Consumer complaint received 2016-11-30
Product: Mortgage — FHA mortgage
Issue: Application, originator, mortgage broker — 
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY (NY)

I started by contacting my existing mortgage holder in an attempt to refinance my mortgage. As I currently had an FHA loan paying mortgage insurance for the life of the loan, I was interested in refinancing to eliminate that interest and I knew that the interest rate environment was favorable to me at the time. I began this process no later than XXXX XXXX of XXXX, which I was conditionally approved for a 3.00 % 15 year loan pending review of my financial documentation. I was careful to review my Debt/Income information with the representative at the start of the process because I feared having taken a car loan out subsequent to my original mortgage that I would no longer qualify from a DTI perspective. The rep went through my incomes and debts in detail with my up front and indicated that I had plenty of margin for error, as I did not want to lay out $ XXXX out of pocket on an updated appraisal if I was just going to flunk to DTI test. As he indicated I had significant wiggle room, I proceeded with the application and paid these out of pocket expenses. The appraisal came back positive, and I submitted all my tax returns, etc in a timely manner. After significant delays, I was informed that I was failing DTI because of a capital contribution I made to an LLC that I invested in 2 years prior. This investment was being treated as an expense/debt which makes no sense what so ever. Even after explaining that this was investment, no different than purchasing stock or other marketable securities, they asked for letters from my accountant and lawyers. My accountant could not attest to the legal interpretation of the operating agreements I provided the bank, because they are not lawyers. I also provided a letter from my lawyer confirming that there were no ongoing capital commitments I had to the company, which represented an additional cash expense to me. After receiving this letter, the bank remained silent. Finally, the XXXX tax return for the entity was completed and I submitted that information unprovoked by the bank since I had not heard anything from them since my last submission of data. At that time, the broker mentioned we could refinance my car loan into the mortgage loan and would solve the DTI issue I faced as a result of their interpretation of my capital contributions from XXXX. I immediately indicated that I would be fine with that, whatever it took to put this issue to rest. Then without any further communication, I received a denial letter from the underwriter in the mail. When I called the broker to understand what happened, he was apologetic and said that the underwriter went " rouge '' and just closed the file without talking to anyone and that there was nothing he could do, we would need to reapply new but he wanted to personally work with the underwriter " offline '' to make sure I would n't have any issues when I reapplied and that everything I submitted would be sufficient. Again, after a string of delays and excuses, the broker finally reached out and indicated the underwriter had approved the file, with no new information submitted to them. It has again been a number of weeks of me emailing the broker to get no response asking what the status of my application is as rise have now risen from 3 % to over 3.625 % for a 15 year loan, and I have no idea where my application stands. I do know that as the current note holder, Wells Fargo is the only party to financially benefit from delaying my refinance application of a 30 year mortgage at 4.125 % with PMI to a 15 year mortgage at 3.000 % with no PMI, and I am the only party to be financially harmed by their delays and refusals to timely process this application that is now entering month 6 with rates continuing the rise daily.