Consumer complaint received 2025-01-03 00:00:00
Product: Mortgage — USDA 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: NEW YORK COMMUNITY BANCORP INC
State: LA

Complaint narrative:
My home was severely damaged by XXXX XXXX and I had to fight with my insurance company XXXX XXXX to get them to honor the claim. After I won in court, they issued me a check for {$40000.00} to pay for the repairs made out to me, my wife and our lender Flagstar. Flagstar told us that we could not cash the check, we had to send it to them. They told me that I had to pay for the repairs to our home out of pocket and then they would reimburse me for these repairs. Because of the extensive damage, I used the money that I had been using to make the mortgage payment to get the home repaired. Flagstar had over $ XXXX of my money, I figured that they would reimburse me for the repairs and use the balance left over to help me get caught up on my mortgage payment. But that is not what happened. Flagstar gave me excuse after excuse and set a foreclosure sale date and tried to auction my home on XXXX XXXX. We had to file an emergency bankruptcy to stop this sale. This is a government backed USDA loan and Flagstar is not supposed to foreclose on the home without verifying the ability to pay. I have the ability to pay, I just had to take that money to pay for the repairs and have been waiting for Flagstar to reimburse me. I called them every day for 3 weeks leading up to the sale date and got nowhere. I want you to investigate Flagstar and their handling of my mortgage loan servicing and the insurance claim from the XXXX XXXX disaster. 

When we had problems due to the XXXX pandemic we contacted Flagstar and they were willing to work with us and provided forbearance because my hours and income were much lower because of XXXX. ( I work in construction as supervisor of cranes and rigging ). Since this was a government loan I now know that Flagstar was required to provide the CARES forbearance but we thought because they worked with us that we could trust the bank. When the forbearance ended we resumed making payments but in XX/XX/year> we were hit by XXXX XXXX and had major damage to the home. We filed a claim with our homeowners insurance and they cut a check for {$4300.00}, even though the damage was closer to $ XXXX. We hired an Attorney to go after XXXX XXXX to get them to cover the entire loss and during this time we kept in contact with Flagstar regarding the situation. Their agents acted like they understood and told us to keep them updated on the court case as we had put the mortgage payments on hold until we got the insurance situation straightened out. Although we could still occupy the home, the damage made it very uncomfortable for us. After we won the court case we received the insurance check for {$40000.00} but it was issued to me and my wife and also to the bank Flagstar. So we signed it and sent it to Flagstar, expecting that they would reimburse us, but then they told me that we had to pay for the repairs ourselves and then present the receipts when the job was complete and Flagstar would reimburse us. 

At that time we were focused on the house repairs and believed that since Flagstar had such a large amount of OUR insurance check that we would address the past due mortgage payments once the repairs were completed and we were reimbursed. There would be plenty of money left over from the settlement to catch up on the loan. So we spent our money to repair the house and provided Flagstar with the receipts. While sinking in the bureaucracy of Flagstar they started moving to foreclose on our house and scheduled a sale date. I called them every day for XXXX weeks to try and get them to postpone, I had completed the repairs and provided receipts and had an inspection done. So everything I paid in cash money in repairs I still have not been reimbursed for. This is unethical and illegal.

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