Filed a HUD Complaint for Discrimination!

Greg and I suddenly got the idea that we wanted to move.  Abby is moving out at the end of the month, and this house is so big and the yard is so big and needs so much work with mowing and trimming, etc. that we just decided it was time to downsize.   Before we started looking at houses, we decided that we needed to look into a mortgage loan to see what we qualified for.  We are almost nine years post-bankruptcy (we went 5 years without an income when we opened our store) so that pesky question of "have you filed for bankruptcy within the last seven years can finally be answered "no"!  How awesome is that?!   

So, on a Thursday afternoon, I went to a local bank with Erica and spoke with a loan officer.  She was very nice to Erica and was initially nice to me, as well, but seemed to kind of "shut down" when we began talking about income and I told her that Greg was disabled and received Social Security Disability.  I didn't think too much of it at that time.  We weren't able to continue our discussion or me give her all my paperwork because she had another customer waiting.  I didn't think about that much, either, as I did not have an appointment, so OK, someone who does have one kind of takes precedence.  I get that.  Anyway, she said she would get back to me on Friday.  We wanted to look at a house on Saturday, but if we weren't going to be approved, we weren't going to bother going.   I called her about mid-morning Friday and asked about our loan.  She very curtly advised me that she was working on a loan that was closing on Tuesday and she would get back to me before the end of the day.  I waited and waited and waited.  Finally, at about 4:20 Friday afternoon, we received an email from her with a "worst case scenario" loan, which was a conventional mortgage with a high interest rate and very high monthly mortgage insurance.  She knew we were looking into a USDA rural loan, as any property we looked at would qualify.  We were also looking at an FHA loan, which is also lower in interest and closing costs and mortgage insurance, but there was no information with regard to that nor the better home loan that the bank offers.  Just the very expensive conventional loan.  

She also asked for additional financial information, including proof that Greg's disability income will continue for a minimum of three more years.  That request sent me into a tizzy.  We have never received anything that stated how long his disability payments would continue.  I searched the Social Security website and discovered that they do not provide that, because if you get better, then payments will stop.  It's as simple as that.  As long as you are disabled, the payments will continue.  They are not going to guaranty anything!   I responded to her and told her that Greg was not going to get better.  There is no cure for congestive heart failure, which was the original disability and now he's fighting esophageal cancer.  I didn't tell her at the time, but with this being such an aggressive cancer, we have no way of knowing if he will even be alive in three years.  I began to wonder why she didn't ask for the same information from me.  Why just Greg's disability?  That seemed odd to me.  Of course, the rest of the weekend was spent very frustrated, trying to figure out why she would ask for that, and feeling quite dejected, as we knew we could not provide that proof.   I was actuallly horrified that a loan officer would request such information as she should have known that Social Security did not provide that, which meant that she expected us to provide personal medical information on Greg to the bank before actually making an offer of a mortgage!   Whoa nelly!  I don't think that's legal!   She has absolutely NO right to any of Greg's personal health information!  

We decided to go look at the house we planned on anyway.  It just happened to be in Gillett, the same town that our soon-to-be daughter-in-law teaches in!  Aaron and Rachel met us at the house.  Unfortunately, it was MUCH smaller than it appeared in the pictures, and not anywhere near as nice.  Not only that, but the 1,500 or so square foot estimate included the basement!  I don't care if it's finished or not.  That should not have been included in the square footagel.  The realtor said that's quite common nowadays.  If that's the case, then our house is over 4,000 square feet!   Needless to say, we did not make an offer on that house.  We enjoy driving, and it was nice to take a road trip.  It was also great to see Aaron and Rachel, so all was not lost.  

On Monday, after still not hearing back from the banker, at 11 a.m., I sent her an email advising her that we did not like the house we looked at that weekend, and asked her to respond to the information and questions I sent on Friday.  But she didn't bother to respond to me until 6:38 Tuesday evening!   

On Tuesday, we had gone to see another home that was just south of Wisconsin Rapids.  We figured seeing as I telecommute, we can pretty much move anywhere, so we were looking all over.  We weren't happy with the home Tuesday night, either, but hey, it's going to take a while to find what we want.  We need to be able to take the chickens, geese, ducks and turkeys with us, so that does limit us on where we can live.   The fact that I'd rather be in the middle of nowhere than have any neighbors makes it a little difficult, as well.  BUT, there's no reason we can't keep looking.  We're not in any sort of hurry. 

We talked again about the bank and their request, and were still quite upset over the request.  When we got home that night, there was another email from the banker.  Instead of answering a single one of my questions, she very rudely stated that "in all the emails I sent" to her, I didn't include the rest of the financial information she wanted.   I thought about that, and her attitude and her request/demand for medical information.  At that point, Greg and I both said enough was enough.  It just wasn't worth it  to argue with the bank and gave up the thought of moving anytime soon.  We'll make it work with our current house, and just continue to grow our equity.  

Both of us were rather relieved to not be dealing with this woman any more and I sent her a not very nice email with regard to her attitude and illegal request for Greg's medical information.  Since sending that email, I have since found out that her exact request, for proof that his payments will continue for three years, is highly illegal!  There was a lawsuit in 2014 (three years ago!) on this very request and it is Federal Law that she cannot ask for that information and is discriminatory to request it!  Now, with that being the case, she should have known better and never asked for that information.  She didn't even ask for it in a phone conversation, but put it in writing in an email, so she can't even deny that she made the request!  She was so desperate to NOT give us a loan, that she put her illegal request in writing!   How awesome is THAT?!   If she did not know that the law does not allow her to ask for personal medical information and discriminate against us, then the bank is responsible and should have trained her better. After all, it's been three years since the original lawsuit!   

I'm seriously wondering how many other people she demanded this illegal information from?  Maybe I need to see an attorney for a class action suit?   As it is, for now, I have filed a discrimination complaint with the Department of Housing and Urban Development.  This woman needs to find another job, where she doesn't have the ability to discriminate against people with disabilities.  

Does she think we're just scamming the system?  What the hell?  Like everyone else with disabilities, Greg would much rather be healthy and working to support his family than be dealing with all these health issues!  How DARE she!