Consumer complaint received 2021-06-24
Product: Mortgage — Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Struggling to pay mortgage — 
Company: EVERBANK, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION (IL)

My XXXX XXXX loan with TIAA serviced by XXXX is coming out of forbearance XX/XX/XXXX due to hardships due to COVID. We had been promised by TIAA that an option for us at end of foreclosure would be to resume our same monthly payments prior to the foreclosure and defer the missed payments to the end of the mortgage, putting them into a payment due at the sale, refinancing, or end of the loan. However, XXXX is saying that is not an option for us. The only reason they are giving is that XXXX told them it is not an option. " XXXX '' a supervisor at XXXX, told me deferring payments to the end of the loan is not an option and my only 3 options are : foreclosure ; pay all payments back in a lump sum ; or loan modification where the interest gets capitalized into the principal of the loan and we go an a three month trial period. When I asked him to put these options in writing, he said he can't and wanted to know which one of three I wanted to do. I had no choice but to agree to the modification because he said TIAA is prohibiting us from deferring the payments to the end of the loan. He gave no other explanation. The loan modification option penalizes us because now we will have to pay much more for our home if the interest goes into the principal. Furthermore, XXXX has been stringing me along for six weeks, telling me our file was in underwriting with my request to defer payments to the end of the loan when in reality, nothing was happening with my loan. up until yesterday, Knowing our forbearance period was ending XX/XX/XXXX, I telephoned XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX and spoke to " XXXX ''. I told her when my forbearance ended, I wanted the missed payments to go to the end of the loan. After asking me a series of questions, shesaid this was an option for me and she is sending it to underwriting for review. She told me to wait 30 days for a decision and to be on the lookout for documents in case underwriting needed more information from me. She said we were not required to make a payment until the deferment information comes. On XX/XX/XXXX, I called because XXXX sent an email to me saying I needed to contact them immediately. " XXXX '' with XXXX said to ignore the email, it is automatically generated and she could see my file was in underwriting. XX/XX/XXXX, I responded to a snail mail letter from XXXX saying to contact them. " XXXX '' said it was a form letter and to ignore it. XXXXconfirmed that my file had my request to defer payments to the end of the loan but that it was still in underwriting but since it has been 30 days, she transferred me to " loss mitigation. '' After a 2 hour hold time, I talked to " XXXX '' in loss mitigation who said my loan shows it is still in forbearance because customer service transferred it out of underwriting but had no idea why. She said TIAA loans are a little different from the other ones they service. She asked me the same series of questions I was asked on XX/XX/XXXX, and said she would " escalate '' the file. She said not to make my XXXX payment until I hear about the deferment of payments. On XX/XX/XXXX I got a telephone message telling me to call XXXX immediately. I called back and spoke to " XXXX '' who said it was a " general outreach call '' and I could ignore those. She said my file had only been in underwriting 26 days and saw that it had been " escalated ''. She said it is weird that it is taking so long and didn't now why my file now said " modification '' and not the request for deferring payments to the end. She said to ignore calls, emails and letters unless they are asking for specific information from now on. On XX/XX/XXXX, I received a letter from XXXX naming " XXXX XXXX '' as my mortgage resolution advocate. I called the number for him which was just the same XXXX number. " XXXX '' said she could not transfer me to XXXX because the letter I got was a " template '' but she could help me. She said that my file had two open requests, one for a modification and one for a deferral of payments and they were due to be resolved today and to try back at the end of the business day. I told her I never requested a modification and I have always been asking to defer the payments to the end of the loan every email I sent and every call I made to XXXX since XX/XX/XXXX I asked for this. She said I should talk to a supervisor and I was transferred to a general voicemail box. I phoned back and after 50 minutes on hold talked to " XXXX '' who said XXXX was her boss. She said she is emailing her supervisor to talk to me about my file because it is " stuck '' in forbearance and hasn't moved since I asked to defer the missed payments back in XXXX. She said she does not know why my file " hasn't moved '' but that TIAA had a " role in it. '' She said a supervisor would talk to me that night. " XXXX '' from XXXXtelephoned me that evening and said I was not permitted to have the option of deferring my missed payments to the end of the loan. I asked him why, during all the calls and people I talked to since XX/XX/XXXX when I was told I could request that opton, no one ever told me I was not allowed that option. He said " I don't know, I wasn't there. '' Without any explanation, XXXX said TIAA would not allow us to defer our missed payments to the end of the loan. We feel we have been deceived and defrauded by TIAA since TIAA has always maintained that deferring the missed forbearance payments to the end of the loan was an option. We don't know why XXXX is now saying TIAA won't allow us to defer our missed payments to the end of the loan because they refuse to provide an explanation.. We first elected forbearance on XX/XX/XXXX when TIAA serviced the loan ( not XXXX  ) with XXXX XXXX of TIAA who told us that if we go into forbearance due to COVID hardship, we would not suffer having to pay any additional money, any fees, any penalties or any reporting to the credit bureau agencies. XXXX for TIAA has violated all of that ( see previous complaint about how they reported us to all 3 credit bureaus as delinquent while we were in forbearance! ). If we do the modification XXXX with XXXX is offering ( and the other 2 options are forclose or pay missed payments in full ), it will put our interest into the principal and so we will then owe more money on the loan. TIAA promised us we would not suffer having to pay more money if we went into forbearance but now XXXX says TIAA will not allow us to defer our payments to the end of the loan without any other explanation. TIAA has always maintained that deferment of missed forbearance payments was an option for us. For example, a XX/XX/XXXX letter from TIAA states " mortgage deferments '' may be available. In a XX/XX/XXXX letter from TIAA, it stated options available include " a deferment. '' On XX/XX/XXXX, " XXXX '' with TIAA specifically stated we can elect a " deferment '' where past due payments are a " payoff at the end of the loan maturity date. '' She also stated when we are ready to resume making payments we can avoid paying the " big chunk all at once '' by having the " payments tacked on at the end '' of the loan. She said, to get the deferment, we have to be able to make mortgage payments going forward and have recovered from the hardship and only the past due payments are tacked on at the end. However, now " XXXX '' at XXXX is saying TIAA will not make that an option for us without any explanation. Please help us get TIAA and XXXX to do what TIAA said we could do : Defer our missed forbearance payments until the end of the loan. Prior to going into forbearance, we were never late with any of our mortgage payments and currently our credit bureau scores are in the 800 's " excellent '' range. There can be no good reason why we are being denied the opportunity to defer our forbearance payments. Thank you.