Consumer complaint received 2015-08-30
Product: Mortgage — Conventional fixed mortgage
Issue: Loan servicing, payments, escrow account — 
Company: M&T BANK CORPORATION (MN)

My brother passed away on XXXX XXXX, 2015. I was chosen by him to be the personal representative for the estate and XXXX of the beneficiaries. I had no authority or access to his funds until the probate went through county court. I called several of the companies that my brother did business with and informed them of the situation including M & T Mortgage. M & T Mortgage told me they could not speak to me until I had provided official documents from county court that I was the personal representative. I faxed them a death certificate and asked them to notate on the account that my brother had died. I gave them my cell phone number for any necessary communication about the estate. In late XXXX, I was officially appointed by the court to be the personal representative. I promptly faxed M & T Mortgage the document and waited the required 48 hours for them to process the fax. After contacting them, they claimed they did n't have any records of my fax, so I faxed it again. After waiting another 48 hours, I spoke to a representative. They agreed to waive the late charges under the circumstances and accepted my payment to get the account up to date. I had done everything possible to handle my brother 's obligations. This payment was made before 90 days after the account was delinquent. According to M & T Bank, there would be no foreclosure proceedings before 90 days after the first payment was delinquent. The next payment would be due XXXX XXXX. In the process of going through the house and getting it ready to put on the market, I noticed the lawn had been mowed, the water was shut off, some items were missing from the house, and the door had been re-keyed with some paddle locks on other doors. We corrected this problem and figured a vagrant had attempted to live there. We informed the neighbors and were all prepared to call the police if there were any more intrusions. We proceeded to sell the house. It closed on XXXX XXXX. When we received the payoff quote from M & T Bank it had late fees and XXXX extra charges with no explanation. XXXX charge was for over XXXX dollars. My realtor and the title company were baffled. I called M & T for an explanation and they claimed that I was n't authorized to act on the account. The title company faxed them my documents ( this was now the third time! ) They now claimed that they could n't speak to me for 72 hours. I was faced with a buyer who was in a hurry to close, and a realtor and title company that would be faced with a bunch more work to reschedule the closing. I felt there was no other choice, but to authorize the payment and confront M & T Bank after the fact. Based on the horribly disorganized and possibly shady activities of this bank and the fact that after all this time, I am still not able to talk to them, I am asking for help. It was bad enough that we lost a dear loved one, but now we have to deal with this. I acted promptly and honorably in every situation with his estate. This company appears to want to take advantage of our loss.