LoanCare

Gregory Thompson
Tracy Price-Thompson
[protected]
[protected]@gmail.com

August 7, 2021

Formal Complaint regarding IRRRL Refinance Denial/Discrimination Against Veterans with a Fully Seasoned VA Loan Prior to CARES Act Forbearance

Reference: Encompass Loan # [protected]
Lakewood LoanCare Loan# [protected]

Dear Sirs:

We are writing this letter and requesting that it be lodged as a formal complaint regarding the denial of a VA IRRRL streamlined refinance loan based on supposedly unmet "VA seasoning requirements."

The referenced VA loan has been in effect for eleven years, and has more than met the established six-month consecutive payments seasoning requirements. We assert that the refinance denial from Community Loan Servicing on a Lakeview LoanCare loan to be an illegal and discriminatory "punishment" by your organization directed against military veterans who hold fully seasoned VA loans, and who have gone on years after such seasoning to invoke a CARES Act forbearance.

We further assert that this "lack of seasoning" refinance denial is the result of your staff's lack of knowledge of VA seasoning requirements, and their deliberate misinterpretation of the VA's guidelines as they relate to the CARES Act, which are clearly spelled out in the Veterans Administration Circular 26-20-25, and in 38 CFR U.S. C. Para 3709.

The regulatory seasoning requirement states that six consecutive monthly payments must be made "BEFORE" a veteran invokes a CARES Act forbearance in order for a loan to be considered seasoned. It further states: If a loan being refinanced met seasoning requirements before a Veteran invoked a CARES Act forbearance, the seasoning requirement remains satisfied. We are completely astounded by the apparent inability of your entire mortgage team to grasp this and to differentiate between the words "BEFORE and"AFTER."This issue has arisen in part due to a lack of understanding of the VA's loan"Seasoning"requirements.

As you know,"seasoning"is the term used by the VA to ensure that VA loans are not refinanced within 6 months after their initial origination. In order for a loan to be considered seasoned, the veteran is required to have made at least 6 consecutive monthly payments after receiving their loan, which on a loan taken out more than a decade ago, we have more than accomplished.

Our VA loan was taken out eleven years ago, in September of 2010. We made our first mortgage payment in November 2010, and the loan was completely seasoned in May of 2011. A full decade ago.

The loan denial forwarded from Ms. Marie Salmon and Ms. Julie Watrous of Community Loan Servicing included the below misleading and erroneously interpreted snippet, which was extracted from VA Circular 26-20-25, which is the Circular that we as the veterans provided to Mr. Phillip Bonfiglio and requested be uploaded to our file in its entirety on July 29, 2021.

Instead of reading and comprehending the entire paragraph in the VA Circular, this snippet was deliberately taken out of context by your staff and used as a duplicitous basis to deny our VA refinance loan. Here is what the complete paragraph (d.1, 2) in context, actually states:

d. Loan Seasoning, Fee Recoupment, Discount Points and Net Tangible Benefit Standards. Lenders are reminded that all IRRRLs must meet loan seasoning, fee recoupment, discount points and net tangible benefit requirements, as prescribed by 38 U.S. C. § 3709 and VA policy guidance. Periods of forbearance cannot count toward seasoning; however, forbearance under the CARES Act does not, alone, cause the loan to fail to meet the seasoning standard. If a loan being refinanced met seasoning requirements before a Veteran invoked a CARES Act forbearance, the seasoning requirement remains satisfied.

A loan being refinanced is seasoned if both of the following conditions are met as of the date the borrower closes the refinance loan:

(1) The borrower has made at least six consecutive monthly payments on the loan being refinanced. For example, in a case where a borrower made five consecutive payments before invoking a CARES Act forbearance, such borrower would need to make six additional consecutive payments, post forbearance, in order to meet the seasoning requirement.
(2) The date of closing for the refinance loan is 210 or more days after the first payment due date of the loan being refinanced.

Again, our VA loan was closed on eleven years ago in September of 2010. Our VA loan has been seasoned for a full ten years. Thus, between 2010 and 2020, we have more than made our six consecutive payments BEFORE invoking a CARES Act forbearance in 2020. Our seasoning requirement remains satisfied, and we are fully eligible for a VA IRRRL loan.

As you see above, by cherry-picking sub-paragraph (1) out of context and failing to consider the paragraph in its entirety, your mortgage team is deceptively attempting to strip away VA protections by deliberately misinterpreting the sub-paragraph to state that a veteran who has a previously seasoned loan needs to make 6 consecutive monthly payments AFTER invoking a CARES ACT forbearance in order for the loan to meet VA seasoning requirements.

THIS IS INCORRECT.

Again, both the circular and US Code 3709 clearly state: If a loan being refinanced met seasoning requirements"before"a Veteran invoked a CARES Act forbearance, the seasoning requirement remains satisfied.

Yet, even under the snipped paragraph, we clearly meet the loan seasoning requirements.

(1) The borrower has made at least six consecutive monthly payments on the loan being refinanced. For example, in a case where a borrower made five consecutive payments before invoking a CARES Act forbearance, such borrower would need to make six additional consecutive payments, post forbearance, in order to meet the seasoning requirement.

Again, as evidenced by our eleven-year mortgage, we absolutely have made more than six consecutive monthly payments between 2010 and 2020 on the loan before invoking a CARES Act forbearance in 2020. In fact, we have made more than 100 consecutive monthly payments on the loan.

We assert that the Director of Underwriting, by painting this snippet as a stand-alone requirement and ignoring the rest of the passage is attempting to force regulatory requirements on disabled veterans that are well outside of the scope of the US Code and the VA's guidelines.

Part 2 of the snippet states:

(2) The date of closing for the refinance loan is 210 or more days after the first payment due date of the loan being refinanced.

Our first payment due date on this seasoned loan was in November 2010. Eleven years ago. Thus, the date of closing for the loan, when refinanced, will certainly be more than 210 days after the first payment due date. It will actually be more than 3650 days after the first payment due date. Thus, we've already met these requirements as well.

What's extremely disturbing to us is the customer service experience we've endured during this process with Community Loan Servicing. After a series of non-responses to our emails, and 6-7 weeks of diligently attending to every request for documents in this supposed"streamlined" process, and after providing both Ms. Salmon and Ms. Watrous with written documentation from VA Circular 26-20-25 and 38 CFR U.S. C. Para 3709, it seems the frontline people that you entrust to process loans and provide accurate information to your veterans have absolutely no knowledge of VA regulations, and are apparently unable to comprehend and correctly interpret the regulatory information even when it is provided to them in black and white.

This lack of comprehension creates great frustration and is a great disservice to your veteran customers because it's clearly impossible for both Ms. Salmon and Ms. Watrous, and apparently for your director of underwriting as well, to comprehend the below passage while denying a veteran with a fully seasoned loan a refinance based on lack of seasoning, even when the information is clearly articulated in the VA Circular and the US Code:

If a loan being refinanced met seasoning requirements before a Veteran invoked a CARES Act forbearance, the seasoning requirement remains satisfied.

We are uploading this complaint to Lakeview LoanCare (who can attest to the period of loan seasoning) and we also request that someone competent at Community Loan Servicing review this matter and correct and reverse the loan decision so that our loan can be approved and finalized. Otherwise, we will forward this complaint to the VA Regional Loan Center and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and request that they investigate your VA mortgage and refinance denial practices to fully eligible veterans.

We have attached this letter in PDF format to this email, and have also attached VA Circular 26-20-15 for your review, and we're providing this link to 38 CFR United States Code Para 3709 here for your review as well.

https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title38-section3709&num=0&edition=prelim#:~:text=%C2%A73709., Refinancing%20of%20housing%20loans&text= (ii)%20for%20discount%20point%20amounts, of%2090%20percent%20or%20less.

We look forward to hearing from you and resolving this issue most expeditiously.

Thank you,

Gregory Thompson
Tracy Price-Thompson
[protected]

We submitted documentation to come out of forbearance in late February 2021 and were given the run around and told different excuses every time we followed up and were told to wait on a team lead to call back which never happened and the first associate did not process our forbearance correctly and then we had to start over. It happened a second time with a supervisor after we were approved for a loan modification and she restarted the forbearance and we had to wait again for underwriting which took until August 1st to actually be out of forbearance. Terrible communication and no one know what's happening.

I have noticed that I am not alone in my struggles with LoanCare's unethical mortgage servicing practices. The company is incredibly deceitful and specifically targets customers who are struggling to make payments during a hardship or have a lower to middle socioeconomic status due to that customer's inability to financially support the legal battle that would be required to hold them legally responsible for their abhorrent actions. I have made the decision to invest in legal help to fight them, but there is strength in numbers when you have a David and Goliath style battle such as this.

Please feel free to reach out to me via email. Due to encryption and protections that are placed o these comments I will be giving my email address without the @ and without the ending. It is KateLeeScanlon and it is a google email address (gmail).

Please contact me if you have been experiencing issues with your escrow account, an inability to contact anyone to explain the funds and balances. In my experience, the company specifically went into my account after 1 year of paying my mortgage on time and according to my monthly billing statements. They decided to perform an internal "audit" of sorts and someone in their company "reversed" all of my payments and reapplied them the way they saw fit which led to a retraction of the last 5 payments and made it looks like i was suddenly more than 120 days late on my mortgage after having on time payments each month until then.

The battle that continued with constant disconnected calls, being placed on hold for hours at a time, and promised escalations and calls from managers that never came to fruition. I also spoke with an Amber who gave me her "direct email" address with emails that never went through.

We need to come together as consumers and hold this deplorable company accountable. I am a hard-working, single mother of two girls and I go to school full time. I am not afraid of grit and fighting to make this right. The pain and anguish they have caused me and my family to no fault of my own simply because they had the power to is exactly what is wrong with corporate America.

Please reach out to me to work together to fight this.

There needs to be direct phone lines and representatives that can be reached to directly via emails and more transparent and ethical practices regarding escrow accounts and notification to the consumer along with their consent prior to any audits or adjustments to their mortgage. I would also like my credit report fixed to remove all "late payments" and negative marks that have been made by LoanCare. They are responsible for the loss of investments as I had the ability to utilize the equity in my home for financial investments and gains that I would have had if they had not altered my credit score with their unethical practices. The company is responsible for hours lost while I combed through paperwork, records and made countless phone calls to them that went unanswered. This company has had a detrimental effect on my financial situation as a result of their business practices. I had paid everything else off and was ready to invest and become financially independent after my divorce 4 years ago. The reparations that are due to the consumers they have continued to hold down by stepping on their necks needs to be adjudicated.

I was approached by Loancare last July 2020 to go into forebearance. I accepted it as we were shut down due to the Pandemic. Well in January 2021 I contacted Loancare about coming out of forebearance and was told I was eligible for a loan modification where my interest rate would be reduced to 2.8% and my payments would be a little over $500 per month. I was happy and stated lets do that right now and get it going. After hearing nothing for a month I called back where I was told that was wrong and not happening. Hear it is July 2021 and still not out of forebearance and still no clear honest explanation or pathway back. Many phone calls, many letters, and niow complaints and almost to the point of getting an attorney and taking them to court.

For a year now I have been trying to have my loan modified from 15 to a 30 year loan, in order to lower my monthly payments, all the while I was in forbearance. Phone calls and emails have had no result. After receiving my escrow statement in Nov., I sent a check for the full amount of taxes and insurance to the escrow dept. it has yet to be applied to my escrow account. At that time I also submitted paperwork to Loss Mitigation for a loan modification. In March I received a call that my loan had been approved and I would be contacted in 30 - 45 days. During this time I continued to call concerning escrow account. Each time I was told an audit would be performed on my account. When I finally spoke to a Loss Mitigation supervisor, I learned that my loan had not been approved for modification and I would have to submit new paperwork and reapply, which I did in April. My forebearence had expired, and I have now been making full payments for three months. During this time I have called every two weeks only to be promised that my requests would be expitied, and each time I learn that nothing has been expedited or audited. It is a do nothing company and my only option sees to be moving my mortgage from ARC Home Loans to another company.

Made the three payments required for loan modification. The first payment went through ok but I had the second two come out of a different account. I noticed a payment had bounced because they tried to take it out of the wrong account, not the one I had given. I was locked out of my account and was told it would be unlocked when I am current so I could not see what was going on. I called and explained that they tried to take it out of the wrong account and the representative said they see that but that it is fine it did come out of the right account. So I did the same with the third and the same thing happened and when I called I was told the same thing. We got the loan documents to take to a notary and sign and send back which we did. Then I never heard anything. I tried to get into my account and still couldn't. I called to say my first payment was due and then was told the modification was canceled because of two missed payments. THIS WAS NOT MY FAULT! And they didn't even contact me about it, I received no letter or anything as if they just wanted me to believe we had the modification done. They told me to reapply which I will do but I am also talking to a lawyer about their negligence

I have been attempting to have my loan modified from a 15 year to 30 year mortgage in order to lower my monthly payments. This has been dragging on for a year now. All the paperwork was submitted in November of 2020. In March I received a call telling me that I was approved for a 30 year loan and would be contacted in 30 - 45 days. My son was on the phone and took notes on the call. Time passed and nothing happened except I continually received emails that my forbearance was ending and I need to contact the company. I have sent emails and called. Getting thru to a real person is a commitment of at least two hours time. When I finally spoke a Loss Mitigation manager, Bob, he told me that there was nothing had happened on my account, and I would have to resubmit all the paperwork, which I did in March following our call. Since then I have called every two weeks and yet nothing has transpired. Each time, the person I speak to promises to push my request thru, but still nothing happens. I'm so weary of all the same old promises, and yet each time I call nothing new has happened. I need to lower my payments.

And that brings up another point. I paid my entire escrow balance for insurance and taxes in Nov. and the check cleared the bank in Dec. The money was never applied to my escrow account. That in itself would lower my monthly payments. Each time I call I'm promised that my escrow account will be audited, but it never happens.

Today, I received the exact same story from Steve, a team manager. Nothing will come of it I'm sure, so I am beginning the process of shopping my mortgage to other companies. Anything will be better than this.

This has been happening since March of 2021. I have since made close to 100 phone calls to Loan care, WHEN you can get someone on the phone which is next to impossible you get a variety of different answers to your questions that have negative consequences for the consumer. I am currently on hold on 3 different phones trying to get help to access my account online to make a payment which I can no longer access. Every time I call there is another reason why I can't access this. I missed ONE payment because my daughter needed Brain Surgery the resulting 6 months has been a nightmare. Now after I just got a person on the line they hung up on me. This has been the worst customer service I have ever received.

HelloI have been trying to get help with my account for the past few weeks. My loan maturity date is incorrect (somehow 8 years off! and not in my favor) and my social security number is incorrect on my account. I can no longer log into my account online and access any of my information. I was in forbearance during covid and my account was deferred on 10/1/2020. I paid November, December and then went into another forbearance which is ending July 1, 2021. Calls were made 3 times today 6/21/21 to reinstate my loan and defer the payments to the end of the loan term.

My son, Michael called once (approval on my behalf) and he spoke with Amber Slores, who told me her supervisor said deferral was not a good option and that we couldn't do that. I asked to speak to a supervisor, I was transferred and no one ever answered after being on the phone for over an hour.
I decided to call by myself a 2nd time regarding all of the above and spoke with Amber Slores again. We discovered that my social security number was not even correct on the account. She told me that my mortgage was put into another forbearance from august 2021 to November 21. I told her this was never authorized and I just wanted to reinstate this mortgage and defer it. She said I would have to submit an application with loss mitigation and transferred me. No one ever answered after another hour 

My son called a 3rd time and spoke with Darlene and we went over all of the above again and it seemed like we were getting somewhere until all of a sudden the computers were slow .Then Darlene came back and said it was denied because we answered no application questions (which never happened).  Darlene would not giver her last name, he said a supervisor was not available. 

July 1st is approaching, I have received no paper bill, no deferment, no access to my online account, they still have the wrong SS number. 

I am in the process of having my loan deferred just coming out of forbearance. I have been told numerous times documents will be coming. They have not. I get an email every 3 days saying it's on its way in 7 days this email has been coming to me for 2 solid months I have also been told each time I call that no payment due till July 1st. Now I have a letter saying that I am past due and in default. Potentially harming my credit profile. They sent a letter stating call a number and email this address. Email Does not even go through it bounces back. Can't get anyone on the line now with the phone number. How convenient. I see this happening left and right with my own clients. Eventually harming their credit.

I have been unable to actually speak to a customer service representative to pay my mortgage. There is no automated option for any of the 4 phone numbers I have tried. In addition there is no option to speak to anyone. It is just a default recording talking about covid 19. I am unable to find my full loan number and therefor cannot access my account online to pay. There is no way to make the payment at this point!

As I sit on hold to speak to someone after speaking with someone for an hour and needing to speak to someone else. My daughter had to have brain surgery I had to take an unpaid leave of absence I missed 1 payment and the amount of grieve, time on the phone with them and misinformation is historic. Once I realized I missed a payment I contacted them. They told me to request a forebearance and that I wouldn't be reported to the credit bureau any longer which they still continued to do. When I called them they told me I needed to write a letter even though it was their error which I did and it was denied of course. Inaccurate information on their website, agent after agent provides wrong or misinformation, unable to get a supervisor on the phone after repeated requests and holding for over and hour. I see lots of bad information about them a class action lawsuit is needed against them. Bad deceptive business practices.

Good morning, I tried to make my payment numerous times though your website via computer and phone application, the website kept crashing down for five consecutive days. I had to call to make my mortgage payment and somehow I got charged for two payments instead of one. I'm very disappointed with your service, how do you go five days with your website crashing down and not get if fix! And why do I get charged twice for making a single payment!?

Our loan statement includes a charge of $90.17 on top of the mortgage payment, and all I want to do is ascertain where this charge came from, but Loancare makes it a virtual impossibility to get hold of anyone to find out where the charge arose.

I called and keep getting disconnected no matter what menu option I take (after being forced to listen to irrelevant recordings.

I tried to login to the webpage, but it intervened after I logged in with a two factor verification, and when I entered in the 5 digit verification code, it still wouldn't let me in.

Loancare should not be allowed to do business servicing anyone's mortgage.

My loan was paid off 3/3/21. After that date, I had an escrow balance of $1130.55. Two payments have made from my escrow account for 111.88 after the pay off occurred to "mortgage disbursement." My payment history reflects a payment was made to (borrow) myself of $906.79 on March 17, 21. But I have not received that payment. I have attempted to contact loan care through different methods. I am unable to get ahold of anyone. No one will respond to my requests for information. I want to know why payments are being made from my escrow account when it is paid off. And I want my full escrow balance refund.

Got email saying to hurry with signing the modification loan that approved and send back. We never got the documents! I have called, emailed and tried to get into my account which they locked me out of. No one will return my calls or emails and I keep getting recordings that they are backed up. I worry that they want to foreclose on my house and take my equity. How can you send an email saying you are approved but won't send documentation? I repeatedly tell them I never got them but it doesn't get resolved but they tell me my time is limited

I've been having issues with MyLoancare since I've been with you all. I'm going to be filing a lawsuit against MyLoancare and they're horrible business practices. I've never seen a company operate the way MyLoancare operates. Monday I'll be talking to Lakeview file a complaint with Lakeview against myloancare and I will be talking to my lawyer. I paid my mortgage back in February they claimed they never received it then when I called Lakeview. Myloancare finally called me back after two weeks of me trying to reach a representative to tell me that they actually received my payment. And for me not to worry and my credit will not be affected and they gave me an extension to pay my March payment. By April 15th. And they will not report me to any credit bureaus so my credit will be safe. All of the sudden I have been getting calls from myloancare. Collection calls after they told me I was fine and as long as I make my March payment by April 15th. There will be no reporting to the credit bureau‘s. I tried again unsuccessfully to reach a live person at myloancare for a week straight. Still to no avail. Then I receive letters in the mail saying my loan is in default. After I was told that I will not be reported to the credit bureau‘s. After myloancare told me they will not report me to the credit bureau. And that I had until April 15 to make my March mortgage payment. I plan on going to the media and also connect with other individuals that had negative experiences with myloancare so they can join me in going to the media and exposing this deceptive practices that MyLoancare engages in . As well as I'm filing a lawsuit in court to stop all actions that myloancare will attempt to do. As well as talk with Lakeview loan servicing about this issue. You all are Deceptive unprofessional and you all have a track record of doing bad business I will do all that I can to expose you to the media and file as many lawsuits as possible in addition to doing what I need to do and bring this attention to Lakeview loan servicing.

I was charged 2 months of late fees because they indicated my dec 2020 payment had not been received. My payments have always been submitted via a recurring payment option thru my bank, which they confirmed, and I provided the confirmation to loancare. Multiple phone calls and e-mails resulted in no response and then magically my dec payment was returned to my bank in feb stating that my account had been closed, never happened, which also cancelled my next scheduled payment. I provided the letter from my bank indicating the return of payment and was told I needed to provide confirmation of my banks original payment transfer. Apparently proof that they errantly returned payment was not enough. Today I received notification that my loan servicing had been transferred... How convenient!

Loancare has taken upon themselves to change my address and phone number on my loan, without my permission. I emailed them, tried calling multiple times, and you only get a recording, written snail mail, and 60 days later, nothing has been corrected. No one has responded to me. Someone in their company is trying to commit fraud and instead of trying to correct this, they are continuing to dance around the issue. I have no idea what they are trying to pull, but it can be only suspicious. I had my loan sold to them, so I had no idea this company was going to ruin my life!
They are a complete scam. Nobody seems to care about the little guy.