Consumer complaint received 2020-05-07
Product: Mortgage — Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Struggling to pay mortgage — 
Company: FIFTH THIRD FINANCIAL CORPORATION (MI)

- At the beginning of XXXX my mortgage was held by MB Financial. 
- MB 's mortgage portfolio was purchased by 5/3 Bank during the first quarter of XXXX. 
- While I was an MB Financial customer, I began to fall behind in my mortgage payments due to unemployment and a divorce. 
- My house went to foreclosure later in XXXX and a sheriff 's sale of my home was scheduled for XX/XX/XXXX in the morning. 
- I submitted a hardship application to 5/3 at the end of XX/XX/XXXX. I do not have documentation of the specific date, but I do have a letter from 5/3 dated XX/XX/XXXX that acknowledges my application and discussed next steps. 
- I never received written or verbal confirmation regarding the status of my hardship application until 2 days after the 5/3 scheduled sheriff 's sale. I was in communication with 5/3 all the way up to the sale on XX/XX/XXXX and they never provided me with a clear determination on my application. 
- On XX/XX/XXXX, I made a payment to 5/3 that brought my account current. I was able to do this by taking out a loan from a group of friends. If I did not do this, I would have lost my home at the sheriff 's auction. 
- 2 days after the sale, I received an express mail letter from 5/3 that was dated XX/XX/XXXX ( the date of my scheduled sheriff sale ) saying that my hardship application was approved with details on the trial payment plan. 
- If I had received this letter from 5/3 in the timeframe they were required to and promised, I would not have had to take out full loan from my friends and would have just made the required payments, but because of their delay on the review, this was not an option. 
- I held numerous calls with 5/3 since this large XX/XX/XXXX payment and was told that my trial plan leading to a loan modification was in place and that my payments on the plan had in fact been made when I brought the account current on XX/XX/XXXX. I have documentation to this effect extending to XX/XX/XXXX. One call to confirm my status with the 5/3 mortgage department was even made from a 5/3 branch with the local branch manager on the line. I did this to ensure I was not misunderstanding any aspect of this because I found the process so confusing. 
- I was told on the call in which the 5/3 branch manager participated that I could expect to receive my loan modification agreement by the end of XXXX. This did not happen. I was then told in a subsequent call that I would receive this by the end of XXXX. 
- It is XX/XX/XXXX, and this has still not happened. 
- A few weeks ago in mid-XXXX, I became concerned that this process might be impacted by the Covid 19 pandemic. In this call, I was told that my loan modification was not going to happen because I made my payment to bring my account current on XX/XX/XXXX. I had never been told this in any of my conversations with 5/3 or in written communications with them since my hardship application was submitted at the end of XXXX. 
- I was told I would need to resubmit my hardship application and go through the process all over again. If approved, this would put my overall timeframe to modify my mortgage at nearly a year assuming I submitted now, they took 30 days to review, I made 3 monthly payments, and they took another one to two months to get me an agreement. 
- I hold two XXXX XXXX and have XXXX  a businesses with significant financial responsibilities. I am not unintelligent or lacking in an understanding of fiscal matters. 
- I have found my experience with 5/3 to be absolutely frustrating and that they have not held up to their commitments. I am submitting this to CFPB in the hopes that doing so might rectify this situation for myself and potentially others. 
- In the interim, I am planning on applying for a Covid 19 hardship forbearance and a separate reapplication to their hardship program.