Complaint Review: Pleasant Valley Home Mortgage Corporation - Internet

Do not use Pleasant Valley Homemortgage - they are a bait-and-switch, hidden fee operation.

I spoke with a sales representative on July 18, and he promised that he would be able to provide a decent rate with negative points such that my up front costs on a refinance of just under $100,000 would be largely covered, with only a couple hundred dollars extra on top of escrow amounts.  I paid for the appraisal and apparently locked in a 40 day rate lock on that date.

In order to get everything kosher, he knew that I would have to pay off a piggy-bank second mortagage on my property of about 2400, which I planned on doing August 1, but noting that paperwork sometimes takes extra time to get.  This was fine.

I got the application through the mail (not electronically as promised) a couple days later.  The appraiser called and I scheduled the appraisal for August 3, which I had off from work.  I had provided a prior appraisal of the property from 2-3 months earlier in the year.  There was no complaint or objection from the mortgage company.  I even managed to turn around all documents, including the evidence of the piggy back loan payoff, by AUGUST 2, 2012.  The PVHM appraisers report came on I believe August 8 or 9.  There were still almost 20 days in the rate lock period left.

On August 10, 2012, they called and said they'd need an additional $175 to process the refinance because lateness of recieving the appraisal.  Thay said that this wasn't their fee, it was "the lenders" - but they also advertise that they are a direct lender.  In short, they lied on the phone.  I pushed back They had never given me a date to get the appraisal done by, had not objected to my scheduling of the appraisal on August 3, and that they had given me no warning of the fee or that things were even running late.  I also pushed back on the fact that rates had not risen over the intervening period, so there should be no actual need for a "lock."  

The above is compounded by the fact that the broker knew that I had to pay off the 2nd loan and, despite being able to do that by August 2, this could easily have taken an other week or so just to get written confirmation of the payoff --- but that was also fine for getting my money. 

They waived the $175 fee.  Notably, this request for more money was not put in writing. 

We continued processing the mortgage.  They asked me for additional documentation, which I provided within a day of request.  They even asked me to do a conference call with their credit company on some confusion with the credit statement and/or confirmation on September 12, 2012.  That actually only lasted 5 minutes to just clear up things that the broker should have cleared up (since I had already explained the information). 

On Thursday, September 13, 2012, they called and said we are ready to close but need to do so soon, Monday or Tuesday of next week.  I called back and told them that I was going to be out of town for work, but could do either that Friday (Sept. 14), or the next Friday, when I'd be returning.  I offered to have anything pre-signed or done remotely that they wanted.  They told  me that next Friday (September 21) would be fine, and we would close then.

On Thursday I recieved a voicemail that closing would not occur on Friday, and that we needed to talk.  I called on Friday, the day we were supposed to be closing, and Mr. Sozio, the sales rep, stated that they needed an additional $750 (again, not in writing) to close the loan.  There was no other options - not doing a new loan (since they already had the appraisal and the ultimate rate isn't as important to me as not having up front costs - I want to retain flexibility).  

At this point, I would have been willing to pay an extra nominal fee, but a hidden, unannounced, nowhere in the GFE $750 fee with no warning is, well, not just bait and switch, but a pretty good sign of consumer fraud.  They tried to blame the fee on me, even though this had nothing to do with any actions I took as they were still doing things with the loan the week before.  

I have filed a complaint with the NJ BBB (requesting a refund of the $400 fee for the appriasal which they induced me to pay based on their representations, confirmed in their GFE which they never had any intent of delivering on).  They already have 10 complaints in the NJ BBB in their 3 years of existence.  I will also be writing to the NJ AG, the FTC and anyone else who handles these types of fraudulent and predatory business and mortgage practices.

Do not use them.  This company appears to have bait-and-switch and hidden fees as their business model.  Hopefully a criminal investigation is launched.