Consumer complaint received 2020-11-29
Product: Mortgage — Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Struggling to pay mortgage — 
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY (CO)

XX/XX/XXXX Attention Wells Fargo Home Mortgage : To Whom it may concern, The purpose of this letter is to provide an overview of my financial hardship during the COVID-19 pandemic that led to accepting assistance through Wells Fargo Home Mortgage ( WF ), who offered me a payment deferral program that turned out was never applicable to my loan. I aim to illustrate the negligence and lack of transparency that took place by WF, the servicer of my loan, who misled me and did nothing to inform me of the actual coverage of benefits, or lack of coverage, throughout the duration of the hardship period. I was given incorrect, inconsistent and at times evasive information about my options that would allow me to make an informed decision about my loan. I hope by illustrating the neglect the servicer has demonstrated we can work toward a reasonable solution moving my mortgage out of forbearance and find a way for WF to compensate for their blatant error that has held me hostage in their mortgage assistance application process for months. I suspect that this may be one instance of a broader problem impacting a number of Alaskans beside myself. 

Statement of the Problem : I started my XXXX XXXX over a decade ago and have earned recognition of fifteen prestigious international awards for my work. Outside my inhouse projects, I have freelanced in XX/XX/XXXX moatly through conducting XX/XX/XXXX XXXX for a school district that serves rural communities and Alaska Native Corporations. This has allowed me to stay in good standing on my mortgage for over 15 years. In XXXX, theXX/XX/XXXXrecession brought a decline in the demand of my services and I only made 27 % that year compared to the gross revenue I made in XXXX. Because of that, I decided to rent my home short term with Airbnb in XXXX as I periodically traveled outside state in search of new XXXX opportunities. This brought enough additional gross revenue to allow me to continue to stay in good standing on my mortgage payments to WF as I travelled back and forth from XX/XX/XXXX 

I was travelling out of XX/XX/XXXXwhen the COVID-19 pandemic hit, which left me stuck out of state in XXXXwhere I still reside. Because the pandemic brought the film industry to its knees, I became increasingly dependent on Airbnb revenue. However, the pandemic also greatly impacted reservations in spring of XXXX, when revenue usually begins to pick up along with XX/XX/XXXX tourism. I largely depend on the additional revenue earned in the spring and summer to supplement slower months in the winter when rentals begin to largely drop off. 

In early XXXX, despite the anticipated drop in winter revenue, my Airbnb was gaining momentum. In XXXX, profits were up 78 % compared to that time in XXXX, and still 34 % up in XXXX. But in XXXX I began to get cancellations due to the ramp up of Covid-19 and I suffered a sudden 48 % drop that month compared to XXXX. I had received the offer from WF Home Mortgage to suspend payments because of pandemic hardship. With no bookings in sight at that time for future months either, I took them up on their offer. 

I received a letter on XX/XX/XXXX stating that any payments that became due during the relief period and are still unpaid will be moved to the end of your loan. At that time, it was impossible to get anyone from WF on the phone ( even calling repeatedly all day, day after day ) so all I had to go off of was what was written in this letter. Nothing in the letter stated that my loan was not federally backed by this program they offered me. It didnt advise me to contact the originator of my loan, XX/XX/XXXX, nor did any other correspondence that followed. Months later in this process, I would be told by XXXX XXXX of XX/XX/XXXX, that I should never have to contact XX/XX/XXXX because it is WFs responsibility as the servicer of my loan to deliver any information pertaining to its status or rules of programs that apply to it. 

A couple weeks after accepting the suspension of my payments with WF, I got lucky and received a long booking in XXXX for my XXXXXXXX, which brought me up 60 % from XXXX. But unfortunately, by XXXX I was 64 % down in booking revenue again. Things were slower than normal, and I had to drop my prices to compete. XXXX was also down 40 %, and XXXX brought lower revenue as well. 

After the initial three months of payment suspensions WF offered, I received correspondence from them stating that if I needed more time to recover, I had the option to extend my payment suspension for up to another three months, for a total of six months. At the end of this term, if I could resume making regular monthly payments, WF would first consider the option originally offered to me of deferring the payments to the end of my loan. Because I was still facing a loss and a lot of uncertainty, I agreed to extend. 

By XXXX, things were beginning to even out and I had made about what I did in XXXX that time of year. With some savings in the bank, and the recent awarding of a small business grant for 6 months of payments, I called WF to get back on track. Thinking my payments would be deferred to the end of my loan, I anticipated utilizing the grant moving forward through the slim winter months when Airbnb revenue historically slows down and I would typically rely on savings from the spring and summer. The small cushion of savings I had squirreled away would be used to supplement overhead/bills, and any leftover could be reinvested in maintaining and improving the property. 

I was horrified when I was told after months of suspended payments, that what was offered to me in that initial letter may not be an option for my loan. WF told me, despite what was offered in their letter, I would have to pay it all upfront or go through an extensive application process to see what I was even eligible for. I have worked diligently with WF for months now, jumping through these application requirement hoops. Through the process, and working with a large number of different WF representatives, it came to light that I was never eligible for the program WF led me to believe I had enrolled in. Further, that whatever option XX/XX/XXXX may offer for hardship protection may only cover the first three months! WF has never been transparent and direct about when I was moved out of a COVID-19 specific relief program and placed into a forbearance status. I suspect it was after the initial three months and it was done without notifying me about the change or offering me an opportunity to make an informed decision moving forward with payment suspension. None of the application paperwork Ive been assigned contains COVID-19 hardship specific language. 

To date, I have provided WF with more financial audits regarding my personal and business finances than I ever had to give to XX/XX/XXXX to receive a grant for mortgage assistance, as well as the information required for the small business grantand the requests continue, eating up time I could be dedicating to my craft and employment opportunities, while aggravating the already inflated amount of anxiety and stress the pandemic has bolstered my diagnosed Complex XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. Further, the longer WF drags out this process, the more months of missed payments stack up ( nearly three months now ) as Ive been told by WF that any payments made will be applied linearlytherefor potentially wiping out the only months XX/XX/XXXX would offer assistance. 

Recently, my concerns have been validated by XXXX XXXX, a WF manager of the High Visibility team assigned to my case, as well as XXXX XXXX, with the Executive Office. I should have never received the misleading correspondence from WF that offered me this benefit my loan wasnt actually qualified for. Nor was it brought to my attention when they sent me the offer after the first three months to extend for another three-month term. I wasnt told that my loan was never eligible for what they had offered for at least six weeks or more into the mortgage assistance application process WF forced me to endure once I declared the end of my hardship term ( a month earlier than I could have ). 

It is clear that the servicer of my loan ( WF ) provided the wrong information and did not offer anything regarding XX/XX/XXXXCOVID-19 hardship policies to me. This is gross negligence to say the least, if not a breach of the Truth In Lending Act, or something similar. I have never been in bad standing on my home loan in over 15 years, and have been led to a situation where Im being forced to go through extensive, demoralizing scrutiny of someone facing a foreclosure due to their own delinquency, not a global pandemic as it were. Regardless, I was blatantly misled by WF to believe I was being provided protection I was not and this was greatly to my detriment. I would have found someway- any other way- to get through the hardship if I had known I would be facing months of investigation and left with a pretty big burden. And to make it worse, what is being offered in the name of pandemic relief is to WFs benefit by capitalizing on additional interest off my hardship -- not the protection of the longevity of my home loan my small business depends on which they so eagerly assured me in the beginning was protected by the program they offered me. I wasnt given the information that would allow me to make an informed decision, and therefor, I was entrapped in this process that would leave me with a greater burden that profits WF and their investors. 

The silver lining is that in the months since I reached out in XXXX, more people are seeking Airbnb over hotels due to Covid and I saw an upswing of 21 % in XXXX, 83 % in XXXX and 32 % in XXXX. Even without the film industry picking back up, I am now in a better position with Airbnb to make my regular monthly payments than I was in XXXX ( when I was making regular payments without fail ). While I dont have much on the books for the winter ( most of these arent booked far in advance ), and still anticipate a drop in rentals those months, I believe I can show enough stability to refinance from my high 5 % APR to the current record breaking low interest rates on the market if my home loan wasnt placed in this forbearance status by WF without my direct informed authorization. 

Proposed Resolution : I am asking that WF immediately take my loan out of forbearance status and implement putting my missed payments at the end of my loan as they originally offered. That includes all six months their neglect persisted while not providing accurate information regarding my loan, as well as any months since then that I have acquired because of the lengthy, un-transparent and convoluted process WF has had me suffer through. In addition to this, because of the undue process and uncountable time I have had to dedicate to the endeavor, as well as the unnecessary addition of stress it has caused, I ask WF to lower my current interest rate to meet the much lower market value while maintaining the current ratio split of principal and interest I have earned over 15 years of my loan. The ability to adjust interest rates was an option the 2nd letter I received from WF to extend my deferment term offered. I believe my request is just and fair and within WFs means. 

WF has used XX/XX/XXXX as a shield to not take accountability for this process and may use XX/XX/XXXX required guidelines as a roadblock to deny this request. It should be noted that I have requested to seeXX/XX/XXXX guidelines since XXXX when I was forced into this process and WF has denied that information stating that it is confidential, privileged and/or proprietary information despite XX/XX/XXXXbeing a public entity funded by government and subject to freedom of information laws. My request for information specific to requirements set by XX/XX/XXXX should thus be considered a proper request for publicly accessible information and not blocked by WF under corporate intellectual privacy laws. 

Alternate Resolution : Alternatively, if the above proposal is not a possibility because of XX/XX/XXXX WF can afford to own up to their mistake by writing off these deferred payments and missed escrow with no penalty to me and allow me to continue regular monthly payments from here forward. From there, if they deny granting me a lower APR, I will pursue looking for refinance with an institution that has a better reputation when it comes to lending practices. 

Conclusion : As I have been given a deadline of XX/XX/XXXX by WF for me to complete the latest rounds of requests for the mortgage assistance application I was hoodwinked to participate in, I would appreciate a timely response to this letter. I have been told that if I dont meet the XXXX deadline ( and put more time into this ) WF will start the foreclosure process. Because of the mismanagement of my loan that this letter addresses, I see the high-pressure nature of this deadline, same as this process as a whole, as predatory and coercive. 

If I participate further in their mortgage assistance application process it may be perceived as accepting these terms along with additional interest or higher payments, but for the given reasons in this letter I certainly do not. I have participated this far because I was told I did not have a choice and my primary residence inXX/XX/XXXX, and all the principle I have paid over 15 years toward it, has been held hostage if I did not comply. I believe the important matter of how WF will work with me to compensate for the negligence in this case must be addressed before anything further happens with my loan or assistance application. 

Thank you for recognizing the blatant neglect made by Wells Fargo Home Mortgage regarding my loan, and I look forward to working with you toward a swift and appropriate resolution to the error.