My husband and I are livid over the treatment we received during our recent home purchase. The problem was reported to SunTrust executives, with basically no meaningful response. The branch manager called too late, was poorly informed, said he would get more information and call me back. That was over 2 weeks ago.
Here is what happened: My husband and I worked with a SunTrust mortgage specialist on an FHA loan. The application process was smooth. After the home inspection we decided that we wanted to upgrade the HVAC system as part of the purchase agreement. The units in the home were in working order (as confirmed by the FHA authorized inspector) however our HVAC guy said the units were frankly a bit too small for the place, we wanted to upgrade the efficiency of the units, and get the finished basement on the central HVAC system. The sellers agreed that if we increased the purchase price by $6k, they would contribute $10k at closing to a new system. Our realtor contacted the mortgage specialist to ensure it could be done. She went to an underwriter in the office and was told that as long as the FHA approved appraiser did not say that this was a repair (FHA requires repairs to be done before closing) that it would be fine. We proceeded, got a firm quote and as it was more than $10k we were to make up the difference at closing. A check was to be cut at closing for the full amount to the HVAC company.
As our closing day (6/5) got closer, we continued to get requests from the underwriter for documents. 3 days before, I expressed concern about the closing, as I needed an advance copy of the loan documents to preview before closing. I was told that the underwriter was working on it. About 24 hours before closing, I got another request. The loan coordinator said that the underwriter had cleared everything, but needed one last thing for confirmation, the documents prepared and submitted to the closing attorney either late Thursday afternoon or first thing Friday morning. I was given the contact information for the closing attorney to call Friday to preview the documents before the 3pm closing. The fact that underwriting could not get the work done in a timely manner meant that I had to take the whole day off on Friday, instead of the half day that I planned. My husband took the whole day as well.
I contacted the closing attorney the next A.M., no documents. I emailed the coordinator and learned that another underwriter (1st was on vacation) had decided, 5 hours before closing, that the HVAC work was in fact a repair, and therefore had to be completed before closing. This is in direct contradiction to what the appraiser said, and to what underwriting told us a couple of weeks before. As I told my SunTrust contacts, this is completely unacceptable, unprofessional conduct, and if SunTrust's position was that we can't do this, then the statement made by the underwriter 2 weeks before is a material misrepresentation that we relied on. Making a misrepresentation during the making, processing or underwriting of a loan is a violation of Georgia's Mortgage Fraud Act. My contacts tried to email and phone the underwriter, and had difficulty getting the underwriter. At 3pm we were told that we had 2 options: get the work done before closing (impossible) or go back to the original sale price and eliminate the HVAC upgrade from the contract. This meant that my husband and I had just a few minutes to decide what to do. We felt completely pressured into an option that was unacceptable, but if we broke the agreement the house and our earnest money would be gone. We agreed to modify the agreement back to the original amount.
By the time we got to the closing attorney, the paperwork had been received. But, it was almost 4:30pm, the attorney's staff was working up the HUD statement, but it still needed to go back to SunTrust for final review and approval. SunTrust's employees informed the closing attorney that they were leaving at 4:30pm—period. No one would stay to ensure this closing which was delayed purely due to SunTrust's underwriters' actions.
I got a copy of most of the paperwork. My name was incorrect on it. The HUD statement was not provided to me until 2 hours before closing on Monday. It included a higher origination fee for SunTrust than what was on the TIL statement, and it included buyer's title insurance which I expressly declined. It took hours for the numbers to be corrected. They would not fix my name.
Unless SunTrust can somehow rectify this situation, we will NEVER use them for anything else. Period. All of our friends and family are shocked by this story, and the extremely poor response, and are also going to avoid any business with SunTrust in the future. I have no idea what they can do to rectify the situation, but as I told the poorly informed manager who called after closing, at a minimum, I request the citations to the HUD underwriter's handbook that support their 2nd underwriter's position, as I have been unable to find it with a diligent search of the handbook.
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