mastersm3223
New Member
- Jurisdiction
- Ohio
After two years of chasing this house through auctions and finally HUD, my offer was accepted and I was able to buy my house. After discussing my options with the lender I'm dealing with I was told that I was able to do a VA loan with Escrow due to some small repairs needed to be made under VA requirements. My lender explained to me that the Escrow would be a little extra money borrowed for the repairs and it would be tacked on to the loan. Kind of like a 203k loan. This was exciting news to me because that meant I had to front little to no cash to get this loan done. So I had my contractor give me a quote and got it turned in fast. After weeks of unreturned phone calls and last minute "We need this paper work ASAP!" i still had no closing date. Then I get a phone call from the lender explaining that the VA with Escrow loan wouldn't work the way they thought. They then told me that I would have to pay into the escrow with my own cash to pay the contractor for the work. Since i really wanted the house and had the cash I agreed to go forward with the loan. Fast forward passed some more unreturned phone calls and last minute "We need this paper from you" I was finally given a closing date. I brought $13,000 to closing, $10,000 of that being for the escrow. After the long process of closing I was told congrats and was even given a nice sign to hang on my house. At no point did I sign any documents that had anything to do with Escrow. I was told verbally that everything was finished on my end and that a check would be given to my contractor for the work. I closed on June 2nd. On June 13th my lender called me saying that due to the VA guidelines the $10,000 of my money wouldn't be released to the contractor until all the work was completed and inspected. I explained to my lender that that's not what she told me and that there probably isn't a contractor on the planet that will work without money upfront. She then proceeded to explain to me that I would have to pay half in cash to the contractor to get the job done and then when it's finished I would get the escrow money left over after the rest of the money was paid to the contractor. Even though I thought that was absolutely ridiculous I wanted the house so I told my lender I would agree to pay more money IF I they could produce me a signed legal document with those terms on it. They said they would see what they could do. THEN the emailed me an Escrow Holdback Agreement and said they needed me to sign it in order for the loan to go forward. To keep a long story short the escrow hold back, which was dated June 2nd(closing date) stated that the i had to pay for some kind of extra inspection, the bank could come into my house when ever they please and the rest of the funds in escrow would be applied to the loan. I obviously refused to sign this piece of paper that should have been at closing but wasn't. My lender then told me I could cross out what I didn't agree to and initial next to it and then sign the paper. I again refused to do so. The lender then told me the Vice President of the company is taking over my case and it would be handled soon. The next email I got stated that the contractor would be taken care of but I needed to sign the Escrow hold back. I refused to agree to any of the terms on that paper. I have all the emails and supporting documents saved. I'm beginning to think in need a lawyer.
