Consumer complaint received 2024-08-13 00:00:00
Product: Mortgage — FHA mortgage
Issue: Applying for a mortgage or refinancing an existing mortgage — Delays in the application process
Company: U.S. BANCORP
State: ME

Complaint narrative:
In XXXX a friend and I bought a house in Maine with XXXX XXXX using an FHA loan. We were easily approved. The mortgage was then sold to another bank, US Bank. US Bank is the company I am having a problem with. 

The co-owner who bought the house with me in XXXX has since moved to another state and in XXXX I bought out his share of the equity so I could keep the house. We filed a quit claim deed and the property is now fully in my name. 

The mortgage, however, still has his name on it, so his credit is still tied up in the house. So I applied for an FHA loan Assumption with US Bank back in XXXX of XXXX to get his name off the mortgage. The application fee was {$900.00}. I was very thorough with my application, and they quickly pre-approved me because my income, credit etc were all well above the threshold required by FHA. 

But since this pre-approval they have dragged their feet again and again. They will not contact me or reply to call or emails for weeks, and then they randomly ask for more and more information - some of it seemly irrelevant or unnecessarily intrusive, i.e. asking about a XXXX purchase and money I donated to a XXXX for a friend whose son was in a terrible XXXX XXXX Those most recent queries were on XX/XX/XXXX by loan officer XXXX XXXX. Or asking to see my phone bills even though I have good credit and lots of money in my bank accounts. And, when I answer these sorts of questions, it takes weeks for them to respond, and then they say the underwriters need more bank statements, more documents, another profit/loss statement, more explanations. More diversionary nonsense. I would guess the email thread between myself and the loan officer is approaching triple digits. And I've made numerous calls to their office and am never able to talk to anyone who matters. 

US Bank keeps moving the goalposts. At this point they have 8 months of bank statements and 3 years of tax returns, and they're asking for more. What I've given them should be more than sufficient to prove i have the income and credit to assume this mortgage. 

I believe they are acting in bad faith and are hoping I simply quit bothering them so they can keep my money and not have to process the assumption. A lot of folks online are saying they're having similar problems ; interest rates are high right now, and banks don't make money off these assumptions so they try to stonewall their own customers in hopes they'll quit or try to refinance at a much higher interest rate. 

What they're doing is unethical, if not outright fraudulent, as they agreed to FHA rules when generating or purchasing the loan. I would bet anything that they rarely approve these assumptions no matter how easily someone qualifies. Or perhaps they saw two men on a mortgage together and take issue with it? Either way they are acting in bad faith.

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