Consumer complaint received 03/29/2018 about Mortgage (FHA mortgage) with loanDepot.com, LLC (NY).
Issue: Struggling to pay mortgage

Complaint: I bought my home in XXXX with an FHA mortgage loan that is held by Loan Depot. Not long  after purchasing the home I had a temporary and unexpected hardship when my mother 's XXXX took a turn for the worse which led to me missing a significant amount of work to care for her till she passed. I have been trying for close to one year to resolve the matter of missed payments with Loan Depot and feel that they have been kicking the can down the road. It took several months for them to assign a representative to work with us -- once we submitted our paperwork it was lost and misplaced several times until a review was finally conducted. We were told we were denied ( no reason given ) and we asked if we could appeal. they told us no, just apply again. We took their advice and it took about 5 months of back and forth before a review was finally conducted. Once again Loan Depot is saying there are no options. This is an FHA loan insured by HUD and there are multiple programs available for homeowners in our situation. Our temporary hardship is over and we earn a good living and are able to resume making payments on this loan, but XXXX XXXX is saying there are no options for modification, repayment plan, partial claim or special forbearance so we must short sale. My issue is they have not given us the income information that was used to determine these findings. I have talked about our income with a homeowner assistance counselor and was assured that with our income we DEFINITELY qualify for help. I believe that Loan Depot is intentionally steering us to foreclosure or short sale even though we have sufficient income to afford our payment. 

I bought this property about 18 months ago as a home for myself and my wife and our XXXX young children. I had a good paying job doing XXXX XXXX, and was able to earn a nice XXXX on top of my regular pay. My wife was working also as a XXXX XXXX and we had tenants occupying the other unit of our property. Unfortunately, just a few months after buying the home, my mother 's XXXX took a turn for the worse. She was deteriorating fast and there was no one to take her to the XXXX treatments, XXXX, follow up visits with the doctor as I am the only family and she was XXXX and unable to get around. As a result I missed a lot of work and my income declined. I missed a couple of payments and thought I could easily get caught up. Not long after we lost the tenants from the other unit and suddenly I was in a tough spot. My mother got worse and finally passed in XX/XX/XXXX. Besides missed time from work and additional expenses to take care of her financial affairs there was an emotional cost as well. 

I have been back at work full time for several months and digging out from this hole. As explained I began trying to deal with the Loan Depot agents and it took several months to even get someone assigned to our case. A review was conducted in XX/XX/XXXX and we were told that the application was denied. We tried to appeal this decision but were told instead to apply again. We went through the same rigorous process to get someone to actually review the paperwork. We are aware that government loans backed by HUD have several programs available for struggling homeowners in our situation, including modification, partial claim, special forbearance and repayment plan. I recently received a letter from Loan Depot, claiming that I qualified for NOTHING, and that the only option was short sale. No inputs were provided, no detailed assessment of the income used to come up with these decisions, and I KNOW we have sufficient income to afford a fair payment and feel that Loan Depot is purposely steering this loan to foreclosure instead of conducting an accurate review. We want to save our home, and we know we qualify. We need Loan Depot to work with us, not against us.

Company public response: Company believes it acted appropriately as authorized by contract or law
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation