Unauthorized forbearance/not requested?

[Anonymous]

Through the company's email portal (Freedom Mortgage) I requested some basic information about Covid relief options, never asked for anything to be done.

Come to find out they put my entire account under forbearance, this was not asked for, I did not want this. I have filed several emails asking for removal as well as complaints to the CFPB and BBB. So far nothing.

**bleep**, My account is under forbearance now? How is this legal?  I never agreed/authorized a forbearance. Anybody have any suggestions on how to proceed? 

[JVille]

Did you actually call them? Continue making  your payments....

[Golden75]

For this matter, I recommend obtaining a copy of your most recent credit reports from the three credit bureaus (EQU, EXP, TRANS) to see how it is being reported by the creditor. However, if the change recently happened, it may not start reflecting as under forbearance for another month or so if not already.   You should also see whether Freedom Mortgage conducted a hard inquiry of your credit profile.

If the forbearance is reflecting on your credit report, I recommend that you file a dispute with each credit bureau (or whichever one that the creditor reports the data to).  

Hope this helps.

[Anonymous]

I'm beginning to think that there's a TON of mortgage and banking fraud that violates CARES act provisions on FHA, Fannie, and Freddie backed loans. 

My story is that I had a death in the family in April, wasn't sure if I was going to stay employed through the summer, and I applied for the forbearance with my mortgage servicer at the time. They "accepted" it (they have no choice if its FHA, but banks love that language), and in August, I went to end the forbearance and asked what my options were for the missed payments. They said the FHA partial claim was a good fit since it moved it all off into a separate, zero percent interest, loan that just had to be paid off before the home could be sold. 

Sure I said. I received an acceptance letter for the partial claim but then never received completion paperwork. Instead, they SOLD my mortgage to another servicer who pretends they have no idea what's going on and the previous servicer reported those COVID 19 missed payments during forbearance as MISSED PAYMENTS! I am FURIUOS and all I get from the current servicer is the run-around about how they're going through all the paperwork (for two months now) and have "accepted" my application for mortgage deliquency assistance which SHOULD be accepted and finished with no matter what. 

What they don't know is that I can hire a lawyer. I wound up doing much better than expected with work throughout the summer and up to now, and can make the missed payments in a lump sum if I need to, but that's like saying it's okay that they violated the law on the options they HAD to make available to borrowers.

I can afford to hire a lawyer. I can afford to hire two lawyers, and I did - one to work on the erroneous reporting by the previous servicer and another to help me navigate what's going on with my current servicer. I spoke to someone from HUD and apparently, these violations of how banks are supposed to handle CARES act/COVID related forbearance and the clarity of language when presenting them are a BIG problem. So much so that states like California have had to add state level laws that forbid unclear or incorrect information as it relates to the CARES act... if they do have that sort of information up and it leads to borrower hardship, the borrower is entitled to injunctive relief. 

Anyway, I feel like this is a giant thing bubbling underneath all that's going on... more banking and mortgage fraud when people need help the most and that help was actually signed into LAW. Great. 

[JVille]

Be sure and file disputes with the 3 Data Banks and also with your states banking regulators. Do you have ANY paper trail??

[MauiMan85297]

Just make sure you continue to make the payments and ask to cancel the forbearance and get a copy of the cancellation- no harm no foul.  

You can still refinance if this has been done without penalty (seasoning period) if you're trying to refinance.  It's been happening to a lot of consumers who haved inquired but not asked to defer 3-6 mos worth of payments.