Consumer complaint received 2025-01-24 00:00:00
Product: Mortgage — Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Closing on a mortgage — Trying to communicate with the company to fix an issue with the loan closing
Company: CARDINAL FINANCIAL COMPANY, LIMITED PARTNERSHIP
State: NC

Complaint narrative:
On XX/XX/XXXX I reached out to mortgage loan officer XXXX XXXX at Cardinal Financial to obtain a construction-to-permanent loan to build our shipping container home. We were building a 2 bedroom/1 bathroom home using a 40ft container on the bottom and a 20ft container on top, which was expressed to Cardinal at the start of the application. We were refinancing the land loan we currently had to build our shipping container home. We selected Cardinal financial as they offered construction loans specifically to build container homes and they handled lending in our area. Everything was moving along until our loan officer left the company on XX/XX/XXXX. When XXXX left Cardinal, she had us under the impression that we were just waiting for the final approval and were ready to schedule the closing. This was not the case.

Our loan was not picked up by anyone from Cardinal until XX/XX/XXXX. Once our loan was eventually picked up, we were given the run around by several different processors at Cardinal requesting unnecessary additional documents and documents we had already sent in. Each time a new condition had been added, I was told that was the final item yet a new supposed final item would then be requested. This delayed our closing for two months!

Finally we were able to close XX/XX/XXXX but we still ran into issues from Cardinal. Cardinal required a quit claim deed to be recorded for the variations of our names yet a name affidavit disclosure ( that was already included in the closing package ) would have been sufficient, causing us to pay additional unnecessary funds at closing. This is a construction loan refinancing the vacant land loan we had for the property so a right of rescission should not have been required, however Cardinal saw the need for a right of rescission. Additionally, with a XX/XX/XXXX closing date, the unnecessary rescission date should have been XX/XX/XXXX yet Cardinal for some reason made the rescission date to be XX/XX/XXXX. 

XX/XX/XXXX comes around and I have our three contractors approved by Cardinal looking for their initial deposits so they can finally start work on our home. I reached out to Loan Processor XXXX XXXX who confirmed a wire had gone out to our out-of-state contractor yet could not provide a wire confirmation. After lots of back and forth, XXXX then stated a wire did not go out as this contractor did not sign their authorization form and they actually sent a check instead and this was also confirmed by Loan Officer XXXX XXXX. When I asked for evidence of said check, they could not provide evidence of the check or what address it was sent to. It was later admitted payment never was sent to any of our contractors. 

XX/XX/XXXX the authorization form for all three contractors was signed and payment finally went out to everyone, and work can finally start on our home. 

XX/XX/XXXX We finally received the certificate of occupancy from the county inspector and are ready to have Cardinal send their appraiser out to do the final inspection and send the final draw out to our general contractor. From the start of the application process back in XXXX XXXX XXXX, the plans were to have one bathroom in the home, yet Cardinal had two bathrooms in their records due to a miscommunication they received separately from our builder. While Cardinal is trying to figure out how to handle the bathroom issue, they are refusing to send our GC his final payment although he had no involvement with this issue! XX/XX/XXXX Cardinal finally sent the final payment to our GC. As a result of the issue with the number of bathrooms, Cardinal required us to refinance the whole project with the one bathroom requiring us to pay for a second appraisal, closing costs etc. Additionally, we now had to switch the financing to just the co-borrower as I had since changed my employment to self-employed so we can no longer use my income for refinance. I am no longer on the loan and will just be signing on the title docs. This is not a problem as the co-borrower qualifies alone no problem. 

XX/XX/XXXX I receive a call from Loan Officer XXXX XXXX asking me details about the co-borrower 's personal financial info and trying to coerce me into agreeing to loan terms on his behalf even though they do not have his authorization, and this phone call should have been made to the co-borrower directly since I am no longer a borrower. This conversation made me very uncomfortable, and I refused to authorize anything until we received the loan terms in writing so we could look over all the numbers. 

XX/XX/XXXX We told Cardinal that we did not want to refinance this loan through them and were looking at other institutions. I then received several aggressive calls from construction manager XXXX XXXX. XXXX also left me an aggressive voicemail claiming they will pull the note to the construction loan if we refinance elsewhere causing us to come up with the {$200000.00} loan amount in cash backing us in a corner to refinance with them as our only option. 

During the processing of our loan back in XXXX, Cardinal supposedly vetted each of our three contractors requiring them to submit license info, insurance info and for them to complete their questionnaire. We were not provided any feedback about this vetting process from each contractor, however it did stall closing for 10 business days for each contractor.

During construction, our first issue was with the excavator Cardinal vetted who butchered our property then tried to charge
us double for the completion of the work needed. We terminated work with this contractor and hired another contractor to complete the work which was approved by Cardinal and was no problem. At the time we hired the original contractor, we were under the impression he was licensed and now as we are in the middle of an ongoing lawsuit with this contractor, it has been revealed that he is not licensed. 

XX/XX/XXXX Opposing counsel sent Cardinal a subpoena requesting all documentation pertaining to this contractor in regard to this loan. The documentation Cardinal supplied omitted any documentation collected for their vetting process in addition to any voice recordings they have on file.

During the site setup happening at our property, our home was being built out of state at the manufacture 's location in TX. Once the home had been delivered, we ran into issues with this contractor, also supposedly vetted by Cardinal, as we were charged an additional XXXX XXXX to bring the home up to code and move-in ready. This caused long delays in finalizing the construction. As a result, our rate lock expired, and Cardinal charged us {$2100.00}. We wanted to initiate an insurance claim against this builder to cover the additional cost due to their negligence and requested Cardinal to provide insurance info for this builder. They refused to provide this without a subpoena. 

XX/XX/XXXX I finally sent an email expressing all my frustrations to Cardinal, requesting an explanation and requesting them to send the documentation they omitted from the subpoena they received back in XX/XX/XXXX. Cardinal required us to have our attorney send another subpoena requesting all info collected from each of our contractors and requesting all voice recordings. 

XX/XX/XXXX our attorney sent Cardinal the second subpoena. XX/XX/XXXX Cardinal finally sent the requested info from subpoena # 2. Included in the documents received were a third-party analysis report they performed for each contractor, but only the construction questionnaire for one of the contractors and they still omitted the voice recordings that have been requested since XX/XX/XXXX. XX/XX/XXXX our lawyer sent correspondence to Cardinal requesting the missing items. XX/XX/XXXX we received more documentation from Cardinal yet still no voice recordings.

On the construction questionnaire completed by the builder in TX, we found several incorrect statements including this builder states he has had his license revoked! They then sent us a different questionnaire from this builder stating the builder has not had his license revoked. Additionally, this builder had me listed as a reference with a property address and phone number that is not tied to me. Why wouldnt Cardinal bring this to my attention well before closing on the loan and why would this not raise any questions or cause for concern on their part?! Clearly, they did not review anything sent over for the contractors they supposedly vetted. Additionally, it is concerning they still will not send over the voice recordings as they would be very useful in the lawsuit against the excavator, and it seems as if they are hiding them for a reason.

While we are going through all of this, the excavator who we now know is unlicensed, put a lien on our property illegally which we are fighting through this lawsuit, and we can not close on the refinance until this lien is removed. Additionally, we are located in XXXXXXXX XXXX and just endured the horrific Hurricane Helene. We were without food, water, electricity, WIFI or any way to communicate for some time. Neighborhoods have been destroyed! Once we were able to get back online it has come to our attention that our XXXX mortgage payment is past due by 36 days ( which was my error ) and our XXXX mortgage payment is past due by just 6 days. Cardinal Financial took it upon themselves to submit us to a debt collector for both payments even though our XXXX payment had not even surpassed the grace period. Cardinal did not try to make contact with us regarding our payments before submitting us to collections. In addition, during the time our communication was out in XXXX, I received a voicemail from Cardinal threatening " we can not keep this loan open for a year '' in regard to the lien placed illegally on our property from the contractor they approved through their vetting process. Furthermore, I was later notified by my attorney that Cardinal contacted opposing counsel on XX/XX/XXXX looking for info on this lien when this communication should have gone to our attorney, compromising our stance in our ongoing lawsuit.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation