Consumer complaint received 2017-05-11
Product: Mortgage — Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Applying for a mortgage or refinancing an existing mortgage — 
Company: JPMORGAN CHASE & CO. (UT)

Life is great, isnt it? I am going through a divorce, but that is a good thing. Time for a new beginning. I am a XXXX XXXX, so I am not rich but I have a decent and stable income. I am getting older, so I decide that it is time to move back to the East Coast and be closer to my family and support system.
XX/XX/XXXX I fill out an application with Chase Bank for a mortgage loan. I provide all this documentation, including pay stubs and tax returns. The whole gamut. I am given a pre-approval letter for {$220000.00}, using my income that I will be making once I retire. I make it clear that I am going to retire from XXXX XXXX and use my pension and wages from my new career to qualify for a house in XXXX. I provide a letter from the state of XXXX with an estimate of my pension pay, with an explanation that we will not get an official reward letter until after I have worked my last day. This is due to my award being based on my highest 3 years of wages and my actual time worked. I have passed my 20 year mark, so every day I am earning more. We get an extra 2.5 % for each year we work, rounded to the nearest third decimal point. They dont know how many days I have worked until I have worked the last day. The estimated amount is an estimate for what it would be if I were to have retired at the last time my time of service and wages were reported to the state. However, my actual amount will be higher, the more days I work. I am reassured that this is not a problem and my income is not an issue.
XX/XX/XXXX.. I find the perfect house. It has enough bedrooms for everyone, PLUS one for guests. It is less than 3 miles from my beloved aunt and uncle, and in the school area that my daughter wishes to attend. It couldnt be any better, unless it had more land or a fenced in yard but I can do the fence. I am certain I wont find anything more suitable for us. We submit an offer and it is accepted.XX/XX/XXXX. I decide to shop around a few places for better interest rates. XXXX XXXX also sends me a pre-approval letter and the rate is better. Chase Bank is going to match that rate so I stay with them. I have banked with them for years, and that is where my current mortgage is, so I decide to stick with them. WORST IDEA EVER. I give them {$500.00} for a loan origination fee. A week later, they take another {$500.00} out of my account for the appraisal.
XX/XX/XXXX. I contact a few different insurance companies and I get some house insurance. I am so excited. Life is going to be great. I provide this to the bank so they can work on my escrow account.
XX/XX/XXXX. I fly to XXXX from XXXX and get my first look at my new house. I pay {$500.00} for a home inspection. I want to make sure I am not buying a money pit. One A/C unit is broken, so I pay another company to come and look at it further. Since he is already there, I have him go ahead and fix it. Just another {$69.00} to add to the pile. While I am there, the appraiser shows up. She originally sends in the appraisal at {$210000.00}. It is a mistake, and my real estate agent spends an entire week getting it fixed. It comes back at {$220000.00} on XX/XX/XXXX. I also take a test for a job with XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX and have an interview. I am given a job offer.
XX/XX/XXXX My mortgage guy that I work with lets just call him XXXX, he calls to tell me that we are pressed to make our deadline due to everything coming to a halt during the week that the appraisal was being fixed. He asks for items, almost daily, and I provide everything that he asks for within an hour. I am ON IT. XX/XX/XXXX.. I am in XXXX for what was supposed to be my closing date. Things didnt get done and I am told that my underwriter is no longer working for the company and they are assigning it to a new one. I take a XXXX and XXXX evaluation for my new job with XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX as a XXXX. I get an official letter from them, with a start date of XX/XX/XXXX and my starting wages listed. I give this to the bank. I get excited because I am sure we are close. I have faxed, scanned, and written explanations I have gathered documents, and I am getting it done. I wait for more requests, and for an update. Nothing. I am told that they are busy getting other loans ready to close at the end of the month, and I have been put off every day since XX/XX/XXXX, promised an update and yet dont receive one. XXXX keeps trying to get an answer, but none is given. XX/XX/XXXX. I have to be OUT of my house because it is sold. We take the proceeds and pay off all of our debt. I dont even have a car payment. OK. I am driving around a van that is 15 years old, but it IS paid for! Besides, I drive a XXXX car to work but there are problems with the loan and I am not sure what is going on. The moving van was supposed to be there on Monday, and on Friday I have to call and cancel it. My non-refundable deposit is forfeit. $ 350+ down the drain. I have to run out and get not 1, but 2 storage units.. {$350.00}. Good thing I have money. Right? I am promised an update that day, it doesnt come. Same thing on XX/XX/XXXX. XX/XX/XXXX comes and the new underwriter must have some serious issues. She rejects ALL of my incomes, current and future. She wont accept my current wage because she KNOWS I am leaving but she wont accept the pension ( even though she KNOWS it is certain ) nor will she accept my new wages until I have received my first paycheck. I now have NO income. How did that happen? Am I going to starve?
I am advised that processing this loan as a primary residence will not happen. I cant rent a house. I have 5 dogs, including 2 pricey show dogs ( XXXX XXXX ) and some little dogs. I also have XXXX XXXX  girls. GREAT FUN with all of us in a hotel room at over $ XXXX/night. So, we go back and start to process this as a second home. No problem just a higher interest rate and it doubles the requirement for down payment. Good thing I am RICH. Or unemployed? I forget.. I made it clear, up front, that I didnt have much for a down payment. Great.. I explain to the bank that I have a child that is a XXXX in XXXX XXXX during the next school year. I explain that I will spend that year going back and forth to do training and home renovations. During that time, I will move in my with oldest daughter, though it will require some extensive effort and moving her own things around, but it can be done since it is just temporary.
I am told that I need to wait for the underwriter to agree to process it as a second home. I am told to wait and see what she says. It is Wednesday, XXXX XXXX. A DAY before I am supposed to close. I am promised an answer on that day.. it doesnt come. I have to hurry and extend my contract again they are gracious and extend it to XXXX XXXX, but I am warned that they will NOT extend it again since this is the third time and they can not afford the house now that the owner retired from being a XXXX in order to move her things out of the house in time for the first closing date. XX/XX/XXXX I still have NO answer. I am called and told that the computers are down and the underwriter will look at it on Monday, FIRST THING, and get me an answer. Monday, they call and tell me the system is still down. Same thing on Tuesday. Really? A HUGE bank like that cant get the computers fixed within 3 BUSINESS DAYS? On Wednesday, they come back up and I am called and told that the underwriter wants to deny the loan RIGHT NOW, because there isnt {$33000.00} cash to close sitting in my account that very moment. Wait, what? I was told I needed the OK to process it as a second home before I did anything else. I rally all my resources.. and in a DAY.by Friday morning, after I get gift letters signed, wire transfers made, and 2 months of bank statements from all 3 gifters, ALL of the money is in there I am so proud that I pulled it together like that. I am feeling like this is going to happen. They want updated pay stubs from me. I have to drive to our personnel office and get them. I fax them immediately same pay stubs as always no surprises there. XX/XX/XXXX. I am promised an answer TODAY. It doesnt happen. Same thing on XX/XX/XXXX.. but I am told it is in rush  underwriting. XX/XX/XXXX, I get a call from XXXX around XXXX and they want to know about some deposits. They were gifts, and I provide all the documentation and explanations within an hour. The information had been supplied to the bank on Monday, but it needed an explanation. ( A gift letter stated that {$11000.00} was gifted, but did not have a place to explain that it was done in 2 separate transfers of {$5000.00} and {$6000.00}. ) At XXXX XXXX, XXXX calls and says that there is a problem. The underwriter can see the {$32000.00} sitting in my account ( I had already given {$2000.00} in earnest money, so I only needed {$31000.00} in the bank to close. ) However, I am told that ONLY HALF of that amount could be gifted and the rest had to be originally mine. WHAT? You know.a few days ago when telling me ALL this information about how if someone gifts money to me, I need to get a gift letter signed by the gifter, screen shots of the wire transfer, and 2 months of their bank statements.. it didnt occur to someone to TELL ME that I could only have a certain percentage of it in gift money? Is this just a new thing that they came up with on their own to mess with me? I am THEN told that they want me to take money out of my 401k to use as a down payment, as a condition to closing. Who do they think they are to tell me that I have to take money out of my 401k?
CAN SOMEONE EXPLAIN the logic in that to me? I have this cash sitting there that I need to close, but I am just going to ignore that and go borrow out of my 401k and use THAT money, instead? ( forget that I have to pay an additional 10 % penalty on that, AND it takes 2 weeks to process it ) And I told them from DAY 1 that I could NOT take ANY money out of my 401k for 2 reasons : ( 1 ) is that there is already a loan out of it from putting money down on the house I just sold, and ( 2 ) as part of my divorce temporary orders, I am prohibited from dissolving any assets, especially my 401k. Not to mention, THIS MAKES NO SENSE. I am feeling sad that common sense isnt very common, it seems. I ask if they can just use the gift money as my credit card payoffs and use the {$71000.00} that was put into my account due to my own house closing to use as the downpayment. I am told NO.
XXXX calls me and tells me that his boss is with the underwriters, and is trying to work something out. He asks if the gift money can be considered what I used to pay off all of my debt and use the money from the sale of the house as my closing money, and they told him that they would not. Not COULD not, but WOULD not. A while later, XXXX calls and says that one solution is that if I have a wealthy relative who will gift me an ADDITIONAL {$22000.00}, then I wont have to come up with any of the money on my own. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?
It is XX/XX/XXXX. Two months and one week since I started this horrendous process that has stressed me out more than I have ever been stressed out in my life. For the last 3 weeks, I can hardly sleep and I can hardly force myself to eat. I feel weak and sick. I am worried about the seller of the home, and I am worried about myself. I am sitting in limbo, living out of a hotel room since XX/XX/XXXX ( not easy with BIG dogs who need exercise. ) The home seller is living in limbo. I cant make any plans more than a day out, because I have no idea what is going on and where I will be. Do I need to drive my stuff to XX/XX/XXXX? Hire a moving van? Do I need to give it up and just stay living in XXXX for the rest of my life? If the loan all falls through, I will have lost {$5000.00} and I need to find out how to recover that. AND I am going to need a place to live. Because I thought it was temporary, I was going to keep working where I am while I use up my accrued vacation and comp time to make renovations to the house, put in a fence, etc. I am not going to go live with family if it is not, indeed, a temporary place to stay. The {$5000.00} I stand to lose does not even include the $ XXXX/week to stay at the hotel until things are fixed, and the $ XXXX/day to eat out during lunch and dinner.
Every day I wake up and think surely TODAY will be the day. Can anyone EVER close on a house with Chase Bank that isnt independently wealthy? How do they stay in business? Is this ANY way to treat customers? I had my last mortgage there I have checking and savings accounts there.. I have been a good customer. What did I do to deserve this? Is it really nice to change the rules in the middle of a game, SEVERAL TIMES, and expect the players to just adapt? Or even to mind read the rules so they can comply with them? It is OK to leave me, my family, the seller and her family. ALL SITTING IN LIMBO, living out of boxes, while waiting for answers.. or was it to make up new rules just to make sure the loan was denied?
Is this really any way to treat customers? Who changes underwriters a week before a loan is to close ... and then the new underwriter rejects EVERYTHING that the previous one accepted, and then does n't share pertinent information while making ridiculous demands? What kind of company allows their computers to stay inoperable for such a long time with such time-sensitive matters. Who, in their right mind, thinks that it is OK to ask me to " ignore '' money sitting in my account and then bear the expense and added time of taking money out of my 401k ( that is SUPPOSED to be used for my retirement. ) Am I the ONLY one who thinks that is the most ridiculous thing that they have ever heard of? I have never had to endure something like this in my life, and the stress is unbearable.