And then there are the underwriting requirements that are actually illegal.
That’s right. Some underwriters today are asking borrowers to give them paperwork they have no business asking for! It’s high time this come out in the open and that underwriting supervisors and mortgage managers put a stop to this madness. Can we have some common sense in the underwriting department, please?!
For example, yesterday I was talking with a self-employed chiropractor. When his purchase loan was in progress, the underwriter from the wholesale bank that his broker was going through asked him to submit all of the checks he had deposited into his business account in the last year. He had already provided three years’ income tax returns (which they verified with the IRS) and his bank statements. And now the underwriter wanted to see all the personal checks that each and every one of his patients had paid him as well? He told her, “No way, that is doctor-patient privileged information, and it would be illegal for me to give that out.”
Another home buyer (at a bank) was trying to get pre-approved. His application showed a gap in employment during a time when he was hospitalized. However, during that time he maintained his perfect credit; and now he was fully recovered and back to work. The underwriter asked him to provide a letter from his doctor stating he would not get ill again. Can you imagine any doctor guaranteeing someone would not get ill in the future? Talk about underwriting stupidity!
I am making a public call for common sense to come back into the underwriting department.
In the meantime, what is the worst underwriting requirement you’ve ever seen? Please either post a comment (you’ll see the comment tab at the top of this post) or send me an email by clicking on the Ask a Question page (see big blue tab at top).