Consumer complaint received 2025-02-24 00:00:00
Product: Mortgage — Home equity loan or line of credit (HELOC)
Issue: Struggling to pay mortgage — Foreclosure
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY
State: FL

Complaint narrative:
Loan XXXX Please consider each incident ( Five of them ) as a separate complaint : I. I was paying my mortgage by money order, delivering the money order payment to local branches. XXXX day my roommate called me up and he told me that he had been served and I was being sued for foreclosure. I immediately drove to the closest Wells Fargo branch and I talked to a banker who said that she would look into it right away and get back to me within a week. When I followed up with that Banker she said that she could not talk to me because I was not on the mortgage, it was only my husband. I am on the deed and my husband died in XXXX. Wells Fargo was well aware of his death and they sent me a condolence letter within a year, ( and several thereafter ). I continue to make the payments. Federal law protects people who inherit a property with a mortgage and the deed is XXXX. For some reason they were not accepting them. No one at the branches, where they accepted my payments monthly, told me there was any problem. I was not delinquent and certainly not in default and I showed the money orders to the banker when I went there after my roommate told me Wells was suing for foreclosure. They were turning money into the state that I was making for payments. Long story short I had to pay a lawyer {$5000.00} to settle this lawsuit. I stopped making payments after they sued for foreclosure and by the time it got to court, I believe XXXX of XXXX, I owed {$9000.00}. 
This was NOT previously filed as a complaint with CFPB XXXX. In the spring of XXXX I was approved, by XXXX XXXX, for {$150000.00} to refinance. I wanted that amount of money because it was enough to pay off Wells and all liens and I intended to fix the house up and sell and I wanted to get rid of Wells Fargo, who I still had a bad taste in my mouth from, after they cost me {$5000.00}. When I was approved I immediately went out and got a XXXX XXXX credit card and started with the work on the house. XXXX XXXX  wanted to use a title company, XXXX. XXXX needed information on the liens. I had to speak to the utility company which has a XXXX on the house, despite the fact that statutory that utility liens go with the house, the local utility files a XXXX after problems they had in the early XXXX, when people bought homes cheap only to find out there were outstanding water bills for thousands of dollars. I also had to get a payoff statement from the HOA. XXXX wanted an updated XXXX from the bank holding the mortgage despite the fact I provided XXXX from XXXX to be approved for the refinance. I asked XXXX XXXX, of Wells Fargo executive office, who I had been in touch with about refinancing, for an updated payoff statement, the end of XXXX or early XXXX. In the past I had gotten a payoff statement within XXXX or XXXX days anytime I requested XXXX from Wells. This time no payoff statement was forthcoming. I tried to contact XXXX XXXX but it was during COVID and he was working from home and I left messages. He had told me that he was putting in a request for a payoff when I requested it from him in XXXX. The middle of XXXX XXXX had me sign a form to have the payoff sent directly to them by Wells Fargo. The closing was set for XX/XX/XXXX. Neither I nor XXXX title got a payoff statement from Wells Fargo and the closing didn't come to pass. XXXX XXXX had already given me a few extra days from the loan approval deadline and they refused to extend it any further. Long story short the refinance fell through and I was stuck with Wells Fargo and didn't have the money to fix my house to put it on the market at that time. 



XXXX. In XXXX I had XXXX different contractors go up on my roof and check for windstorm damage because I had a leak. They chalked off areas of the roof and they told me that under existing Florida law I was entitled to a new roof because more than a certain percentage was damaged. I contacted Wells Fargo because I had lender placed coverage. It is cheaper because they only insure what you owe and otherwise you have to have exorbitant full replacement coverage. Wells Fargo refused to give me the name of the insurance company or the policy number for me to make a claim. They told me that the insurance was in the name of my long deceased husband. They knew since XXXX that he was dead, as you read from number XXXX. Many years ago I took XXXX and XXXX practice and principle. From that and from personal experience with my mother 's house I knew that it was illegal to knowingly insure someone you knew was deceased. I am sure that it is that way in Florida too. Despite the fact that I was on the deed I was not a named insured. Wells Fargo told me that I could not make the claim for XXXX damage or anything else. When I listed my house in XXXX of XXXX, the appraisal was {$380000.00} - the roof which at the time was XXXX or {$18000.00}. I listed it for {$340000.00}. Because of Wells Fargo not allowing me to make a claim I lost {$18000.00}. I was scheduled to sign a purchase offer on XX/XX/XXXX but hurricane XXXX was XX/XX/XXXX. Because the roof was old I lost my roof in the hurricane. As a result of still having an old roof I lost ceilings in the living room, XXXX bedrooms, the garage and XXXX. My house sustained over {$86000.00} worth of damage which would not have happened if I had been able to make the insurance claim a few months earlier and have the roof repaired or replaced. The lady across the street had a roof that was 4 months old and she only lost half a dozen shingles. She had no interior damage. I would have paid off Wells Fargo, the other liens, and been out of here, if not for Wells Fargo. 
Number XXXX and XXXX were previously filed as complaints with CFPB but at that time the CFPB didn't handle cases in litigation. While the Executive Office of Wells Fargo was in contact with me in XX/XX/XXXX, Wells legal department had referred it to foreclosure and the complaint was abandoned as it went to litigation. The complaint was not resolved. 



IV. To be able to do some repairs on the house, after Wells Fargo ruined my refinancing in XXXX, I stopped paying my mortgage, got the house ready for sale, put it on the market in XXXX of XXXX, and was prepared to sell it on XX/XX/XXXX of XXXX. I had been in touch with Wells Fargo executive office again regarding refinancing and Wells Fargo lied and said that as a home equity line of credit it expired, and they could not refinance. Last month I received a XXXX XXXX that states that the mortgage origination date was XX/XX/XXXX of XXXX. I should have been able to refinance when they sued for foreclosure in XXXX. That XXXX also says the outstanding mortgage is {$73000.00}. 
Also, having a judgment on me I was not able to refinance with major banks and it was public record and a roadblock to selling to buyers on XXXX. Wells Fargo hampered my ability to sell, at fair market value to pay them off. 



XXXX Wells Fargo got a judgment against me last year, I believe it was XX/XX/XXXX, for {$72000.00}. The auction date, set at the time of that judgment, was XX/XX/XXXX. The day before I was successfully able to borrow that amount of money from a private lender. Anyone, you, XXXX Doe, XXXX XXXX could have bought my house at auction for that amount of money which was listed on the Foreclosure calendar, of which I have a screenshot. However the day before when I offered to pay them off in full the {$72000.00} Wells Fargo refused it. They canceled the auction for 45 days, to determine how much more money they could soak me for. I am an elderly XXXX XXXX living on Social Security and it was a miracle that I was able to borrow the amount of money to pay them off that they didn't accept. 
I spoke to a LegalShield attorney where I have a prepaid membership and they told me that this is legal, that anyone could pay off that amount and get it at auction but since I'm the owner they want to punish me. I am trying to sell the house. If you recall back before I refinanced it I intended to sell the house back in XXXX. It is my only asset. I have no other retirement savings or anything. Considering the damages that Wells Fargo cost me in the past going back to number XXXX, {$5000.00} for an attorney because unbeknownst to me they weren't accepting my mortgage payments, in violation of federal law that protects people who inherit, through the fact that because they did not have me on the insurance as an insured and would not allow me to make a claim my house suffers significant damage and I couldn't sign it when I had a valid purchase offer, I think they should take the amount of money that was listed for that judgment and go away or at most charge me the {$73000.00}, listed on the XXXX XXXX as the amount owed. 
Wells Fargo is the client of the attorneys they retained. They call the shots with the attorney in regards to settlements. Attorneys have to clear things with their client Wells Fargo. Not the other way around. They can accept the amount of money offered. 
Now my house is not worth {$380000.00} with a new roof. It's down to around {$300000.00}. Had it not been for Wells Fargo I would have sold when the market was good. I have lost money all the way around because of that bank, Wells Fargo, and they have cost me direct and proximate damages.

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation