First Form Letter

I received my first of many form letters after I sent my fax on February 10, 2012.  It was dated February 7, 2012, so it was sent by the customer service representative that I contacted first.  I've put a copy of it here.

Form Letter Contents

Thanks for contacting us.  You're covered by the Homeowners Protection Act (HPA) of 1998.   You must fulfill two requirements, then you have two options for PMI deletion.

1) No late payments
2) Loan has aged less than two years

Options

1)  HPA requirement - principal curtailment to 78% LTV
2) Investor requirement - appraisal to show improvements increased value to 75% LTV

English Translation of Form Letter

This form letter was in response to my request for information on cancelling PMI when reaching 80% LTV.  It did not address this topic at all.  Instead, it said that I can get PMI removed if I get to 78% LTV per the HPA.  It also said that we could have PMI deleted via the investor option where we show that we have made enough structural improvements to raise the value so the current LTV will be 75%.  It conveniently neglected the fact that the HPA says that I can request PMI deletion at 80%.  The form letter specifically and intentionally does not mention the 80% PMI deletion option in the Homeowner's Protection Act.

Next Steps

Of course, my wife and I were understandably confused.  We've read the HPA and seen the information on the Wells Fargo Home Mortgage website that says we can request PMI deletion when we reach 80% LTV.  Why did we get a form letter that clearly did not answer my question?  Why did the form letter not explain the 80% option?  Hanlon's Razor says never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.  I'm also a trusting person, so at this point, I just assume that I haven't made myself clear and maybe the fax that I sent to Resolutions will clear things up.

We wait.

Summary so Far (2/13/12)

1. We were told at loan origination that we could cancel PMI when we reached 80% LTV
2. We have enough money to pay our loan to 80% LTV
3. I found a statement on the Wells Fargo Home Mortgage website that stated we could request cancellation of PMI when we reached 80% LTV
4. I called a customer service rep to confirm, but was told we needed to get to either 78% LTV or 75% LTV with appraisal (???).  I was told to fax Resolutions to ask about the 80% requirement.
5. I researched the HPA and verified that I could request PMI cancellation at 80% LTV.  I also found that HPA requires evidence of a type established in advance that property value has not declined.  Not only was the evidence type not established in the PMI disclosure, but the requirement to provide evidence was made optional.
6. I prepared a fax that included a printout of the Wells Fargo Home Mortgage website where they acknowledge that a borrow can request cancellation of PMI at 80% LTV.
7. I received a form letter telling us that we could remove PMI at 78% LTV (per HPA) or 75% LTV with structural improvements and an appraisal (per investor requirements).  It neglected to mention the 80% borrower-initiated cancellation option allowed by the HPA.  Must have been an oversight...