Consumer complaint received 2020-07-27
Product: Mortgage — Home equity loan or line of credit (HELOC)
Issue: Struggling to pay mortgage — 
Company: Specialized Loan Servicing Holdings LLC (MD)

Back in 2016 my HELOC was sold to Specialized Loan Servicing and I had no idea it was leaving XXXX XXXX XXXX. We got a letter months later after even making payments to XXXX XXXX XXXX but the loan had without our knowledge sold to SLS. A month after we found it was sold, we began to send our payment electronically per a letter that came later. We thought all was good until we noticed that SLS was sending our payments back to our credit union. We called them and they said that the amount was not sufficient and that we had missing payments. We again tried to send payments of {$490.00}. but they would not accept them. At this point we were going back and forth with the reps on the telephone about our payment returns and they had no idea of what we were talking about. Again the payments came back and no one knew what we were talking about, but our Credit Union showed the money being returned. This went on for a few months and we tried to contact XXXX XXXX XXXX to get them involved and ask why the payments were being returned. At one point a person we got on the phone said they had no record of our account! 

We became so exhausted with lack of response, no response and different responses from SLS and XXXX XXXX XXXX not helping and accepting payments, not sure if we had an account that we fell far behind in payments. As time went on with lack of any answers we had severe life changing events, taking care of XXXX XXXX and XXXX XXXX. This began to drain us financially and took a horrible hit on our finances. We had to support all 3 financially. We also had major septic water issues to our home and had to put this on a credit card in the amount of {$10000.00}. We had to deal with medical issues ( XXXX ), which caused lack of work for a period of time. We informed SLS of all of these issues through letters and verbally. This was in hopes of a smaller settlement to just be done or a small settlement. At this point we are so far behind but still current on our 1st Mortgage with XXXX XXXX XXXX.h We have been working with a non-profit helper to be a communication between us and SLS for the past few years. Again, when you call you get different people all the time with different answers and no one has any idea where our paperwork is for modification. We get phone calls and the person on the phone has no idea of any paperwork or they say it's being looked at but they don't know who has it. We never never get anyone who can tell you what the process is for any modificaiton we have asked for. One day a few months back a letter showed- ups asking for {$20000.00} in a certified check. We called to let them know that we did not have such a large amount of money but we would be willing to take a loan out against our 401K to give them half of this to just bring the loan to a close. This was all that we had to give despite the fact that it would clean us our financially we were willing to just do this to close the loan out. 

We are now both getting ready to retire and our income will drop drastically. All that we're seeking to do is to pay them atleast a third of what we owe just to end this entire situation. We don't deny we owe the money but SLS is one of the most horrible companies we have ever had to encounter. The calls are non-stop and they refuse to make any sort of arrangement that will atleast allow for the debt to be removed. All that we ask is to pay them a 3rd so that we can cut all ties and move forward. We are now in critical times and money just to eat, pay utilities, keep a roof over your head and stay live is a priority more than ever. Taking one thing off your plate is all that most want to do. We are asking assistance to get a much lower payoff to end our dealing with a company which refuses to even acknowledge our pleas of settlement. We hope that you can be an advocate to assist with this issues with SLS