Consumer complaint received 2023-12-29
Product: Mortgage — Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Struggling to pay mortgage — Trying to communicate with the company to fix an issue related to modification, forbearance, short sale, deed-in-lieu, bankruptcy, or foreclosure
Company: FIRST HAWAIIAN, INC. (HI)

I am filing this complaint because I am concerned about the unethical servicing practices of First Hawaiian Bank and their obstruction of any path towards resolving delinquent payments related to my grandmothers passing. My name is XXXX XXXX and I am the legal and rightful owner of the subject property located at XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX. This loan is held in the XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX XXXX ( trust ) and upon my grandmothers passing I am listed as the successor. My family has the ability and desire to make the mortgage payments on this property which has been placed into foreclosure after my grandmothers death because the bank has refused to accept payments, engage or communicate with my family to resolve the situation. 

My family built this home back in the XXXX. My grandmother XXXX XXXX created a trust in XXXX and I am the beneficiary and successor for the property. We refinanced the referenced loan in XXXX. In XXXX XXXX  my grandmother passed away. The mortgage payments had been set on auto-pay from her First Hawaiian bank account. Once they found out that she had passed away they froze her bank account, which automatically led to missed mortgage payments. Even though I provided the bank with the will and trust documents, their agents refused to engage with me or discuss the mortgage. The letters that were sent regarding the delinquent payments were sent certified and since my grandmother was not available to sign for the letters since she was deceased we could not access them. As the mortgage fell further behind we attempted to resume making payments on the property but the bank would not accept them. 

I contacted the Attorney who was sending the notifications and he said that we needed to provide the death certificate in order to engage with First Hawaiian. This does not make sense, because the bank froze my grandmothers account when they found out she had passed away, not when they received her death certificate. If they were to equitably apply this standard they would have continued drafting mortgage payments out of her bank account until the money ran out or they received her death certificate. 

The reason we were not able to get the death certificate in a timely fashion is because my grandmother was a state of Hawaii employee and she was a victim of identity theft. Someone had stolen her credentials for the state and logged in and then they sold her information on the dark web. As a result it took us almost one year to receive her death certificate. During that time the bank refused to engage with us, refused to speak with us, froze my grandmothers bank account and blocked access to her safe deposit box. Then they filed foreclosure against my familys home. 

This is wrong and we have provided them with the will, the trust paperwork and the death certificate and the bank needs to work with my family. My son XXXX currently resides in the subject property and he will make the mortgage payments with help from me and my mother so that we can get back into good standing.