Consumer complaint received 2017-10-12
Product: Mortgage — Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Closing on a mortgage — 
Company: FIRST GUARANTY MORTGAGE CORP (TX)

XXXX ( part of First Guaranty Mortgage Corp ) through fraud or gross negligence induced my family into applying twice for traditional 30-yr fixed rate mortgages that they could not ever provide us with. It took them 7 weeks to tell us that we were not approved for a loan. This was after we had to push them to even get our loan information to underwriting because we were closing very soon. The denial was given only 2 business days before our closing and was given after their agent had told us it was ok to transfer savings account funds in order to purchase my cashier 's check for closing. The denial came after they had directed, at our expense, a new survey and two rushed appraisals. The denial certainly came after they had charged us for application fees and rate lock fees. The denial was too late to prevent us from paying for inspections, option fees, and earnest money checks, and packing our home and notifying our children 's private school of our impending withdrawal. The reason for the denial of our loan was stated that we did not have a tax return for the newly reformed business that we own. They also have said that declining income in the old business was a reason for the denial. It is true that there is no new tax return for the new business and there was declining business income in the old business, but all of that information was provided specifically to them in the very first phone call with their agent ( as well as a memo and all the documentation early on for our files ). We had informed their agent that other lenders had been unable to offer us a traditional loan based on our business situation, but their agent assured us that he had spoken to his supervisor and an underwriter about our situation and no one could see a problem with us getting an exception to the one year tax return rule. He even convinced us to leave another lender because he was so confident in their customer service and ability. They allowed us to proceed with two different applications and incurring thousands of dollars in expenses related to the attempted purchase of these homes, all the while they could not ever have granted us the loans we sought on either house because of their lack of basic professional knowledge in their industry. They have caused us XXXX XXXX and harmed our personal and professional reputations by denying the loan at the 11th hour. They could have saved us 7 weeks of our time and thousands of dollars if they had been honest from the start ( or at least  competent ) and understood what the requirements were for the loan that we sought. Our first preapproval letter was given to us on XX/XX/XXXX. The second preapproval letter was written on XX/XX/XXXX. Their official denial of our loan was given on XX/XX/XXXX. Our closing was set for XX/XX/XXXX ( XX/XX/XXXX was a bank holiday ). We want to recover all fees and expenses that we have incurred trying to purchase these homes from the start of our relationship with XXXX. If they had been honest then we would never had spent the money that we did. They could have prevented all of this if they had timely reviewed our loan file and provided proper training to their agents.