Consumer complaint received 2017-11-10
Product: Mortgage — Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Struggling to pay mortgage — 
Company: Onity Group Inc. (SC)

We have owned the residence at XXXX XXXX XXXX since XXXX, when it was built. We have lived there for the past 26 years. Around XXXX of XXXX, we invested our savings of around XXXX in renovating the structure. At the advice of our realtor, we made plans to upgrade the XXXXX XXXX property so that it could be refinanced and turned into a rental property, and a preconstruction appraisal was performed, which yielded a $ XXXX value at completion. In order to finish the renovation, we withdrew our 401 ( K ) and invested that additional money into the house. 

In XXXX of XXXX, during the renovation, we were presented an offer from an individual who wanted to purchase the home, and a Lease-Purchase/Occupancy Contract was signed. Following six months of late/non-payment and damage to the house, we were forced to take this individual to court and have him evicted. This process, and the ensuing cleanup required after his departure, cost another $ XXXX. Also, this person made extensive, non-approved modifications to the house, which drastically reduced its value. The house was again put on the market, though at a much reduced price, and in XXXX XXXX another Lease-Purchase/Occupancy Contract was signed. Again, late, and finally, non-payments forced us to have this person evicted as well. She also made unapproved changes within the house, further decreasing its value. This was another $ XXXX that we had to spend ( that we really could not afford ). 
The house has been on the market, has had many, many, showings, but there have been few actual offers, probably due to the damage the other tenants have done. Our XXXX has gone above and beyond in his efforts to show and sell this house, but its appraised value of $ XXXX just prior to move-in of the first tenant has plummeted to around the $ XXXX level. We have invested, and lost, more than $ XXXX in all of this process. We had to put most of the legal fees on credit cards to try to get the damage to the house mitigated, and can not afford to make any more payments on this house. 
The house has been on the market originally since XXXX XXXX. After the XXXX above mentioned false-starts on a sale, the house was relisted on XXXX XXXX, XXXX. There were over seventy-five showings, but few offers submitted. Finally the property was placed under a contract on XXXX XXXX, XXXX as a Short-sale, requiring the approvals of XXXX different lenders. 

During this process, our attorney has been trying to work with, and get timely responses from, the negotiator representing the lenders. Even after various requested updates were provided, there were often weeks before a response was received a value dispute also took weeks to conclude, primarily because the Ocwen negotiator was negligent on the proper servicing of our account ; often times our attorney had to file escalations, involve managers and quote legal action just to obtain any response at all. 

This short-sale would have been closed and funded well before the scheduled foreclosure sale date, if it were not due to the XXXX weeks in unnecessary delays and lack of communication by the negotiator and managers, despite multiple written attempts requesting assistance. The offer and acceptance in the current contract is 100 % of the lenders confirmed values after the value dispute we had to force them to submit XXXX part of the unnecessary delays bringing us to present day ). 
Here is a condensed example of unnecessary delays resulting from inaction of the XXXX negotiator to respond in a timely manner. Please note that had the negotiator done WHAT he should have, WHEN he should have, the short-sale in all likelihood would have been completed, obviating the need for the foreclosure sale in Court on Tuesday XXXX/XXXX/XXXX : XXXX/XXXX/XXXX - We started requesting a value dispute on this date and it took several weeks from there for the lender to actually get the docs submitted for the dispute. 
XXXX/XXXX/XXXX Initial results of value dispute came back unchanged from their original counter values of $ XXXX. 
XXXX/XXXX/XXXX Submitted buyers appraisal showing confirmed values at $ XXXX and requested their valuation department take a XXXX look at the dispute. Managers were copied on most messages moving forward from this date, specifically requesting their assistance, yet none of the managers copied made any efforts to respond or assist. 
XXXX/XXXX/XXXX Escalated request for response to managers again due to lack of response from the negotiator in 2 weeks. This resulted in the negotiator responded that the values had been revised to $ XXXX despite the fact that the lender did not have a full appraisal to support that value over the buyers full appraisal values of $ XXXX. 
XXXX/XXXX/XXXX Negotiator says he will submit the buyers appraisal to their valuation dept for review ; clearly indicating he had not done this on XXXX when the report was originally sent to him. This was also the XXXX time the negotiator indicated he needed additional XXXX docs from the buyer that had already been sent to their loss mit dept on XXXX. 
XXXX/XXXX/XXXX Still no updates so I sent another urgent message for assistance on the file. This resulted in the negotiator finally confirming the values came back at $ XXXX which was the buyers appraisal and clearly shows that IF he would have submitted the appraisal when he was supposed to we wouldnt have lost close to a month in review. The negotiator also requested the buyers operating agreement for the 1st time. 
XXXX/XXXX/XXXX Submitted buyers counter at the full $ XXXX amount along with the operating agreement requested above. 
XXXX/XXXX/XXXX Still no updates or approval but status in Equator was changed to indicate there wasnt an offer under review ; sent urgent message to negotiator and managers for assistance. 
XXXX/XXXX/XXXX Still no updates or response to previous message ; despite 3 XXXXs being copied. 
XXXX/XXXX/XXXX Called main loss mitigation department with Ocwen to submit a complaint and escalate outside of the Equator system for assistance. Was informed on this call that the file was showing incomplete due to missing docs despite the fact nothing additional had been requested. Left a v/m for XXXX XXXX XXXX supervisor ) and to date have not heard back. Due to the internal complaint I submitted the negotiator did finally send a message in XXXX stating the name on the buyers operating agreement did not match the name on the contract. 
XXXX/XXXX/XXXX Within the hour we had the buyers corrected operating agreement submitted in Equator with an urgent request to postpone the f/c sale. The buyer had inadvertently sent the wrong operating agreement for another business that he owns with a very similar name. 
XXXX/XXXX/XXXX Received confirmation from the negotiator that he did receive the corrected doc as well as our request for f/c postponement. He stated the intent was to postpone the sale but could not be guaranteed despite the multiple errors and unnecessary delays they exhibited internally on the file. 

Even after multiple attempts to get the foreclosure sale postponed due to XXXX own internal errors, they still refused and the foreclosure occurred on Tuesday, XXXX/XXXX/XXXX. We confirmed the property sold back to the bank and we are asking that the sale be rescinded ( as is allowed in the state of SC ) and the short sale opened back up for consideration and approval of the buyers full price offer. As a consumer suffering a financial hardship, which was actually caused by our exhaustive efforts to upgrade the property, going through the list/sale and short sale process for the past 3 years and still being foreclosed upon due to a negotiators negligence is egregious to say the least. We are pleading with the CFPB to help get this sale reversed so we can finally move on from this tragedy and try to salvage our credit moving forward.