CFPB Focuses on Mortgage Complaints

The four companies with the most mortgage-related complaints between November 2015 and January 2016 were Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Ocwen and Nationstar Mortgage.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – April 28, 2016 – The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's (CFPB) latest monthly consumer complaint snapshot highlights consumers' mortgage complaints. The report finds that consumers still encounter servicing problems when they're unable to make payments.

"Today's report shows that consumers are still running into too many dead ends and obstacles in resolving issues with their mortgage servicer," says CFPB Director Richard Cordray. "The Bureau will continue to press to make sure that people can get the right information and the timely help they need."

Mortgage problems

Valued at over $10 trillion, the U.S. mortgage market is the largest consumer financial market in the world. Over the past two and a half years, the CFPB has established new protections: Lenders must make sure consumers can afford to repay a mortgage, and new disclosure forms were created to help people shop for mortgages and avoid surprises at the closing table.

As of April 1, 2016 the Bureau had received approximately 223,100 mortgage complaints, including: 

• Problems when consumers are unable to pay: Most complaints about mortgages (51 percent) had to do with problems consumers faced when they had difficulty making payments. Consumers complained about prolonged loss-mitigation review processes in which the same documentation was repeatedly requested by their servicer, and about conflicting and confusing foreclosure notifications during the process.
• Confusion over loan transfers: Another common complaint had to do with a lack of information when their loan was transferred from one servicer to another. Consumers complained that they were often not properly informed that their loan had been transferred. As a result, payments made to either the prior or current servicer around the time of the transfer were not applied to their account.
• Communication issues with servicers: A frequent consumer complaint focused on difficult communications with loan servicers; and when they were able to speak to their servicer, information was often confusing and did not provide the clarifications they wanted.
• Most-complained-about mortgage companies: The four companies with the most mortgage-related complaints between November 2015 and January 2016 were Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Ocwen and Nationstar Mortgage.

© 2016 Florida Realtors®. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission.