Product: Mortgage

Lender : Loan Depot Complaint : Negligence of Impound account funds, and inadequate accounting systems for impound account as it pertains to property taxes. Excess delay in resolution of issue causing financial hardship in the borrow.

Property closed escrow on XX/XX/XXXX, at that time the borrow was charged and paid the remaining property taxes due for the fiscal year ending XX/XX/XXXX. Due to a massive backlog with the county of XXXX XXXX the property taxes were not updated at the end of the fiscal year but rather in XXXX of XXXX. During that time the borrower was paying into their impound account the proper amount for the taxes and the mortgage company was only paying what they were showing on the county website. The borrowers received and paid the supplemental tax bill on XXXX XXXX. At that time the borrowers were up to date on all property taxes owed. Shortly thereafter in early XX/XX/XXXX, the borrowers received in the mail a refund check from their mortgage company for excessive funds in their impound account. At that time they contacted the mortgage company to confirm this was not a mistake and that they had the funds in the account and would be paying the next tax payment due in XX/XX/XXXX. It was confirmed on both the phone and by review of the online account that the borrower had funds in excess of the next tax payment due and that their impound account was funded correctly. The tax payment made by the lender in XXXX was for the wrong amount. The borrowers were under the impression that the payment had been made for the correct amount. The Borrowers received a notice from the county of XXXX XXXX in early XX/XX/XXXX that they were delinquent on their property taxes. They contacted the lenders and spoke to the tax department, which was a call center reading off a script with no real knowledge of how the county of XXXX XXXX property taxes worked. It was requested at that time they use the excessive amount of funds in the impound account to make the payment. The payment was made on XX/XX/XXXX. It was at that time the borrower again was under the impression that the taxes were paid up to date. In XX/XX/XXXX the borrowers received another notice that their property taxes were in default. Again the borrowers called the mortgage company tax department line and requested an update on the file, again this was with the call center who told them to call back in 10 days for an answer. The borrowers contacted the XXXX XXXX property tax department and they were unable to explain the file over the phone stating it looked as if there were multiple payments made and that it was in the process of refunding. Feeling as if they were getting the runaround from each of the call centers, the borrowers contacted the Loan Depot local customer service line and started working with a representative. At that time it was discovered that in early XXXX another payment was made out of the impound account for property taxes which at that time was unnecessary and depleted the borrowers impound. The borrower received a mortgage billing statement letting them know that their impound account was too low and that they had to increase their mortgage payment by {$1500.00} a month for the next several months to put the account back into the correct state. The borrower explained to the Mortgage company that the property taxes at this point had been over paid and to have them confirm all of this with the county, the borrower was advised that they would put a hold on the account to not have the upcoming tax payment made until this was resolved. The mortgage company rep was communicative during this time but explained that they were baffled by all of this. The borrower took it upon themselves to go to the county and get statements showing the payments and balance due. The borrower at that time was able to confirm that the county was not showing the payment made by the mortgage company in XXXX of XXXX. All of the information was sent to the mortgage company for them to research the missing payment. During that time the hold was not placed on the borrowers account and in XX/XX/XXXX another payment from the impound account for the property taxes putting the borrowers impound account into the negative. Since that time the borrowers have been in communication with the mortgage company to assist in resolving and find the missing payment. To date the mortgage company keeps advising they have no update and pushing out the county 's response time to this issue. During this time the borrow has been charge unnecessary penalty fees on their property taxes and has had their mortgage payment excessively increased.