Consumer complaint received 2015-03-20
Product: Mortgage — Conventional adjustable mortgage (ARM)
Issue: Loan modification,collection,foreclosure — 
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY (MS)

Wells Fargo foreclosed on my XXXX-year-old mother 's home in XXXX, as she was unable to pay a mortgage refinance that did not seek out nor could support on her Social Security and XXXX XXXX retirement. Unscrupulous salespersons contacted my mom many times to get her to refinance her house at a rate she could not afford and terms she could never repay. She purchased her home in XX/XX/XXXX for {$25000.00}, and houses in her area are currently appraised in the $ 55,000- {$75000.00} range. Mom finally relented and agreed to the refinance XX/XX/XXXX, 15 months after she had suffered a debilitating stroke, when she especially needed any extra money to offset healthcare costs. The loan amount was for {$180000.00} ( based on a grossly inflated appraisal ), and it appears Mom 's income was fabricated to qualify for the loan. It is an adjustable rate mortgage, with an above market start rate of 7.35 %, but it could ONLY go up because 7.35 % was also the floor for the mortgage. To make matters worse, the loan had a five percent pre-payment penalty during the first two years. The loan also had a 40 year amortization schedule, but was for a 30 year term, meaning that Mom would have a substantial balloon payment of over {$100000.00} due in XX/XX/XXXX, when she would be almost XXXX years old. Mom tells me that she contacted Wells Fargo on a number of occasions to seek a loan modification. Each time Mom says that her paperwork would be lost by Wells Fargo, or she says that additional documentation was requested ( even though Mom believes the documents were previously submitted, multiple times ). At one point, a representative told Mom that she was ineligible for a modification because her loan was current. When she finally fell behind, she says she was told that she was not eligible for a modification because her loan was in default. Mom says her multiple requests for a modification were never approved, yet she believes that she never received any kind of acceptable explanation as to the basis for the denial. At this point, she will very likely lose the home she has had retrofitted with a number of items that help Mom function more normally, such as pull up bars and other items that compensate for her XXXX and assist her with every day activities. My XXXX siblings and I were not aware of the situation until after the foreclosure occurred this past XXXX. Between us we have cobbled together our available cash, which exceeds the price that Wells Fargo paid at auction, and offered to buy the house from the bank in the hope they will see that it is in everyone 's best interest to do so. Unfortunately, we hold out little hope that they will accept it, since they have told us on the phone that, as family members, we are " at arm 's length '' to the transaction and would be ineligible to purchase the home for her. Regardless of what happens in our case, we hope to alert others to these unscrupulous practices and encourage our lawmakers and regulators to rein in such abusive practices immediately, to spare others the same pain our family has endured.