At the end of April I applied for a mortgage refinance through Bank of America to drop my interest rate from 6.75% to 4.75%. My closing took place on June 30. Prior to my closing, I was not given a copy of my HUD to look over the final numbers. Also, no one explained the numbers on the HUD to me; not Melvin Crawley (my loan processor), nor Christine Mason (the lady who put the HUD together), nor the attorney who was present at the closing.
The night of the closing, I noticed that two mistakes were made on the HUD: 1) I was charged $3503.40 for transfer taxes when I was promised a CEMA loan with no transfer taxes. 2) I was charged $1963.20 for the 4.75% interest rate, when I was only supposed to be charged $1210.93. (I was supposed to be charged for. 625 points, but I was mistakenly charged for 1 point.)
Despite the mistakes, the attorney at closing persuaded me to sign the papers for two reasons: 1) He told me to call Bank of America the next morning. He confided that Bank of America waives transfer taxes all the time. They would not want to risk losing my loan. He also told me that just that morning, the attorney attended a closing in which Bank of America waived all of the closing costs. 2) I would have three business days to file a right of rescission, so there would be no risk.
Against my better judgment, I signed the papers as the attorney advised. I called Bank of America the next morning and spoke to Yoshi Hoover (the loan officer I have been working with since April). Mr. Hoover understood the mistakes that were made and that I should have received a CEMA loan. He was going to try and contact a manager to get my loan taken “one step back”. (It was the Friday of the July 4th weekend, and I guess managers were few far between.) He also told me that if I did not hear back from him by Tuesday July 5, to definitely file the rescission papers.
But I did hear back from Mr. Hoover a couple of hours later. He said that Melvin Crawley’s manager Missy Ryan was on vacation, but he was able to get in touch with covering manager Jason Walters, and he was successful in getting my loan taken “one step back“. According to Mr. Walters, the closing papers would be “shredded” and it would be “as if the closing never happened”. Mr. Hoover has proof of this conversation.
I asked Mr. Hoover if I should still file the rescission papers anyway, but he told me no. If I file the rescission papers, he said, it would void the entire loan, including all the work that was done over the past two months leading to the closing, and we would have to start over again at square one.
Throughout the month of July, Mr. Hoover and Mr. Crawley continued to work on getting me the CEMA loan. I received a refund for the check that I had written out on the night of the closing. Bank of America was having trouble locating my original note, so on July 27, Mr. Crawley called me and offered to waive $1000 of my transfer taxes if I were willing to move forward with my loan without proceeding as a CEMA. I politely declined because I wanted the CEMA loan that I was promised.
Two days later, on July 29, my loan was funded. I don’t know how that happened as I was assured by Mr. Walters that my closing papers were to be “shredded” and it was to be “as if my closing never happened”.
To this day, I have been unable to obtain any kind of recompense from Bank of America. Missy Ryan (Melvin Crawley’s manager) has been less than helpful, stating that a mistake was made, I should not have been told what I was told, and they cannot ignore signed documents. Jason Walters has not returned my e-mails. I have also left a couple of voicemails for Norman Brooks (Missy Ryan’s supervisor), but he has not returned my phone calls either.
I feel as if I have been defrauded by Bank of America.
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