Complaints filed against mortgage companies were up, though not as much as in other financial services sectors. Carrington Holding Company LLC’s mortgage unit saw the biggest increase.
From June 1 through Aug. 30, consumers submitted a monthly average of 25,204 complaints about financial services companies based on a three-month rolling average.
That turned out to be 16 percent more complaints than were submitted by U.S. consumers during the same three-month period last year.
The information was summarized in the third volume of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Monthly Complaint Report.
But among just mortgage firms, complaints were up only seven percent to 4,584.
A majority of mortgage complaints were about borrowers being unable to make payments, many who were upset about loan modification applications. Another 30 percent were about making payments, especially among those whose servicing was transferred. Eight percent were about applying for loans, four percent were related to signing the agreement and two percent were for receiving credit line offers.
Average mortgage complaints rose by half from
a year earlier in Nebraska, more than in any other state. Next was a 47 percent increase in Rhode Island, then 46 percent in Alabama, 42 percent in Oklahoma and 39 percent in Kansas.
A 54 percent decline in West Virginia was the biggest of any state.
For just August, a total of 25,732 complaints were submitted for all financial services providers, off four percent from a month earlier.
But the home lending business didn’t fare so well on this metric, with complaints inching up one percent to 4,574.
During the three months ended June 30, the monthly average number of mortgage complaints against Wells Fargo & Co. was 433 — the most of any company but a two percent improvement from last year.
Company-level data are reported on a two-month delay to allow for the 60 days firms have to respond to complaints and confirm a commercial relationship with the consumer.
Bank of America Corp. saw 430 average mortgage complaints, down 12 percent from the three months ended June 30, 2014.
Ocwen Financial Corp. had 428 complaints, falling 17 percent from one year prior.
Nationstar Mortgage
LLP had 353 average complaints per month, three percent worse than the year-earlier period.
After that was JPMorgan Chase & Co., where consumers filed 269 complaints, six percent less than in 2016.
A 117 percent surge at Carrington Mortgage Services LLC was the biggest jump in mortgage complaints of any company listed and left the firm with 42 complaints filed in the most-recent period.
At the other end of the spectrum was PNC Bank, where complaints fell a quarter to 63.
