Consumer complaint received 2020-05-15
Product: Mortgage — Other type of mortgage
Issue: Applying for a mortgage or refinancing an existing mortgage — 
Company: ROYAL UNITED MORTGAGE LLC (TX)

I contact Royal Untied on XX/XX/XXXX to refinance an investment property I have. At first the process was going relatively smoothly as I had just used Royal United in XX/XX/XXXX2020 to refinance another investment property. On XX/XX/XXXX2020 I was told I needed to get an appraisal on this property since I was looking to do a cash out option. The price I was quoted for the appraisal was {$530.00}. I paid the {$530.00} and contacted the appraisal company to get it all scheduled. The appraisal company told me it was {$730.00}. I contacted RU to find out what the issue was, RU told me it was {$530.00} and that was correct. Then RU backtracked and said nope it would be {$730.00}. I paid the remaining {$200.00} to get the appraisal done. The appraisal was completed on XXXX/XXXX/2020. I started to have a very difficult time reaching anyone from RU for any updates as to the progression of my refi. I would go days if not almost a full week without hearing anything. Finally on XXXX I received word back that my loan was being made lock ready but since the appraisal came back higher than expected we had to wait on new pricing, I would get that update today. On XXXX I had not heard anything, I reached out to RU. No response. On XXXX my refi was being made lock ready today, options would be sent over in a few hours and to plan on closing the following Monday. Since I received a tentative close date, I contacted my lawyer to change the deed for the property ( This was previously gone over with RU that to refi this property I would need to remove it from the XXXX we were just waiting on the close date before making the change ). XXXX the deed changes were made. On XX/XX/XXXX I received word from RU that the prices were really bad right now and I needed to wait to Monday to get those. On Monday XX/XX/XXXX RU sent over pricing, I approved and was scheduled another closing date of Thursday the XXXX. On the XXXX later in the day I was asked for nurmerous different documents from RU. I am still unsure to this day why these were not requested before, since we have been working on this loan for a month and I had already received the approval and 2 different close dates. I sent over all the requested docs within minuets. I was told I had to add my husband to the loan, since we are 50/50 owners in the XXXX. RU sent over docs for him to sign, we sign immediately. On XX/XX/XXXX ( 2 days later ) I asked for an update I was told we have to move the closing to Friday the XXXX since there is a 3 day rule from signing docs to closing date. I approved the move to close Friday the XXXX. On XX/XX/XXXX I sent an email to everyone involved ensuring we are good to close tomorrow the XXXX- never heard back from RU. XX/XX/XXXX first thing in the XXXX I sent another email asking the status and are we still good to close today. The title company responded and that they are not hearing back from RU and don't have all the docs that they need. I reach out directly to RU they said " they are still trying to get everything together ''. XXXX said if they don't have the docs by XXXX we can't close today. Hours went by and no word from RU. Little to say we didn't close on the XXXX as RU wasn't able to get it together. On XX/XX/XXXX I received word from RU that they had me put the deed into the wrong name, now that my husband was on the loan I needed to add him to the deed. I pushed back HARD in an email to everyone involved stating that we needed to get it together. We have been going back and forth for days/weeks and no one seems to know what they are doing and making changes all of the time. Each time I have to change the deed it costs me attorney fees. If I HAVE TO I will do this but it cost more time and money. I was told to make the change. I did do within 24 hours. XX/XX/XXXX sent the updated deed to everyone involved including title. Another member of RU email me asking for 3 different statements and a few other documents that had already been sent over. At this time I was super frustrated and called this person asking why RU is still asking for different docs after a month in and especially ones that have already been sent over. He said " ops I guess I over looked it in my email ''. I sent over the other statements he was requesting that way we didn't have to do conference calls with all the different lenders. This was at about XXXX. I called him once the email was sent to let him know all docs were sent. Never heard back. At about XXXX  I received a call from XXXX XXXX trying to get conference calls with the lenders. I asked her if she received the statements I had emailed over to RU, she stated no that she hasn't heard from RU since XXXX  this morning. I emailed over to her all the 3 statements, she thanked for VERY much for not having to do the conference calls as they are a pain and super time consuming! The call took about 15 min and she stated all was good. XX/XX/XXXX I sent and email to RU asking about the status. No response. 2 hours later I emailed again, still no response. I called RU and spoke with one of the individuals I had been dealing with ( not the friendliest or the sharpest ), he told me he was waiting on an update from his " boss '' that is why he wasn't responding to anything. Finally later in the day I received an email from RU that they would not be able to close because on one of my  properties I had applied for a forbearance. She quoted to the guidelines in the email. I tried to reach anyone from RU on the phone to discuss no luck. I texted my contact from RU, who stated she was in meetings and would call me later. At about XXXX  that night I got her on the line she told me she was super sorry, normally she would not say this but because we knew each other ( kids go to the same day care ) she told me that my file was just not handled properly, the ball was dropped numerous times on their end etc etc. As irritating as that is to not be able to close, if the guidelines changes I understand BUT my question was WHEN did RU find out about these change in guidelines. I ended up contacting XXXX XXXX who is a manager with the company, my husband and I were both on the call. XXXX stated that RU was made aware of the changes on or around XXXX this was when the initial statement was sent out to all RU members that something was coming down the road and to inform all RU customers to NOT proceed with any forbearance on their properties. I was never informed of this. When I asked why I was never informed of this I was told " well Ms XXXX didn't think to inform you because you were doing friends and family pricing so she thought the rules wouldn't apply to you ''. I stated to XXXX that I racked up hundreds of dollars in attorney fees changing the deed around when they knew about something and didn't inform me of the change. That is not right. I should have been informed just as all other customers about the potential change. XXXX said he was going to try and see what he could do and let us know. We discussed taking the property in forbearance out of forbearance and that may help. My husband and I did that immediately paying 2 monthly payments at once. I followed up with XXXX to let him know, he reached back to his " back office '' and would let me know. Days later he told me there is nothing they can do my account still stated that I previously had a forbearance that was approved on XX/XX/XXXX. BUT that there was going to be some update to the guidelines on Thursday the XXXX and he would let me know an update then. On XXXX about XXXX I had not heard anything so I emailed XXXX, never heard back. Monday XXXX XXXX emailed me back and stated that no updates came in that would help me at all, but he would let me know if anything came about that did. He sent me a copy of my appraisal and told me good luck, basically. I emailed him back thanking him for the appraisal ( which I already had ) and asked to be reimbursed for my attorney fees as those 100 % could have been avoided if RU had told me the update in the beginning of XXXX. I received no response. I waited 48 hours and sent a more in-depth email to XXXX detailing my request further, that the total attorney fees for me to be made whole again would be {$780.00}. My attorneys fees began on XXXX thru XX/XX/XXXX, with one more change needing to be made to bring the property back to where it was before. XXXX responded pretty quickly with a short, he will send over to his compliance department who should respond back with 48 hours. Low and behold within hours of that coming back XXXX responded that his compliance team/department reviewed all of the information and would NOT be reimbursing me for any fees. This is a part of the email with the reason : " As such our communication to borrowers in the pipeline with specific directions not to pursue a forbearance was not pushed out until XX/XX/XXXX. Since your application for the forbearance was approved on the XXXX of XXXX and likely applied for much before that, there was not anything we could do to avoid it. '' I responded back to XXXX immediately and told him multiple things but 2 of the main ones were : 1 ) I still was NEVER informed about any change on the XX/XX/XXXX. 2 ) I continued to be told me make changes to the deed which cost me more and more money after the XXXX of XXXX. I followed up with a call to XXXX 's supervisor XXXX. I have yet to hear back from anyone with RU in regards to this matter. The appraisal cost is a lost expense. That was ordered and completed prior to any information about forbearance being sent out. But that was still {$730.00} out of my pocket. I was told a few times that RU new about the forbearance issues but I was just mistakenly not told. Then when I asked for the money to be reimburse to me the story and timeline changed. However, it doesn't change enough to cover all of the times I was told to change the deed AFTER the " new timeline '' of XX/XX/XXXX comes out, and the fact I was still never told on the XXXX either.