Consumer complaint received 2019-10-29
Product: Mortgage — Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Closing on a mortgage — 
Company: ALLY FINANCIAL INC. (NC)

I was excited to purchase my first home, a newly constructed townhome, and selected Ally to be my LendeXXXX. However, finalizing and closing on this conventional mortgage was an outrageously horrible experience over the past few weeks that brought me economic, mental, and physical harm. To summarize my hardships and complaints with how my loan was handled : I was denied the right to view the revised HMDA closing disclosure 1 business day prior to closing ; The Ally loan team engaged in deceptive advertising and communication ; I was subject to Allys negligent oversight of third-party appraisers ; and, My Ally loan team was incompetent in executing, and grossly negligent in oversight of internal service level obligations in place to ensure loans close in time. As a result, I bore the physical, mental, and economic harm. 



I travel extensively for work, so to conduct a timely and successful move, I modified my work and personal obligations to permit me to be local and available during the time period surrounding my scheduled closing date ( XX/XX/XXXX ). I scheduled movers, deliveries, technicians, etc. to coincide with this time frame. Any delays or altercations to these scheduled activities would likely result a negative domino effect and jeopardize my move. 



In an effort to reduce delays for my closing, I spent an estimated 15 hours to proactively engage the lending team, follow up, request escalations, and effectively project manage the tasks required to finalize closing. Had I not done so, I am confident that the loan would have suffered additional unnecessary delays. Moreover, what is concerning and aggravating is that the delays detailed below show that these pain-points should have been easily avoidable, as enough information was readily available to the team prior to the last hours of closing. For example, the team had all the information to resolve the condo/townhome issue, at least by XX/XX/XXXX, if not much earlier, yet the team requested I reschedule my closing ( and thereby everything else ) to accommodate the operational failures to obtain a proper appraisal. Further, the accounting errors in the closing disclosures were with respect to specific line items that I emailed the team about on XX/XX/XXXX, and provided evidence for on XX/XX/XXXX. Why these items took multiple This complaint is not meant to be a comprehensive inventory of harm experienced but I can say that this experience resulted in the economic loss of 1 days use of my new home and damaged my well-being by subjecting me to undue stress. This was such an awful experience I feel like I need to advocate to my coworkers, clients, friends, and family to never use a product or service from Ally to spare them the potential grief of the likes I experienced. I am writing this complaint with the hopes that internally, Ally can examine and correct their people / process / technology operating model so that other consumers are not subject to a similar experience. 



Detailed Timeline of Relevant Events : XX/XX/XXXX XX/XX/XXXX : I provide all requested documentation in a timely manner, at times providing documentation within the hour, or within the day. 



XXXX XXXX Speaking with the loan officer ( XXXX ), I am told that loans close typically close in 25 days, and as early as 21 days if the consumer is responsive in providing all necessary documentation ( as evidenced by my timeline, this time-to-close estimate does not even seem remotely plausible ). Based on this information and the Loan officers responsiveness to my inquiries and documentation, I chose Ally to be my lender. I request a rate lock, intent to move forward, provide credit card information for the required Lenders appraisal, etc. 



I provide the scheduled closing date of XX/XX/XXXX. 



XXXX XXXX Appraisal completed ( XXXX ) and report submitted ( XXXX ). 



XX/XX/XXXX XXXX emails me and is confused because the property is a townhome, yet the XXXX and title agency curiously classified it as a condo. All documentation and communication provided by me and my realtor has consistently described the home as a townhome. Request is made for me or my realtor to contact the HOA and help us verify what is needed. We connect the HOA with XXXX to sort out any of this confusion. 



I also request that the Loan Estimate be updated to reflect all 3 of the payments Ive made on the property, as a payment of {$8200.00} had not been accounted for. XXXX confirms this will be properly updated this afternoon. 



XX/XX/XXXX My agent provides the recorded plat for additional confirmation of townhome status. XXXX replies in that he is coordinating with the appraiser to see if they can have the report amended. 



XX/XX/XXXX XXXX communicates to me that Ally had cleared the condo/townhouse issue up on our end. I provide proof of home owners insurance ( HOI ) payment. 



XX/XX/XXXX XXXX requests HOA to provide Ally with a statement of the monthly dues, which was provided by the HOA within 40 minutes. 



XX/XX/XXXX ( 3 business days prior to scheduled close ) XXXX - Without hearing anything from Ally, I proactively reached out to confirm that everything was still on track. 

XXXX - XXXX responded that the appraisal requires revision to more formally not [ e ] the change from a condo to a townhouse, and requests postponing of my close my at minimum two additional days to XX/XX/XXXX. 



I call the XXXX for more information and was informed that ( a ) despite knowledge that the appraisal was completed on XX/XX/XXXX listing my home as a condo, and the confusion this caused the week prior, the request to revise the appraisal was not made to the appraisal management company until Monday, XX/XX/XXXX ; ( b ) Ally requires the revised appraisal to issue the initial closing disclosure ; ( XXXX ) Ally did not expect to receive the revised appraisal before business close on Thursday ; and ( d ) To comply with regulations, closing can not occur until XXXX business days after the initial closing disclosure is issued and acknowledged by me. 



Understanding that time was of the essence, I requested to escalate my discussion to a supervisor ( XXXX ). After communicating my concerns with how the process had been managed and was being executed, XXXX communicated that an underwriting exception was granted to allow the initial disclosure to be issued in advance of receipt of the revised appraisal. XXXX stated that the team would call me tomorrow morning to review the remaining steps. I reviewed and acknowledged the initial disclosure, and went to bed thinking that we were back on track. 



XX/XX/XXXX ( 2 business days prior to scheduled close ) Friday morning - No contact made from Ally team to review remaining steps. 

XXXX I email the closing expert ( XXXX ) to further confirm if everything was going on track, including the revised appraisal. 

XXXX - I email XXXX XXXX to communicate errors that were made when preparing the initial closing disclosure. The initial closing disclosure did not give me credit for the pre-paid home owners insurance ( which was provided on XX/XX/XXXX ) and also incorrectly counted the payments that I had made to the home ( which I had previously notified the team on XX/XX/XXXX ). 

XXXX - XXXX responds confirming that closing disclosure will be updated to reflect the correct amounts. 

XXXX I follow up to see if they have made the updates to the revised appraisal. 

XXXX - My realtor follows up because the closing attorney still had not received the revised closing disclosure or loan package. At this point, Ally has missed the previously communicated deadline to provide all documents by XXXX the business day prior to closing. I now have to postpone my closing. Luckily the closing attorneys had a XXXX slot, however, due to the late time, they will not be able to record the same day, delaying my effective ownership of the property by at least 1 day. 

XXXX I receive an email from XXXX XXXX the closing disclosure has been updated and sent to the attorney. I log on the Ally portal and see a document titled as a closing disclosure, but upon viewing the document, it was actually the loan package, and not the closing disclosure. I make calls to Ally to get the revised closing disclosure, and am informed that the closing team is still working on it ( thereby making me seriously wonder what XXXX sent to the closing attorney ). The closing team tells me they will provide the revised closing disclosure that evening before business close. 

Later that evening, I receive notification that the disclosure has been updated. Upon review of the disclosure, I am disheartened to see that it still contains errors, namely the same two errors I notified the team with earlier ( HOI was marked as to be paid at closing incorrect accounting of payments already made ). 

XXXX - I reach out to the closing team and their supervisors to re communicate the errors on the closing disclosures and request that, given the difficulties already experienced, the team does not wait until Monday to resolve the closing disclosure. My revised closing time at XX/XX/XXXX XXXX requires all documentation to be received by XXXX the same day. I reiterated that I would be fully available during the weekend to finalize. 



XX/XX/XXXX ( 1 business day prior to scheduled close ) I follow up via email with the team to plead for assistance in resolving the closing disclosure before Monday morning. I make phone calls and come into contact with XXXX, who after I explain the events of the loan, along with my concerns with completing the transaction on time, was able to contact members of the closing team. XXXX was able to confirm that all documentation would be completed and provided to the closing attorney by XXXX on XXXX XX/XX/XXXX, and that I should be able to complete closing at the scheduled ( XXXX ) time on XXXX. 



XX/XX/XXXX XXXX - XXXX emails me confirming that he has made the necessary changes to the closing disclosure. Because the closing disclosure had not been completed by Saturday, I forced with the decision of ( a ) postpone my closing ( and incur economic penalties, among others ) to afford myself the right to review the revised closing disclosure 1 business day prior to close or ( b ) forfeit my right to review the revised closing disclosure 1 business day prior to close and close on time, thereby not incurring economic penalties and other hardships. I chose the latter. 



XX/XX/XXXX XXXX - XXXX emails me to confirm that the appraisal revisions have been completed. 

XXXX XXXX - I sign all documentation at my scheduled closing. Due to the delayed closing time, the documents were not able to be recorded ( county offices close at XXXX ), and I am unable to use my new home. 

XXXX - I receive email confirmation from XXXX that Ally had received the signed loan documents, and notification at XXXX that the loan was funded. 



XX/XX/XXXX XXXX - We asked the closing attorneys to notify us once the loan is recorded so that I can officially get the keys and use my new home. 

XXXX - the closing attorneys notify us that they were waiting on permission to record from the lender. I think the underwriter needed to recheck something on the appraisal. After hearing this, I call the closing team and am told that they should have the loan finalized by end of day. I communicate that this is unacceptable and that the loan still needs to be recorded, so a end of day XXXX means the loan could not be recorded until the following ( XX/XX/XXXX ) morning, further delaying effective use of my home, and request this be expedited to allow for time to record same day. 

XXXX - I receive notification by the attorneys that they had recorded the loan. XXXX ( hopefully ) ends the fiasco to close a conventional loan.