Consumer complaint received 2020-07-22
Product: Mortgage — FHA mortgage
Issue: Applying for a mortgage or refinancing an existing mortgage — 
Company: Freedom Mortgage Company (FL)

My husband and I have made double-digit attempts to communicate with Freedom about the issues we've had for months, attempting to refinance our mortgage, as Freedom contacted us to do so. 

To start from the beginning, my husband lost his job pretty promptly when the pandemic started, in early XX/XX/2020. As soon as this happened, we knew we needed to be concerned about affording our mortgage, and options were not yet available to defer our payments through government-backed COVID relief. My husband called and was thankfully able to get us into a  forbearance program. 

Knowing that our debt would accrue to the extent that we would not be able to pay several months of mortgage in a single month, we still paid our XXXX payment in the first week of XXXX. We were on forbearance already, so it was late, but we weren't penalized, so we thought. 

After entering into forbearance, XXXX XXXX contacted my husband to sell us a refinance. The terms we were given were that we could refinance without a full application, we'd just have to pay closing costs to be added into the new loan, and we'd save hundreds of dollars/month on our payments - which we really needed with everything going on - despite the downstream financial costs of refinancing now ( yes, we considered them though they were unspoken ). 

The condition XXXX gave us to applying for refinance was that we had to come off of forbearance and stay current on our mortgage. We were also in the middle of getting a roof claim approved and paid for by our insurance, which she said would not impact the refinance. To meet the condition that we needed to come off of forbearance, I had to pay a second mortgage payment in XXXX, as well as XXXX 's payment shortly thereafter. To do so on XXXX income, as my husband was unable to obtain unemployment from the state ( another ordeal entirely ), I had to pull funds from my retirement savings. 

As of the end of XXXX of XX/XX/2020, we had applied for refinance, we were awaiting payment from our insurance company to have our roof replaced, and we were current on our mortgage. A few weeks passed, and we hadn't received any information from XXXX on the refinance timeline. The pandemic worsened and my husband still wasn't working, so we called XXXX to find out if we needed to make further plans for affording our XXXX mortgage payments. 

XXXX did not answer, nor did she return the numerous emails sent to her. It wasn't until we received a call from our refinance application processor, XXXX XXXX, that we heard from XXXX that our application was with the title company. The title company told us that the roof work meant that we had a lien on our home which would prevent our application from getting completed, contrary to what XXXX said. Also, once our roof work was completed and the lien was removed, the title company spelled my name wrong which delayed our application even further. 

Weeks of waiting passed, when we received an email, not a call, that our refinance application was submitted for denial. My husband called XXXX and was told that we were denied because of the late payment in XXXX. XXXX has provided us with the phone numbers of several managers and supervisors to call, but not a single one has returned any of our phone calls. I myself have called and left a number of unanswered voicemails. 

It is now over 4 months into this pandemic and refinance process. Two additional mortgage payments have been made on time, at a time when each mortgage payment is a cost to another financial obligation for our family. 

WE NEED RESOLVE. 

Yes, all the financial decisions leading us to this point were voluntary, but they were made on the basis of false information provided to us by the Freedom refinance sales team. My moral disagreements with the way business was performed are as follows : 1. This entire process is a sales bait and switch tactic - which is illegal, not just unethical.

2. The timing of everything has made the ethics of this even more questionable - yet not a single a
ccommodation has been provided from Freedom.

3. Freedom has only ever been easy to reach in this process when we were sold something that provided financial gain for the business.

4. It was bad enough that the sales team could not return messages, but employees who are in leadership positions should be held to higher standards to be accountable for shoddy work of their teams and to escalate consumer issues of which they are apprised.

5. I've spoken with a number of customer care representatives, and not one has had the ability to warm transfer me to a live supervisor or manager. Having worked in several less regulated or critical areas of customer service, I can say from experience that this is a HUGE FAIL to consumers on any given day.