Consumer complaint received 2023-11-14
Company: Freedom Mortgage Company
State: VA
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: VA mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process
Sub-issue: Payment process

Complaint:
I have been in constant contact with Freedom Mortgage expecting a property tax over payment refund from XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX in XXXX Virginia. On XX/XX/XXXX the property tax exemption was applied to the account and Freedom Mortgage did an Escrow Account Review and Disclosure Statement revealing a surplus in the escrow account of {$280.00}. they were retaining because the account was delinquent. They were advised the property tax over payment refund from XXXX XXXX would be sent directly to them in early XXXX and should be used to pay the mortgage payment arrears and return the balance of the refund to me. This was communicated on the telephone with an agent on XX/XX/2023 and assured the funds would be used to pay the arrears and refund the balance. 
The refund checks arrived and were deposited in late XXXX and the first week of XXXX. Constantly inquiring if they had received the money and applied it as discussed I was informed the money had not arrived. I obtained copies of the deposits from the XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX revealing the deposits had already been deposited but they were unable to locate them or account for them. I forwarded copies of the deposit and then they mysteriously were able to locate the funds and they were directed to use them as discussed and assured they would be from our telephone conversation of XX/XX/XXXX to pay the mortgage arrears, remove the property taxes that they had still not taken out of the amount due they were charging after the tax exemption that had been authorized and pay that amount with the property tax over payment refund and send the remaining balance to me. 
{$23000.00} were finally listed as having been received on XX/XX/2023 on the Freedom Mortgage website, approx. 3 weeks after being deposited. Then ignoring our entire conversation, messages and promises they deposited the amount into the existing escrow account containing the surplus which had been frozen due to the delinquency, instead of applying the property tax over payment refund to bring the account up to date by using the money to pay the mortgage in arrears as discussed and directed. So they put it into the escrow account, stated the money could not be used or refunded and I needed to get more money from somewhere else to pay them. While they sit on my property tax over payment refund due to the tax exemption my husband died for to qualify due to his XXXX  years honorable service in the XXXX XXXX and exposure to XXXX XXXX. They lied to me, lost track of my deposited money from the tax people, made promises through the lass mitigation department employee on behalf of the principles and refused to honor them. Had been kept abreast of the entire situation and development during the few months it took to process the refund and never responded to the request to correct the amounts due " by removing the property tax from the amounts '' and my promises to, make payments online could not be processed due to the incorrect amount and finally the last straw was advising my attorney on after receiving a formal request/demand to correct these errors and apply my refund to pay the arrears and return the refund on XX/XX/2023 they said the foreclosure was on hold pending a decision then proceeded to ignore the letter and promise and sent a bill for {$9100.00} " including attorneys fees, still containing exempt property taxes and also a few mysterious fees in addition for another approx {$1400.00}. I'm afraid if this keeps up, they'll have effectively squandered the entire refund my husband gave his life for and proceed with the still and continuing active foreclosure. While all along sitting on enough money to having resolved this entire situation in the first week of XX/XX/2023 when they had the property tax over payment refund in their bank to resolve everything outstanding, including the money I'm owed from the refund. 
Please Help, I feel as if they have misappropriated and commingled my refund to prolong and easy solution to using my money to pay my bill through these deceptive procedures and processes are almost extorting money out of my account to enrich themselves. 
Thank You in advance for any assistance you may be able to provide in holding them to account for the empty broken verbal agreements and promises and have my account restored with existing money they posses that belongs to me and have the balance refunded. And please stop threatening me with foreclosure, I'm not sure how much longer my XXXX XXXXXXXX will last at XXXX with this kind of treatment. 
Sincerely, XXXX.

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation