documents to be signed. I told her I never received the documents. She insisted they sent them. I asked the rep what date the documents were sent out, and she admitted XXXX never sent out the documents and she could not explain the lack of follow through. I asked how that is possible and she then said it was because I was not confirmed successor in interest. Furthermore, my sister, whose name was on the quick claim deed to the home we inherited but, who had not lived in the home since XXXX had not been confirmed successor. Without her confirmation of successor in interest, we could not move forward. If she was confirmed successor in interest and promised to take over the loan as well, Specialized Loan Servicing would send out paperwork to get things back on track. I asked how you could force someone to take over a loan that was not theirs in the first place and demand they take fiscal responsibility for a loan they were not requesting to be a part of, and I was advised to either convince her to confirm herself as successor in interest or get her off the title. Those were our only options, as per their legal department. While my sister did not want to be involved in the takeover of my fathers loan, she agreed to apply to be successor in interest and take over the loan as well, as she was now living in the home with as well. This was the only way we could see to retain the home going forward. I sent in her required documents and waited for confirmation of her successor in interest status. Next time I called to check the status of the account, I spoke to a rep named XXXX. At this point, I had become very frustrated and confused by the entire process, it had been years of trying to get this worked out and every time I called XXXX I got a different answer as to the status of the account, my status in the account, and what my next course of action should be. XXXX looked through the full account while I sat on the phone. After a few minutes he said This account is a mess. Whoever is in charge of this file is not doing their job. I asked him what he advised I should do going forward to straighten this out. He told me the name of our single point of contact, XXXX, who had been assigned to my fathers file by XXXX but, I had never been able to reach when calling to speak about the account. When you call to speak to someone, ask for XXXX. Do not speak to anyone else. If you can not reach her. Hang up the phone and call back. Ask for XXXX I believe it was the next day when I called back to check on status on the account and what actions were taken when I was advised by a rep named XXXX, XXXX had been removed the account. Furthermore, they were now waiting on the quick claim deed before they could send out any documents or confirm me as successor in interest even though I had already been told I had confirmed successor status. I told him they had the quick claim deed but, he was welcome to keep waiting. After numerous backs and forth with many reps ( who all told me they were waiting on different things for the file i.e. quick claim deeds, death certificates, probate documents they already had ), I applied for loan modification again and it was accepted by email on XX/XX/XXXX and was under review. Shortly after the first email, another email was sent from XXXX informing me they had made a new account to access the loan number. Sometime after submitting my loan documents and receiving the new account email, I stopped receiving all paper documents and phone calls. I assumed they were reviewing and drawing up documents for a new mortgage assistance plan and that if they needed to contact me, they would, as outlined on their mortgage assistance/ loan modification paperwork. Shortly before contacting SLS, I received a Complaint of Foreclosure sent by postal carrier. I called SLS to see why this action had preceded with a loan modification in review. During that call, I was informed by a customer service representative named XXXX that as of XX/XX/XXXX that my sister or I were listed as both confirmed and unconfirmed successors in interest in the loan file and my loan modification application was not under review. XXXX stated she was not showing that we reopened a file. Im not seeing a file open as of right now. When asked what documents were received and reviewed for my most recent loan modification application, she stated we didnt open anything but she said could see that a quick claim deed, IDs, were opened on XX/XX/XXXX. None of the documents reviewed on XX/XX/XXXX were included with my XXXX loan modification package. There had been no communication by Specialized Loan Servicing that any document from the loan assistance package was missing, illegible, or incomplete, prior to my phone call to SLS. When asked for clarification on the rejection of my XX/XX/XXXX mortgage assistance package, the rep admitted that Specialized Loan Servicing failed to send the appropriate paperwork regarding the loan modification despite receiving all on time payment for the plan, and there was no were reason stating why in the file notes. I was told they cancelled the plan in XXXX and a letter of declination was sent out. I asked for a copy of that letter to be emailed to me, immediately. The letter I received was not dated XXXX but, XX/XX/XXXX, stating XXXX loan modification package was declined due to it being incomplete. I received XXXX written or verbal communication of this prior to speaking with XXXX. I informed XXXX that regardless of past applications, we would be applying for loan modification for a third time, in an effort to halt the foreclosure process and bring this account back into good standing. I was advised submission and review of a loan modification would not stop the process. On XXXX I spoke to a customer service rep named XXXX to ensure that we were including the correct documentation in our XX/XX/XXXX loan modification paper and that nothing in the process had changed. I also inquired about the XX/XX/XXXX letter I had received the day prior as I had never seen the document and was told it was originally dated for XXXX. She said my XX/XX/XXXX package for loan modification was declined because my sister had not signed loan assumption documents. I informed her that neither myself nor my sister had received any loan assumption documents. She confirmed that Specialized Loan Servicing never sent the documents they claimed to be missing and was escalating the issue internally. I told the rep I was unclear what escalating the issue internally now would do since they had already sent foreclosure filings to my local courts, but that we would still be submitting another application for mortgage assistance. Finally, no one has been able to find or explain what new account was opened on XX/XX/XXXX, as per the email I received. 
Specialized Loan Servicing has, by their own admission, routinely failed to provide correct account information, send documents, and perform timely reviews of mortgage assistance applications I have submitted. Completion of these actions could have allowed me to assume my fathers loan and prevented the home I grew up in and inherited from being pushed into its foreclosure status by XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX.