My wife and I applied for a HARP loan with Bank of the West and fraudulently misled on the terms of the loan. On the application, we specifically stated that we did not want an escrow/impound account imposed on the loan. During processing, Bank of the West changed our selection by adding an escrow/impound account without informing us. 

While we were at the title company to sign the loan documents, we discovered that contrary to our requirements, the loan provided for the imposition of an escrow/impound account. We immediately refused to sign the loan documents. The notary then called the loan officer at Bank of the West who assured us that the issue of the escrow/impound account would be resolved at a later time and urged us to sign the papers. If we were not given this assurance, we would not have signed the papers and would have backed out of the loan. 

We attempted to resolve the issue with Bank of the West. The bank told us that for this type of loan, an escrow/impound account was required by bank policy. If the escrow/impound account was bank policy, why did n't the loan officer inform us of this when we filled out the paperwork? Moreover, why did the loan officer assure us that the issue would be resolved after we signed the loan papers when he was certainly aware of the bank 's policy? This clearly constitutes fraud or, at a minimum, negligent misrepresentation by Bank of the West. 
