Consumer complaint received 2025-02-12 00:00:00
Product: Mortgage — Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Struggling to pay mortgage — Trying to communicate with the company to fix an issue related to modification, forbearance, short sale, deed-in-lieu, bankruptcy, or foreclosure
Company: Selene Holdings LLC
State: GA

Complaint narrative:
My wife and I have owned our home for nearly 50 years and we find ourselves facing a foreclosure auction on XX/XX/XXXX because of mistakes and misrepresentations made by agents at Selene Finance. My wife and I are both retired and on fixed income and had been making our monthly mortgage payment for close to 5 years while we were in a Chapter XXXX bankruptcy to pay back our arrearages from a crisis several years ago. When we had major medical bills and problems with the furnace and roof on our home in XXXX we went into financial crisis and could not keep up with the mortgage payment or the bankruptcy payment. We contacted XXXX to see what type of help was available to help us get through this issue and were grateful that we got approved for a loan modification in XX/XX/XXXX. We made our first two payments of {$1600.00} as agreed at the beginning of XXXX and XXXX. We told the agent who accepted our payment that we were on fixed income and that it was difficult to come up with this amount on the XXXX of the month. The XXXX agent told us as long as you pay in the calendar month you will be fine. When I tried to call in the third payment on XX/XX/XXXX I was told that XXXX would not accept my payment because it was late and that I was being removed from the loan modification. I know that XXXX records the phone calls and if they were to listen to the statements the agent made then XXXX would realize that THEIR AGENT MISLED XXXX. If we knew the modification would be cancelled if we did not pay on the XXXX we would have figured out a way to make the payment. Since we were told we could pay later in the month with no consequence that is what we tried to do. Instead of accepting the payment we were told that the modification was rescinded and that we had to reinstate the full past due balance. 

I am a XXXX XXXX XXXX and I worked as a trainer for vehicle inspectors for over 30 years. My wife XXXX was a seamstress at a local sewing factory and worked there for years until it closed down. In XXXX we had major financial issues. My wife fell and tore XXXX rotator cuffs and broker XXXX bones and had to go into XXXX to repair. A large portion of the medical bills were not covered by insurance. To make matters worse that winter was very cold and the fuel and propane costs were overwhelming, and it got to XXXX XXXX where we had to buy a new furnace and the shingles on the roof needed to be replaced as well. Due to all of these problems we struggled financially and were not able to keep up with the monthly mortgage payment. We kept paying on the bankruptcy for a few more months but eventually we were dismissed from the bankruptcy due to missed payments. 

We reached out to XXXX to see if we could be considered for any homeowner assistance programs and after several months we were approved for a trial modification. We were surprised because the modification payment was much higher than before ( from {$730.00} to {$1600.00} ) and also because the paperwork indicated that these payments would NOT be applied to our mortgage but would instead go into suspense. ( paperwork attached ). I spoke with a HUD counselor who told me this is a very unusual arrangement, modification payments are supposed to be credited towards the mortgage not go into suspense. Since we were behind and wanted to get back on track we did not question this and we made the first XXXX payments as agreed. As we explained when we made the second payment the agent told us we would be fine as long as next payment was made in the calendar month. Paying in the middle of the month works way better for us since we are on fixed income but when we submitted the payment on XX/XX/XXXX were told that the payment was late and that we had lost our modification. We have since tried to submit applications to XXXX multiple timeswe have sent the package back overnight mail but keep getting told that the paperwork was not received or it is incomplete.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation