Here are the facts and timeline of activities. If you can help me direct this to the appropriate agency that would be very helpful.
1) June - I learned of the government program called Making Home Affordable Program (Freddie Mac’s Relief Refinance) I have a copy of it that I obtained from the Freddie Mac website. The criteria and program highlights are as follows (page 10 of pdf): 1a) Loan being refinanced is owned by Freddie Mac – in my case yes 1b) New Mortgage LTV 80% - my case it was 90% 1c) Existing loan does not have Mortgage Insurance – in my case it did not 2) I began pursuing several potential lenders and settled on Quicken Loans. At this time and up to the closing of my refinance closing on 8/31 my loan was with Wells Fargo and held by Freddie Mac. I have many documents proving this and can provide whatever is needed. 3) I used the Freddie Mac online Self Service lookup tool multiple times throughout my refinance process to confirm that Freddie Mac owned this loan and I have retained a printed copy of it 4) July 19 – Quicken Loans informed me that they would have to charge me PMI on my refinance. 5) After many phone calls and emails I found out that Freddie Mac claimed that even though they owned my loan that it did not qualify for the program because of a “Pooled Insurance” issue. They explained the issue to me and how I understand it is this; when Wells Fargo sold my loan to Freddie Mac they bundled it with many other loans, some good and some bad. Because some were bad they had to add extra insurance to the bundle which flagged my loan as high risk and making it ineligible for this program. My loan has never had a blemish on it, ever. And I have super excellent credit and always have my entire life and I am now 54.6) July 20 – I received an email from Quicken Loans.in the email it states that the Quicken representative had been in contact with Freddie Mac and that I should be eligible for the program and they needed to correct a problem in their system and would have it done in 48 hours. (I can provide email) 7) July 28 – I was told by Quicken that Freddie Mac could not make the change and fix the problem. Because of the fear that rates would start to rise I decided to go forward with the refinance with Quicken and pursue the PMI / Freddie Mac issue later. I moved forward with the refinance and closed on 8/31/10.8) August – I spent many hours calling many government agencies including Freddie Mac’s Los Angeles office and got no results. I called the following during August: 8a) Freddie Mac – 444 South Flower St. 44th floor, Los Angeles, CA 90071 – 213-337-4200 8b) Pacific Community Services, Inc. – 925-439-1056 8c) Homeowner’s Hope Hotline – 888-995-4673 8d) HUD Housing Discrimination Hotline – 800-669-9777 8e) Senator Diane Feinstein – 415-393-0707 8f) Senator Barbara Boxer – 415-403-0100 9) September 2 – I called Freddie Mac again (800-373-3343 consumer prompt 4 then 5) and spoke to a Michelle. She informed me again that Freddie Mac was aware of the problem and that they are working with the US Treasury to fix it. She told me the problem description was called “Pooled Insurance”. 10) September 2 – I attempted to find a vehicle to communicate with the US Treasury but could not so I sent an online question to the Federal Reserve Consumer Help describing my concern. 11) September 9 – I received an email indicating that the Federal Reserve Consumer Help agency forwarded my concern to the Federal Housing Finance Agency. 12) September 29 – I received a letter in the mail from the Federal Housing Finance Agency (Edward Kelley, Associate Director for Internal Audit). Attached were the following: 12a) A copy of my complaint from September 2.12b) A copy of the acknowledgement of my complaint by the Federal Reserve Consumer Help agency dated September 9.12c) A copy of a letter sent by Federal Housing Finance Agency (Edward Kelley, Associate Director for Internal Audit) to Pamela Barrow of Freddie Mac Corporate Offices in McLean, VA referring the matter to her and asking her to contact me. 13) Understanding that matters such as these do not get resolved overnight I thought I should allow plenty of time for Freddie Mac and the FHFA to get back to me. Then the holidays hit and I became distracted by personal matters and later went back to review the letter I received. 13) March 1 – I forwarded my concern back to the FHFA to inquire on my concern’s status. 14) March 7 - I received a phone call from Freddie Mac, a Pamela Johnson, Lead Specialist, Homeowner Assistance Response Team, Single Family Portfolio Management. 15) March 11 - I received the following response from Pamela Johnson. "To summarize our conversation, a Credit Enhancement (CE) is an agreement between Freddie Mac and the Lender that sold us the original loan. Credit Enhancements are provided to Freddie Mac to mitigate the credit risk of the loan, and/or improve the price of mortgage to the lender.
The presence of Credit Enhancement (CE) makes your loan ineligible for the Freddie Mac Relief Refinance program. Freddie Mac purchases mortgages that meet our requirements from banks and other lending institutions. While the Relief Refinance mortgage is designed to assist a large number of borrowers who are current on their mortgage payments and have been unable to refinance, not all borrowers or loans will qualify or be eligible under the program. The Relief Refinance program is just one of the various refinance programs offered in the marketplace, with each program having their own requirements.
Therefore, the presence of a Credit Enhancement does not prevent you from exploring other refinance programs offered and you were able to do. As a result, your loan is no longer held by Freddie Mac."
16) In several attempts to get a better explanation than this I emailed and called Pamela several times in April. She told me at one point that she would have someone from Freddie Mac's legal department call me. I received one voicemail from them which I returned promptly and in return left a voicemail and then another and then another. Since April I have not heard one thing.
These are my concerns. 1) In Freddie Mac's pdf description of the Making Home Affordable Program there is no mention of this "Credit Enhancement" provision. 2) My loan is and has never been high risk which is the whole purpose behind PMI. 3) I never authorized my loan to be sold in a bundle with bad loans thereby causing this issue. 4) I feel like this is unfair business practice on the part of Freddie Mac, Wells Fargo (sold my loan in a bundle) and the PMI industry. 5) It seems that Freddie Mac is making things up as they go because there is no logical reason that I should have to pay PMI and a person in my identical situation (except their loan wasn’t sold in a bundle with bad loans) doesn’t have to.
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