Consumer complaint received 2022-04-06
Product: Mortgage — FHA mortgage
Issue: Struggling to pay mortgage — 
Company: CITIZENS FINANCIAL GROUP, INC. (UT)

My husband and I applied for, and received, a COVID forbearance in XXXX after my husband, who was the sole wage earner lost his job with an airline due to XXXX. We were scheduled to come out of forbearance in XX/XX/XXXX. In anticipation of the end of our forbearance, we applied for a XXXX loan modification and restructuring through our HUD XXXX. The request was faxed along with the entire packet to our servicer on XX/XX/XXXX. In XX/XX/XXXX, we received correspondence form our servicer that the past due amount accumulated during the forbearance would be put on the end of the loan, but our monthly payment was to increase due to an increase in escrow because of the previous year 's shortfall while we were in forbearance. I called our servicer and told them we had requested a restructuring to lower our monthly payments because my husband had only recently ( XXXX XXXX ) found new employment at a substantially reduced rate from what he was making pre-COVID. The reprehensive told me they would not lower our payments and I told her that our HUD XXXX had informed us that it was part of the COVID act that servicers were to reduce payments by at least {$200.00} a month if requested. The representative then told me, yes, it was and that she would raise my request to the loss mitigation department and to just give it a few weeks. I called again in XXXX XXXX for an update since we had not heard anything and was told they were still working on our request and to give it a few more weeks. On the XX/XX/XXXX, I called again for an update and was told they were sending us a packet with paperwork to sign to put the past due amount on the end of our loan but that the payments were still the higher amount. She said she would expedite our request for the modification to reduce our monthly payments and to give it a couple of weeks for a response. She told me not to sign that paperwork or our case would be closed, and they would not look at our request for the restructuring for a lower payment amount. On XX/XX/XXXX, after hearing nothing from our servicer, I again called for an update. This time I spoke with a representative named Georgia who told me that our request had been submitted but there was no update. On XX/XX/XXXX, we received the packet that the representative had told me was coming. It was as the representative had stated, so we did as we had been instructed and did not sign it. I called the next week and told the representative that we received the packet but didn't sign and explained why again requesting an update on our original request. I was told that the request had been submitted and that I just needed to give it some time. On XX/XX/XXXX and again on XX/XX/XXXX, we received XXXX letters in the mail, XXXX of them registered mail, stating that our loan is in default, and we have until XX/XX/XXXX to pay the past due amount or they will start the foreclosure process. Through out the entire process, we were working with a HUD XXXX who also called our servicer several times about our request. After receiving the letter threatening foreclosure, I spoke with our HUD XXXX who again, on XXXX. XXXX, XXXX, called our servicer. She was told to have us do a short sale and she told them no and demanded that she be speak to loss mitigation. The loss mitigation representative told her that because we did not sign and return the packet they had sent out, they had closed our case and we would need to reapply for assistance. Our HUD XXXX told me to file this complaint and to inform you that she, as a HUD XXXX was not treated professionally by our servicer and that they wouldn't work with her any more than they would with us.