Consumer complaint received 2018-05-04
Product: Mortgage — Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Struggling to pay mortgage — 
Company: Selene Finance LP (MA)

A short sale offer and paperwork from the Homeowner intending to short sell her house was sent in by our authorized 3rd party company to the Mortgage Lender, XXXX XXXX, on XX/XX/XXXX. The property is in dire need of many, many repairs and the XXXX XXXX XXXX as of XX/XX/XXXX, has tacked on at least 8 city code violations on the property that currently incurs {$310.00} per day. Our company communicated with the Attorney that was handling the city code violations to try to work with them to reduce the fees and pause them tacking on fees on the house while we go through the short sale review process. We were unsuccessful in doing so but were told that they would only tack on a minimum of the {$310.00} per day fee instead of the maximum {$500.00} a day per violation per day that the Homeowner does not fix the violation issues. The homeowner has had financial difficulties paying for the mortgage and can not afford to fix the violation issues as well as fix the amount already accrued from the violations.

XXXX XXXX  initially told us that the value of the house was at {$230000.00}. Our offer was {$220000.00}. When the Buyer realized that the value was not far from each other plus all the violations and the repairs needed in the house, the Buyer informed us that he would be willing to raise his offer to the value the XXXX XXXX had ( {$230000.00} ). This was done on XX/XX/XXXX and we sent a HUD to XXXX XXXX along with an email stating to the Selene Negotiator that the Buyer could pay for full value as well as pay for half of the violations ( at this point in time, we prorated the HUD to 30 more days to close byXX/XX/XXXXand had a violations prorated fee of {$55000.00} ). After a few days, XXXX XXXX   informed me that the Investor wants to get another value for a 2nd opinion which is strange because the value put forth at {$230000.00} was still current. We tried to get the Negotiator to cancel the 2nd opinion BPO especially since there was a current value that could be used. The Agent met up with the BPO Agent for a 2nd opinion BPO on XX/XX/XXXX. After 2 weeks of no responses from the Investor ( and many inquiries from us asking the Negotiator for an update ), we finally got a call from XXXX XXXX  yesterday,, XX/XX/XXXXwith news that the Investor has decided to do a Deed-In-Lieu and that they would not allow the Short Sale to move forward. They would not agree to higher counter offer ( the 2nd BPO apparently came back at {$280000.00} ) or allow a short sale at all. This is concerning, because for deed in lieu 's to work, the property should have clear title ( other than the 1st mortgage that is deciding on the deed in lieu ). In this case, the property has a tax taking lien as well as the city violations that need to be paid before the repairs can be worked on. We asked for a letter fromXX/XX/XXXXregarding them agreeing to pay for the subordinate lien and pay off the violations, as well as informing the homeowner that a deed-in-lieu was what the Investor could only allow. The Negotiator with XX/XX/XXXX stated that she did not have a letter she could give me until the homeowner agreed to the deed-in-lieu. I have escalated this issue to a Manager in Selene to try to get a written confirmation that the subordinate lien and the violations will be paid, otherwise, a short sale can still be pursued and we still have a willing and able Buyer to purchase the house.