Consumer complaint received 2019-02-01
Product: Mortgage — Reverse mortgage
Issue: Applying for a mortgage or refinancing an existing mortgage — 
Company: AMERICAN ADVISORS GROUP (OH)

I contacted American Advisors Group ( AAG ) on XX/XX/XXXX about a Home Equity Conversion Mortgage and spoke to agent XXXX  (  XXXX ) XXXX. We spoke at length about the program and I requested more information. XXXX explained the process I would have to go through for the HECM and I provided an overview of my situation so he could make a pre-determination. He said at that time I was a very good candidate because I owned the home outright, I have maintained the home to good standards and my credit was good. He asked to run a credit score on me which he said would not impact my credit score. He also said that my credit would not be a determining factor in obtaining the loan unless I had defaulted on a previous mortgage or declared bankruptcy. None of these applied to me. He also informed me that it could take less than 2 weeks. I complied in all of his requests including a HUD application, HECM counseling by a certified professional and the release of all my information. On the first application, XXXX explained that since my wife was not 62 years old, he would process the application in my name only with her as a non-borrowing spouse. We filled out a complete application with an independent third party representing AAG. A few weeks later, XXXX called and said that we had to fill out another application because the the first one had expired with HUD ( I came to find out later that HUD gives 90 days for the application process, so that statement was a lie ). XXXX stated that a second application was needed in my name only. We complied with his request and filled out a second application with the same third party representative. The third party explained that AAG was expediting the application, so we did this on a weekend at great inconvenience to us. Once again, agent XXXX said that there was no problem obtaining the loan. We were provided with copies of all of the loan applications with specifics as to how much we would receive, the interest rate and all applicable charges and fees. We agreed for AAG to have the property appraised by an agent of their company to finalize the loan amount. This was done and we heard back from AAG the next day that everything was in order. During the entire process, AAG performed 5 hard credit inquiries which negatively impacted our credit scores. After that, we did not hear from AAG for about 2 weeks. Contact attempts were not returned. However, we were contacted by our home insurance agent who stated the AAG petitioned them to be placed on our policy as a financial partner. After many contact attempts, I was able to speak with XXXX   supervisor, XXXX XXXX, who informed me that they would not be approving a HECM for us due to XXXXage ( XXXX ). I asked her if XXXX age precluded us for qualifying for the loan, why werent we informed when I first requested information about the program and we would wait until she turned 62 but received no answer. She only told me that she was turning our application over to senior agent XXXX XXXX for processing on XX/XX/XXXX. After not hearing from him by XX/XX/XXXX, I called him about our application. He stated that we didnt qualify because of my credit score that had been lowered by their multiple hard inquiries and the fact that all of the loan funds would be held in reserve for taxes/insurance if not paid. I believe this was a lie as well because we released our credit history showing no delinquency on either of these 2 line items. We were required to pay out of pocket for the appraisal and were going to be charged {$3000.00} for the loan fee. We have full documentation on all of these claims. I allege that we qualified for the loan but AAG was negligent in failing to provide the funds. We also were negatively impacted by multiple hard credit inquiries. Since then, we also had our personal information stolen twice ( the only times we have ever been compromised ) which we feel was due to providing it to multiple entities during the loan process. We filed a claim with the Ohio Attorney General, but we do not feel our case was given due diligence because the AG had been elected to the Governorship and had no interest in anything but his lengthy political career. We also feel lucky that we did not lose our home due the fraudulent and unethical business practices of AAG.