Consumer complaint received 2025-02-08 00:00:00
Product: Mortgage — Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Applying for a mortgage or refinancing an existing mortgage — Fees or costs during the application process
Company: American Heritage Lending, LLC
State: NY

Complaint narrative:
I applied for a mortgage refinance with American Heritage Lending and was required to pay a {$950.00} appraisal fee. Due to the company 's mismanagement, I ended up paying for an appraisal that should not have been necessary. 

1. Failure to Submit My Reconsideration of Value ( ROV ) Request On XX/XX/year>, I requested an ROV to dispute the appraisal valuation. 

On XX/XX/year>, I discovered that American Heritage Lending never submitted my request to the appraisal company, preventing me from challenging the appraisal properly. 



2. Failure to Inform Me About an Additional Appraisal Fee The appraisal company, Property Rate, informed me that they notified American Heritage Lending about an extra appraisal fee. 

However, American Heritage Lending never communicated this to me, resulting in unnecessary delays and financial loss. 



3. Misrepresentation on My Loan Application My ethnicity was incorrectly selected on my loan application by a loan officer at American Heritage Lending without my consent. 

This was not a clerical errorit was a decision made by the lender, and I was never consulted. 



4. Financial Harm Due to Their Actions Because of their lack of communication and failure to process my ROV, I paid a {$950.00} appraisal fee that I never should have had to pay. 

When I requested reimbursement, American Heritage Lending refused to take responsibility and told me to contact the appraisal company, despite the issue being caused by their own mismanagement. 



5. Pattern of Negligence With Other Borrowers After my experience, I discovered that other borrowers have also reported similar issues with the same loan officer, XXXX XXXX, including ignored emails and failure to communicate with the appraisal company. 

This suggests that American Heritage Lending has an ongoing issue with mismanagement and lack of accountability. 

Additionally, I would like the CFPB to investigate their loan handling practices, particularly regarding miscommunication and misrepresentation on My Loan. 


Additional Evidence of Misrepresentation > I have attached a screenshot of the Demographic Information Addendum from my loan application with American Heritage Lending. The document falsely indicates that my ethnicity was collected over the phone, but I was never asked to provide this information. 

Furthermore, the document states that my ethnicity was marked as XXXX, which is incorrect. I am XXXX, and I would never have self-identified as XXXX. This proves that the lender falsely reported my demographic information without my consent, which raises serious concerns about their practices. 

This misrepresentation of my ethnicity is highly concerning because it suggests that American Heritage Lending may be engaging in unfair or deceptive lending practices. The fact that my demographic information was incorrectly selected without my consent and falsely recorded as being collected over the phone raises serious questions about the integrity of their loan processing procedures. 

Demographic data collection is regulated under fair lending laws, and lenders are required to ensure that this information is accurately self-reported by the borrower or explicitly marked as " I do not wish to provide this information '' if the borrower declines. By falsely filling in my ethnicity and misrepresenting how it was obtained, American Heritage Lending may have violated these regulations. 

Additionally, this raises the question of whether other borrowers ' demographic information has been falsely reported as well, potentially affecting compliance with fair lending requirements, HMDA ( Home Mortgage Disclosure Act ) reporting, and anti-discrimination regulations. Given the pattern of mismanagement I have experienced, I am concerned that this issue may extend beyond my case and could impact other borrowers.

Company public response: Company believes complaint caused principally by actions of third party outside the control or direction of the company
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation