On 8/13/09, my husband and I "locked-in" a 5% interest rate for mortgage refinancing at a cost of $500 which was to be refunded at closing provided everything went "as planned" and the loan closed. The disclosure and agreement statement indicates that the maximum liability for the lock-in fee "is the above-stated lock-in fee" which was $500. The Good Faith Estimate showed this "processing fee" as $595. The final settlement statement not only showed us as having paid $500 outside of closing, but included an additional charge of $498. To date, we have not received the $500 back and have paid another $498 to Meredian.
The 30-day lock period was not extended because Meredian was not paying attention. We ended up having a 5.875% interest rate.
The loan was to close by the end of September, but didn't. We made the October mortgage payments (1st and 2nd). On October 20, Meredian took $1920 out of our checking account for interest to be included in the November payment. The loan closed on 10/21 and we have yet to receive the $1920 back or a reconciliation of how the funds were applied/used. It has been reported to me that Mr. Assali deposited the money into his personal account.
We received a settlement check dated 11/3 and I deposited it on 11/9. This is 18 days after closing. It is my understanding that funds are to be disbursed within 72 hours. On 11/13, the check was returned to our back because Meredian (Russell Howerton) issued a stop payment. He claimed it was a mistake and sent another check to us which didn't arrive until 11/16 at which time I deposited it. On 11/24, this second check was again returned to our back due to stop payment. Each of these events caused a charge of $4 (total $8) for the bank handling fee. Now it is over one month since our loan closed and we still do not have our money!
I contacted Mr. Assali and he was not at all helpful.in fact, he treated me as if I was expecting too much to have our money. A check couldn't be reissued for 30 days because of a legal stipulation preventing the reissuing of a check as a result of stop payment. I insisted the money be wired into our account and contacted the woman representing the Title company. She was aware of similar experiences.
Finally, the money was wired into our account on 11/30 at which time we were charged a $15 wire fee.
To date, Meredian owes us:
$998 lock-in fee
$1920 interest not accounted for at closing and allegedly deposited into a personal account
$23 bank fees due to Meredian's errors
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