Consumer complaint received 2018-05-17
Product: Mortgage — Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process — 
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION (CA)

Our mortgage is with Bank of America. The property was a total loss in the California wild fires in early XX/XX/XXXX, a federally declared disaster. 
Because of the complete loss and the initial uncertainty about insurance payments, rebuilding costs and speed we entered into a five month special forbearance with Bank of America, during which we skipped five mortgage payments. Now that our budgetary situation is clearer we have started making regular mortgage payments again ( for XX/XX/XXXX and going forward ). 
Special forbearance is granted 3 months at a time. During the special forbearance period we had several conversations with Bank of America representatives. On XX/XX/XXXX I called Bank of America and spoke to XXXX about my options regarding extending the special forbearance or possibly resuming payments. She explained that we could extend the special forbearance by another three months or if I wanted to resume payments, the skipped payments would be added to the end of the mortgage. She also said that monthly payments would not go up. We opted to extend the special forbearance. 
On XX/XX/XXXX I called Bank of America again and spoke to XXXX about my options regarding extending the special forbearance or possibly resuming payments. She explained that special forbearance is only available for a total of six months. She also explained that if I were to resume payments, any skipped payments would be added to the end of the loan period ( in essence, what XXXX had told me in XX/XX/XXXX ). 
We opted to resume making regular payments. 
The problem started a few weeks ago when our " case manager '' XXXX XXXX explained that a formal loan modification is required which includes a new underwriting process. This was new information to us that had never been explained before. Particularly troublesome was her statement that a loan extension is only one possible outcome of the loan modification process. In direct contradiction to earlier statements by other Bank of America representatives she stated that higher monthly payments might also be an outcome of the loan modification. The new underwriting process now requires us to provide essentially the same information as a brand new loan application : proof of income and assets, tax statements, P & L statements ( I am XXXX ), copies of leases etc -- all that just for five skipped payments that we originally were told would be appended to our loan. This is not only very unreasonably and " bureaucratic '', but also should have been explained at the outset. 
In addition there were other " smaller '' problems with working with Bank of America. 
( 1 ) We were charged payment late fees during the special forbearance ( which have been removed after I asked about them ) ( 2 ) Bank of America paid our property taxes which we had already paid ( even though there is not even an escrow account ). The payment balance is still shown on our loan statements. ( 3 ) I had scheduled a call with XXXX XXXX at XX/XX/XXXX today. This was an hour ago and she still has not called me. 
While these last three points are rather minor " fumbles '' compared to the loan modification surprise to me they still show a pattern of poor management, processes, and training. 
In closing, I want Bank of America to honor their original explanation of extending our loan by the five months of payments we skipped and remove the property tax charge from the account. We will continue to make monthly loan payments.