May 24, 2017 Dear Mr. Carmichael: I am writing in regards to an ongoing nightmare loan application – Greg D Carmichael email address

Jennifer Hayes sent a message to Greg D. Carmichael - Chief Executive Officer of Fifth Third Bancorp - Email Address that said:

May 24, 2017

Dear Mr. Carmichael:

I am writing in regards to an ongoing nightmare loan application situation my husband and I are currently experiencing with the Allegan, Michigan branch of 5/3 Bank.

Let me preface this by saying that I have had two house mortgages, two mortgage re-finances, one car loan, and a home equity loan through 5/3. Never once have I been late on a payment, and I carry a credit score of over 800. Let me also say that I realize with the mortgage crisis, criteria for prospective loan applicants is more stringent than ever. Having said that, what my husband, Don, and I have been going through since February 15, when we initially were pre-approved for the loan on our dream house, I would not wish on my worst enemy.

At our first meeting with our loan officer, Greg Owen, we explained that we were selling our current home and planned to pay off the mortgage on it and the home equity loan attached to it, (which we had executed for the purchase of a cabin in Gladwin, Michigan, which we still own) and the remaining proceeds would be the only down payment we would be putting on the 195,000. lake house we were purchasing. At this time, we also asked him if it would be o,k. to pay off two car loans that were close to maturation anyway. He assured us that it wouldnt matter, as long as we opened no new lines of credit.

The ensuing weeks were a nightmare of REPEATED emails from Greg, along with another loan officer assigned to our case, Kimberly Schele, requesting information from us that we had supplied NUMEROUS times. In particular, I can recall being asked no less than three times by one or both about association fees on our cabin up North (there are none) and the origin of credit report inquires on my record, which I had answered, the latter twice in writing.

Two other sales hinging on our loan, the home we currently are living in to our buyer, and the home our seller was attempting to buy, closing dates were scheduled and cancelled, as promises by Mr. Owen and Ms. Schele that everything was set and our case was at the underwriters for final approval . I have now exhausted my vacation days at work, being taken for closings that never materialized. In fact, I had a shift adjustment at work scheduled for tomorrow, Thursday May 25, for yet another closing that is not going to happen.

We were forced to go to Mr. Owens regional manager, Mike Peddie, to even get Mr. Owen to return our phone calls as to the status of our loan. We were told by Mr. Owen at this point that our loan of 163,000 had been approved, with a cash to close amount of 39,000. When we informed him the proceeds from our house sale were only to be 20,000, and inquired as to how our loan amount was so short of what we needed, he explained that he had factored in our $13,000 checking account balance! I asked him if it was standard procedure that people drain their bank account for a house down payment and he assured us that it was?!?!?! Additionally, he had *added* the closing costs on to the cash necessary for us to close, rather than subtracting it from the cash we would have available, leaving us approximately 16,000 short. When this was explained to him, he said, no problem, Ill increase the loan amount to 173,00. It will add approximately $40 to your mortgage payment.

The same day, we received a follow-up call from Mr. Peddie that largely consisted of blaming the victim in which he seemed to be communicating to us that it should have been our responsibility to be aware of Mr. Owens gross miscalculation. We were additionally questioned why on Earth we would pay off car loans at this stage of a loan application when we were assured by Mr. Owen that it would have no bearing on our acceptance.

Monday, May 22nd, we were contacted by Mr. Owen informing us that we would need to be re-approved for the higher loan. Fair enough, but two weeks ago, my husband broke his arm and is currently on short term disability from his employer. I trust you can see where this is going. They now need a written statement from my husbands employer and doctor that he will be back to work, free of restrictions in four weeks; While that is the assumption, no doctor on Earth is going to verify something that has yet to occur. While certainly inconvenient, my husbands injury would have in no way affected our ability to make timely mortgage payments. Had this deal closed three weeks ago when it was originally slated to, it would be a non-issue.

A few minutes ago, I was contacted by my realtor that if the house we are currently living in does not close by Friday, our buyer will have to go back to underwriting. She may very well bow out of the whole deal, as might our seller, and i wouldnt blame them for a second. Their respective mortgages through other lenders have been locked, loaded and ready to close for several weeks now.

Im really not sure at this point what can be done to salvage these deals. After years of going to 5/3 for my loan needs, I expected better.

Sincerely,

Jennifer Hayes

Comments are closed.