Consumer complaint received 2021-04-07
Product: Mortgage — VA mortgage
Issue: Applying for a mortgage or refinancing an existing mortgage — 
Company: Freedom Mortgage Company (FL)

While attempting to refinance in XXXX of XXXX, I reached out to Freedom Mortgage, my current VA loan servicer. On or about XX/XX/XXXX, I spoke with XXXX XXXX XXXX, loan officer for Freedom Mortgage. I informed XXXX that I was currently on a COVID Forbearance but that I had been sending payments as part of a trial loan modification to remove my forbearance for a couple of months. I asked how that would impact my refinance and XXXX told me that as long as I removed the forbearance and brought the loan current prior to closing on the refinance, I would be ok to refinance. Since the interest rate offered was so much lower, I agreed and XXXX took my application. XXXX told me that I would qualify for a 2.25 % IRRL refinance on my VA loan and because I was a current Freedom Mortgage customer, I would have all loan costs covered by Freedom with the exception of the VA Funding fee and Prepaids and Escrows. 

Knowing that I was going to refinance and not sure how a loan modification would impact my credit, I called Freedom Mortgage and asked them to remove my loan modification as I was going through an IRRL refinance with Freedom Mortgage and planned on making the full payment prior to closing to allow me to close on the loan. 

Soon after, I was sent Disclosures to sign along with the Loan Estimate with a rate lock until XX/XX/XXXX. XXXX informed me that the process could take 4-8 weeks. I signed the disclosures. On XX/XX/XXXX, I received an email from Ms XXXX XXXX, Customer Service Advocate working with my loan processor. Ms XXXX informed me that my loan was in " Conditional Approval which has been rendered by a Freedom Mortgage Underwriter '' and that I needed to provide proof of current payment. I found this odd since Freedom Mortgage was the servicer of my loan and had complete access to my mortgage information but I submitted the payment history from Freedom Mortgage 's website to Ms XXXX showing the XXXX payment I submitted anyways. After multiple unanswered follows ups emails to Ms XXXX requesting confirmation that the payment history provided cleared this last requirement to ensure I could close prior to the XXXX rate expiration. 

On or around XX/XX/XXXX, Ms XXXX finally followed up on my emails via a phone call. She stated that the payment history I submitted was accepted and now I only needed to remove the forbearance and submit a payment for the balance due from forbearance ( {$16000.00} ) and I would have the final clear to close. 

After gathering the funds to submit the payment and remove my forbearance, I sent a payment for {$16000.00} on XX/XX/XXXX and contacted Freedom Mortgage servicing department to request my forbearance be removed and sent and email to Ms XXXX letting her know I had completed the payment and removed my forbearance. Over the next couple of days, I followed up again with Ms XXXX to ask if we were going to be able to close prior to the XXXX rate expiration. No responses from Ms XXXX until my 3rd following on XX/XX/XXXX where she responded that she had no information on when the closing date would happen. On XX/XX/XXXX, 4 days prior to the rate lock expiration, I followed up again with Ms XXXX to see when we were going to be able to schedule closing. 

XXXX XXXX responded that my loan had been declined by the underwriter and that the loan was no longer with her department! 

Just like that, after almost 60 days of working on the loan from origination, preliminary underwriter review and conditional approval as well as being directed to remove my legally allowable forbearance with a lump sum payment, Freedom Mortgage pulled the rug out on my refinance despite the fact that my forbearance status, payment history and loan status was disclosed at loan application and Freedom Mortgage was my CURRENT SERVICER and had access to all relevant information throughout the process. 

I have been given multiple reasons for the decline. 
XXXX ) I had a late payment ( I did not as I was in forbearance ) 2 ) The VA removed XXXX eligibility if your loan was in forbearance in XXXX XXXX. 
XXXX ) I did not have 6 consecutive payments prior to going into forbearance. ( This is the reason that they finally settled on ) I have attempted to resolve this issue with multiple levels at Freedom Mortgage including Ms XXXX 's supervisor XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX 's XXXX loan officer ) supervisor XXXX XXXX and XXXX XXXX, Chief Compliance XXXX. 

Ms XXXX has yet to respond to my emails and Ms XXXX XXXX and Mr. XXXX 's initial responses were extremely dismissive. They simply stated that the situation was what it was. I forcefully pushed back on that assertion and demanded that Freedom Mortgage identify why their loan officer took a loan refinance application, my loan reviewed by processors, reviewed and conditionally approved by the underwriter and instructed to remove my COVID forbearance and submit a lump sum payment of the forbearance balance if the reason my loan was declined was something that was easily available/disclosed/accessible to all agents of Freedom Mortgage from the first step and every step along the way?? 

After my push back, the only responsive person was Ms. XXXX XXXX who attempted to investigate what happened and why. She ultimately admitted that my loan application should never have been taken, that the underwriter should not have given me conditional approval and that Ms. XXXX was not allowed to instruct me to remove my forbearance and submit the lump sum payment. Despite this admission, there was no resolution offered. I asked for escalation since I would lose out on the extremely low interest rate now that interest rates are dramatically higher and was out over {$16000.00} from the lump sum payment that would have been extremely useful to my family during these uncertain times and I had MULTIPLE options to remove my forbearance and bring my loan current that did not require a lump payment which is specifically prohibited by the VA. Ms XXXX XXXX responded that she was working on a response from other departments and lawyers as to what could be done but after waiting weeks and sending multiple follow up emails to Ms. XXXX XXXX XXXX I have yet to receive a response. 

At this point, the only reasonable conclusion that I can come to is that Freedom Mortgage coerced me into submitting a lump sum payment and to remove my forbearance by dangling an IRRL refinance with an extremely low interest rate and loan costs covered only to pull the loan after I submitted the loan payment.