Consumer complaint received 2024-01-26
Product: Mortgage — VA mortgage
Issue: Applying for a mortgage or refinancing an existing mortgage — Application denials
Company: CrossCountry Mortgage LLC (UT)

To Preface this, the lender is well aware of the situation since I have persued legal action against them. 
By way of introduction theres a Department of Veteran Affairs document online ( VA Form 26-8978 ) that outlines certain rights that VA loan borrowers have, including that you may sell your home to someone who agrees to assume your loan if the loan holder or VA approves the creditworthiness of the purchaser ( s ). 

It also mentions that these rights apply to the borrower and, if you sell your home, to any buyer who assumes the loan. On XX/XX/2022, I signed a contract to assume a VA loan. In order to complete the assumption process we ( me the buyer and the sellers ) had to work with the loan holder or lender. The lender then made the determination that I was not credit worthy and denied the assumption on XX/XX/2022. 

The VA does have some safeguards in place meant to protect the sellers and buyers in my situation, or at least give us some recourse in the event the buyer is denied the assumption. 

In the Lenders Handbook - VA Pamphlet 26-7 Chapter 5.6.h. Decision Notices The VA mandates that in the event an assumption is disapproved the disapproval notice from the lender must include a notice that the lenders decision may be appealed to VA within 30 calendar days, This is a safeguard put in place by the VA to give an assumer a right to appeal, however unfortunately for me the lender never did give me the required notice that I could appeal their decision directly to the VA. As a result I was stuck, the lender refused to reconsider my application, and I had no idea I had the right to appeal the lender 's decision to the VA .

Consequently, I lost the assumption deal and realized heavy financial loss along with opportunity cost due to the many months I spent working towards the assumption including trying to get the lender to follow the guidelines and grant me my rights therein which they failed or refused to do even after I pointed it out to them.

I spent ~ {$30000.00} dollars pursuing litigation against the lender just to have a judge in Utah court rule that the lender had no duty towards me ( no duty in tort ( negligence ) for this relationship between Defendant and Plaintiff ) to follow the established VA guidelines.

Thus my concerns are two fold, 1. If a lender can not be held accountable for not following guidelines meant to protect those transacting in VA loan assumptions then that puts the public at risk both civilian and veteran alike when pursuing VA loan assumptions from abuse of power by the lender, homes are big life changing deals/purchases.

2. I lost a lot of money, hopes, and dreams etc.. Due to the lender 's negligence, I am looking to recoup what I lost from the lender, to hold them accountable and set an example so that other lenders think twice about taking lightly or ignoring these guidelines.

The Lender is Cross Country Mortgage, and the above is just a brief summary of the situation. They also took 49 days just to get us our assumption application, and violated other VA guidelines such as retaining the full {$300.00} + dollar processing fee when the guidelines specifically say to return {$50.00} in the event an assumption is not completed. etc.. And wrongly indicated to me that I needed to owner occupy the property in order to assume it.

I have additional evidence detailing all my correspondence with the lender. Please reach out if you would like more information regarding my experience. The lender failed in their responsibilities throughout the whole process, chief among those is that the lender violated my rights by not notifying me of my right to appeal their decision to the VA.