Consumer complaint received 2017-11-18
Product: Mortgage — FHA mortgage
Issue: Struggling to pay mortgage — 
Company: JPMORGAN CHASE & CO. (CA)

To whom it may concern, I am looking for help or solutions. To start my husband and I purchased a home with a first time homeowners loan ( currently with Chase ) in a rural area of Illinois in XX/XX/XXXX. About XX/XX/XXXX my husband was called up to XXXX XXXX in the XXXX XXXX. At that time we placed our home for sale. The home sat on the market for six month with no offers and no interest in the home. We could not afford to make a house payment and rent in the area we were given orders to live in. After about six months on the market our realtor informed us she had someone who would be interested in the house only if we would do a contract for deed, a term used in Illinois meaning the potential buyer paid the mortgage for one year, the loan still being held by ourselves. After the year was over she would be eligible for a loan and would make the contract complete by paying for the remaining balance of the home with a loan of her own. It was explained to us that many people can not qualify for loans while they are recuperating there credit, but often they will qualify within the specified time. We were nervous but had no other options as the market had already started to make a downturn. The potential buyer made payments for about ten months before disappearing. It took three months to find out that she lived in the house two months while not paying and then moved out without giving notice, in addition she took the stove, refrigerator and washer and dryer we had in the home. It took about two more months but we were able to get the three months she owed in home payments with the money she had placed with the attorney as a good faith that she would get the loan. We placed the house back up for sale, this time we could no longer afford to make the payments on the home and the home was no longer worth what we owed. The house sat on the market for about six to nine months before we received an offer for about ten thousand less then what we owed. We were advised by Chase to apply for a short sale, and we did. We received many hardships with Chase in completing the paperwork. At this time they did not have a website with the required paperwork or a branch dedicated to help the military. We submitted the paperwork both by mail and fax no less then four times, each time being told they never received it. In this same time I found out I could apply for a deed in lieu. About a month after receiving the offer Chase finally claimed to receive the paperwork and informed us they would start the short sale process. About two weeks to a month after this time our potential buyer rescinded there offer explaining they could not wait without having a timeframe, as the market was continuing to go down cheaper homes were coming on the market. We continued to call Chase for a status with no resolve, Chase could only say it was in process and they did not know how long it would take. It would be another five months before they called to tell us we did not qualify for a short sale or a deed in lieu because they considered our contract for deed ( potential buyer ) as us renting the home and since that technically took place for thirteen month, which was over a year the home was considered as income property. We asked what could we do and were told they had no options for us but that we were covered by the SCRA. We placed the home for sale with three different realtors over the next few years with no offers. We had a difficult time even getting realtors to market it because they knew it would not likely sell. Over the years Chase would call and we would ask the same question you denied us what can we do? There response was to try short sale again we may qualify or to refinance and pay for house we did not live by and could not afford to pay for. In XX/XX/XXXX we finally received another offer on the house again for much less then what was owed but Chase assured us that we could apply for a short sale and that there were improvements from when we initially had gone through the process. We again started the process, this time we called no less then once a week to make sure the process was moving forward and it was. After about three months we were even told that we qualified for the short sale with Chase. It was at this time that we learned that our home also had to be approved by HUD. We waited about another two months for a response, all the while receiving threats that our buyer was going to walk away. We made a desperate call to Chase after this two months time to see if anything could be done before we lost the buyer. At this time we were informed that we had been denied for the short sale. We demanded an explanation after being told for so long that we could qualify. We were informed that HUD had been the one to actually deny the short sale and it was because our home had not received a payment on it for too many years. They would only approve if it was under three years and at this point the house payment had not been made for around eight years. We again asked Chase then what can we do and they told us they did not have an answer that there was nothing they could or would do for us. 

At this point we are at wits end and need a solution. We would appreciate help or a solution. We can not ever purchase another home while this home remains in this situation. 

Respectfully, XXXX and XXXX XXXX