I tried to find out how to remove PMI from my loan on 2/7/12. I was told that I needed to get to 78% LTV (wrong). I asked who I could speak to about this error and was told to fax to the Resolution Department. This led to lot's of back and forth between Wells Fargo Home Mortgage (WFHM) and me via fax and snail mail. I would quote the HPA showing where it said 80%, and they would respond back with 78%. I finally paid down to 80% and demanded removal. This got nowhere, so I complained to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) on 8/27/12. This resulted in phone call from Executive Mortgage Specialist #1 (EMS1) on 8/29/12! EMS1 sand I played phone tag until 9/17/12 when she said that I had to get an appraisal.
On 9/18/12, I figured I got as far as the EMS could go, so I started this blog. I also complained to all of the executives I could find via email and asked for them to resolve this issue (executive email carpet bomb [EECB]). It worked. Kind of.
On 9/19/12, EMS #2 called, unaware that I had been working with EMS#1. We did the usual phone tag, but after talking with him, he offered to go to the PMI department to get a resolution. What is funny is that I was receiving snail mail from EMS #1 (dated two weeks earlier) saying that she needed more time to research.
Also, on 9/24/12, we also recieved a nice letter from WFHM saying that they had screwed up the escrow calculations and that we would need to make a lump payment or increase our monthly payments. Nice job.
On 10/19/12 EMS #2 called back with a resolution from the PMI department. They offered to remove PMI going back to when we hit 80% LTV (we disagreed on the date) as long as a current appraisal came in at or above the loan value.
This is at least progress, but there are several problems with this approach.
- We would have got the appraisal back in February if someone had given us the correct information. An appraisal now may not be relevant to the value in February.
- As I had shown repeatedly, our PMI disclosure had the caveat "The servicer receives, if requested and at your expense, evidence that the value of the property has not declined below its original value..." Bold added for emphasis. An appraisal was not asked for when I made the request, except for the 78% deletion option. It was not asked for when we demanded PMI removal. We believe WFHM has given up their right to request an appraisal for the 80% deletion option and should honor the terms in the disclosure letter and the Homeowner's Protection Act of 1998 (HPA)
- Servicer has 30 days to respond to declined PMI removal according to the HPA. I was never told that it was declined for lack of appraisal. In fact, the only response I got was that we had to pay down to 78%. This is a violation of the HPA.
That is the status as of 10/17/12. We started on 2/7/12, had many faxes, a complaint to the OCC, two Executive Mortgage Specialists, and one complaint to the Wells Fargo executives. We did get WFHM to admit that they had made an error with requesting 78% LTV repeatedly. Fat lot of good that does us, although they offered to remove PMI as of when we reached 80% LTV, IF a current mortgage supported the original value.
