Consumer complaint received 2020-12-05
Product: Mortgage — Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Closing on a mortgage — 
Company: Onity Group Inc. (CO)

Complaint against PHH Mortgage : Failure to perform due diligence ; negligent in addressing urgent correction of their records and lien release ; and several promises of return contact, which were never actually returned : Mortgage was attained in XX/XX/XXXX and paid in full on XX/XX/XXXX ( 20 years prior ). 
Now selling the property and Title Report on XX/XX/XXXX revealed the mortgage lien had never been release / reconveyed. 9 phone calls, 2 faxes and 3 emails since discovery of the failure of PHH  to record the loan payoff and reconvey / remove the lien.

Here is summary of my attempts, with no progress attempting to get PHH  to complete the lien release : PHH  Mortgage CASE # : XXXX. ( Which they finally gave me on XX/XX/XXXX- on my 4th call to their escalation management division ). 

Call to XXXX XX/XX/XXXX as loan originally arranged through XXXX. They no longer work with PHH - need to call PHH directly.

XX/XX/XXXX : PHH XXXX, employee ID of XXXX. Told me that I would have to send by mail or fax to Lien Release Dept. No email option. Fax would not transmit # XXXX. 
PHH XXXX with employee ID XXXX. Confirmed that nothing she could do - need send request to Research Department and gave me same fax #. Finally was able to get fax to transmit ( have success pages. Told give 10 days and if no response could call escalation department. 
Told them at this time that time was of essence - closing mid XXXX and the lien not being reconvened was just discovered by Title Co search. I asked several times to speak to manager as did not have 10 days to wait on response. They refused to elevate the issue to someone with capacity to help resolve it. 

Faxed, with confirmed successful send on XX/XX/XXXX at XXXX MST ; Never received any response. Attempted to have customer service check if fax received - would not connect me with their research department. Told me I just had to wait. 

XX/XX/XXXX attempted another Fax to same # with the Urgency all over the title. Again would not transmit. 
XX/XX/XXXX. XXXX ( CO ) initiated XXXX calls : XXXX. ID XXXX  eventually agreed to transfer me to the escalation managers : XXXX XXXX, escalation manager. Told me to resend everything I had ( the original Deed, Note, etc.. that I had already sent by fax ) to him by email to their department, attention to him & that would reply in nor more than 2 days -- XXXX. Sent at XXXX MST as directed. No response. 

XXXX : Sent email to above XXXX again at XXXX MST. No response that even received. 
So telephoned again : XXXX - eventually again transferred to " escalation department '' ; XXXX. XXXX after explaining again cant assist with NV property. 
So transferred to XXXX. XXXX she assured me she would confirm receipt of the additional items she now also wanted sent ( was not told before to send Title report with all my documents supporting the loan had been paid in full ). Sent as instructed to XXXX ; Did get auto-generated ( canned ) email reply that my email was received. She had promised a call back reassuring me she received the materials. No call back. 
XXXX : XXXX Called via the customer service line again XXXX cant be reached. 
Now XXXX, XXXX in the " escalation management '' department on the phone. States she discussed with XXXX and XXXX would give me call back after out of her meeting. Never called. 

[ Discussed with title company at this point what my options are given PHH Mortgage refusal to process the lien release in time to meet the sale closing requested advice on possible attorney and if they would just withhold funds. & We Will be contacting an attorney on Monday. 

So called again XX/XX/XXXX ; XXXX - XXXX ; again through their general " customer service '' line as they provide no way to reach escalation managers directly. Nor can one speak with the manager they spoke with on prior call. So again transferred to SOMEONE ELSE in the escalation management department. " XXXX '' employee ID XXXX - I will help, we will make this priority " oh, actually not authorized to deal with property in NV '' .. then XXXX , employee ID XXXX and got hung up on. Then XXXX, with employe ID of XXXX, who finally provided ( maybe? ) Direct line to reach him and the Case # But says will take 5 days. We no longer have 5 days, because everyone else had not responded / called back, etc. So he promises a call back Mon afternoon but would not promise the lien Release done in time for sale closing. 
[ If they had just started this process when I 1st called on XX/XX/XXXX, rather than block my efforts to speak to escalation management, given the short time available, and if they had not refused at that time to transfer to a manager, there would have had plenty of time to complete this lien release. Instead, all they have done for 15 days is delay tactics and fail to accomplish anything. ], and now will miss our sale closing, and we will likely lose the sale.