WASHINGTON—Consumers continue to report servicing problems when they are unable to make mortgage payments, according to the CFPB’s latest monthly consumer complaint snapshot.
The report, released Tuesday, highlights mortgage-related consumer complaints and found that as of April 1, 2016, the Bureau said it has handled approximately 859,900 complaints across all products.
“Today’s report shows that consumers are still running into too many dead-ends and obstacles in resolving issues with their mortgage servicer,” said 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.”
As of April 1, 2016 the Bureau said it had received approximately 223,100 mortgage complaints. Some of the findings in the snapshot include:
- Problems when consumers are unable to pay: The majority of complaints about mortgages—51%—submitted to the Bureau had to do with problems consumers faced when they had difficulty making payments. Consumers complained of prolonged loss mitigation review processes in which the same documentation was repeatedly requested by their servicer. Consumers also complained that they received conflicting and confusing foreclosure notifications during the loss mitigation review process.
- Confusion over loan transfers: Another common complaint submitted by many consumers had to do with the 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 submitted to the Bureau had to do with difficulty communicating with loan servicers. Consumers complained that when they were able to speak with their servicer, the information they received was often confusing and did not provide the clarifications they were hoping for. Consumers stated that these customer service issues led to delays in obtaining needed resolutions for their mortgage loans.
- Most-complained-about mortgage companies: The four companies about which the CFPB received the most mortgage-related complaints between November 2015 to January 2016 were Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Ocwen, and Nationstar Mortgage.
National Complaint Overview
Highlights from the statistics in this month’s snapshot report include:
- Complaint volume: For the month of March 2016, consumers submitted 8,243 debt collection complaints to the Bureau. That figure accounted for over 30% of all complaints submitted to the Bureau in March 2016.
- Product trends: Complaints submitted relating to credit reporting rose 35% between February and March of 2016. During the month of March, there were 3,321 credit reporting complaints submitted to the Bureau.
- State information: In terms of total complaints per 100,000 people, the District of Columbia, Maryland, Delaware, and Florida had the highest concentration of complaints submitted.
- Most-complained-about companies: The top three companies about which the CFPB received the most complaints between November 2015 and January 2016 were Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion.