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2.3

My wife and I just purchased a home about 8 months ago. We poured in alot of money, sweat and tears to update and remodel the home (it was a 1993 that had never been updated).

After the updates we contacted Ocwen and I asked if it were possible to cancel my PMI now that i made the improvements. They sent me the requirements for cancelling PMI. I read through it very carefully to see if it was something I could do. On the paper work that THEY sent me, it stated that to be able to cancel PMI, I would need to get a new appraisal ($500, which i had to pay for).

that shows an LTV of 75% or less. With that it said that i would also need to submit a list of upgrades and changes to the home that would show how the value of the home was increased. So, i made the assessment that with the upgrades that we did, we would hit that 75% requirement. I paid the $500, and the inspector came out.

I asked him about what documentation that he needed from me and he said "you know what, i simply need a ball park of some of the upgrades that i can send to the lender to show an increase of value". I asked him how important that info was, and he said " its not a big deal, the loan company (ocwen) will simply go off of my valuation of the home for the LTV". so i simply gave him a ball park figure on a spread sheet and he said thats all he needed. A couple of weeks pass and i get a reply from Ocwen that i was declined on my request to drop PMI.

I looked at the appraisal report and with it and my loan amount, I was at 74% LTV. So i called in to the company to let them know that there must have been a mistake, and they said they would review it. (i left out the part that I first had to speak with someone over seas, and they started blaming Fannie Mae that it was declined and it was out of their hands, even though they didn't understand why it was cancelled either). I get another response via mail from Ocwen, this is where it gets my blood boiling.

With out my knowledge from the beginning, they state that the costs of the upgrades is what determined the value of the home. So now, they have their OWN calcuation of LTV, that was NOT disclosed to me before i paid for the appraisor. This "Calculation" put me at 76% LTV. I called up letting them know that i find it un ethical to request one thing, have someone pay money for it, and then change the rules after the fact.

Had i been aware of their special calulator in the first place, and I was denied, I would be okay with that. BUT.... neither me nor the appraisor knew of this. They said the would review it again, called back a day later and said, nope, still not approve.

The biggest issue that i have, is that I did everything right by THEIR original rules (which i still have copys of and "Jenna" their agent even agreed that it didn't disclose all the information) and they still denied me. I feel that the Law would side with me on that and that Ocwen doesn't think that i would take it to that level. I am not looking for a freebe, or leniency, i am just looking for Ocwen to be ethical here and stand behind the agreement that I agreed to on the original paper work. This isn't a "grey" area issue, it is writen out in black and white, and they still denied my claim, and I have hard copies to back that up.

At this point I am out $500 and am still paying money to a company that i feel is un-ethical and will be looking to move my loan as soon as rates will allow.

$500 may seem small to most people, but to me its huge. And the money isn't my biggest issue, its the Principal of it.

Reason of review: Not as described/ advertised.

Monetary Loss: $49100.

Preferred solution: Let the company propose a solution.

Ocwen Pros: Great on the day to day processes.

Ocwen Cons: Miss leading.

Location: 1661 Worthington Rd #100, West Palm Beach, FL 33409, USA

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Guest

Did you ever get your PMI removed?

Guest

We are in the same exact boat now. They now want us to pay $1170 to remove the PMI, in addition to the $600 that we paid for an appraisal.

Oh, and the appraiser didn't include the increased value of our house....(1400 square feet!!!!), instead told us that basements don't add value.

Wait for it....our appraisal from 4 years ago was $12,000 higher!?!?!?!?!? SERIOUSLY!!!!

I really hope that I win that class action lawsuit that was filed against them.

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