Consumer complaint received 2020-06-17
Company: Mr. Cooper Group Inc.
State: CA
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process

Complaint:
In XX/XX/XXXX I filed for a Chapter XXXX Bankruptcy in order to reorganize my financial affairs. At that time XXXX XXXX XXXX ( XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX  ) filed a secured claim for my home mortgage for the amount {$700000.00}. XXXX also filed an unsecured claim against a credit card account that I had with them for the amount of {$20000.00}. My bankruptcy plan was confirmed in XX/XX/XXXX. I immediately paid off the unsecured credit card at a payout rate of 10 % as per the plan, {$2000.00}. And over the course of the next 2 years I made both contractual and plan payments to chase on its secured claim, again in accordance with the confirmed bankruptcy plan. These payments were clearly marked as for payment of the mortgage loan in accordance with the confirmed plan ; and they included the loan account number in two places. During that time however, XXXX fraudulently altered some of these checks, crossing out the loan account number, and writing-in the credit card account number. XXXX misappropriated these funds and did not give me credit for them at all. 

The forgoing is offered as background, as this complaint is against Nationstar Mortgage, the successor to XXXX. Sometime in XXXX I began to suspect that my account was not being properly credited for my payments to XXXX. I began a dialog with XXXX, but in about XX/XX/XXXX, without any resolution, XXXX transferred servicing of my loan to Nationstar Mortgage. My complaint is against Nationstar because through their actions they made it nearly impossible to uncover XXXX 's malfeasance, and by inserting themselves as my " loan servicer '' they effectively blocked any resolution. 

From the time that Nationstar took over handling of the loan they refused my payments, claiming that my loan was in default, and that they would only accept a full satisfaction payoff. I spoke on the phone several times with representatives from Nationstar, explaining that my payments were in accordance with a Chapter XXXX confirmed Plan ; but they insisted that my account was not marked for handling by their bankruptcy department, and so they could not accept " partial '' payments. 

Sometime around late XXXX or or early XX/XX/XXXX Nationstar sent me a Validation of Debt Notice. This notice indicated a debt amount that was much more than what I expected. Thus confirming to me that there was a discrepancy in the accounting.

I replied to the Validation of Debt Notice on XX/XX/XXXX. My letter identified and provided copies of the checks that I had submitted ; and in my letter I did some quick math to show that based on my previous balance and the payments that I made, my balance should be much lower than the balance stated in the Validation of Debt notice. My letter identified 38 checks that I had sent to XXXX, from which, by my accounting, many had not been credited to my account. In my letter to Nationstar I listed the checks with dates, check numbers, and amounts, and I provided copies. 

Nationstar replied on XX/XX/XXXX, saying : " Nationstar Mortgage XXXX is in receipt of your correspondence on XX/XX/XXXX ... .We take all matters seriously and are in the process of reviewing your concerns. Please be advised that we are still reviewing your request for a debt validation. '' On XX/XX/XXXX, Nationstar sent a letter indicating that the loan " came over as a closed bankruptcy. It appears the Chapter XXXX Bankruptcy still needs to be active and therefore the payments are not applying correctly '' ... 
" We will have the account placed back in active Chapter XXXX bankruptcy and will audit the payments to ensure that they are applied correctly ''. 

In XX/XX/XXXX, after receiving Nationstar 's letter indicating that they would begin accepting payments, I resumed making monthly payments to Nationstar. I also waited for a corrected accounting to accurately show what my true balance was, and what I owed ( for the period during which Nationstar was not accepting payments ). However Nationstar never did " audit the payments '' ; never checked the accounting discrepancy ; never addressed the issues that I raised about not being credited for some payments ; and never sent me a revised Validation of Debt Notice. Sometime around XXXX or early XX/XX/XXXX Nationstar sent me a still erroneous loan payoff statement. 

In response to this still erroneous payoff statement, on XX/XX/XXXX I sent another letter disputing the amount owed and itemizing the checks that I sent -- again asking Nationstar to research if, how, and why some of those checks might not have been properly applied to my account -- again I listed the check numbers, dates and amounts, and showed how by my accounting I was not being credited for many of my payments. 

In response to my letter of XX/XX/XXXX, Nationstar answered on XX/XX/XXXX : " Nationstar is in receipt of your correspondence dated XX/XX/XXXX .... We thank you for bringing this matter to our attention. We take all matters seriously and are in the process of reviewing your concerns ... Our goal is to provide a response no later than XX/XX/XXXX '' On XX/XX/XXXX Nationstar sent a further response : " Nationstar is in receipt of your correspondence dated XX/XX/XXXX .... We appreciate this being brought to our attention ... Please be advised that at this time, we are still in the process of reviewing ... Please be advised the new expected date of resolution is is XX/XX/XXXX '' Once again I reached out to Nationstar on XX/XX/XXXX. 

On XX/XX/XXXX Nationstar sent a the following response : " Nationstar is in receipt of your correspondence dated XX/XX/XXXX .... We thank you for bringing this matter to our attention. We take all matters seriously and are in the process of reviewing your concerns.. Our goal is to provide a response no later than XX/XX/XXXX '' After another letter from me, on XX/XX/XXXX Nationstar sent a further response : " Nationstar is in receipt of your correspondence dated XX/XX/XXXX .... We thank you for bringing this matter to our attention. We take all matters seriously and are in the process of reviewing your concerns.. Our goal is to provide a response no later than XX/XX/XXXX '' On XX/XX/XXXX, ( One and a half years after taking over the loan! ) Nationstar sent me a Transaction History Report, which they claimed supported their loan payoff statements, but still did not account for all of the payments that I had alerted them to. 

In response, on XX/XX/XXXX, I sent another lengthy letter disputing their accounting. 

On XX/XX/XXXX Nationstar sent another erroneous payoff statement. 

The last payment that I sent to Nationstar was for XX/XX/XXXX. But in XX/XX/XXXX Nationstar offered me a trial period for a loan modification. However the loan modification would require me to make extra large initial payments, and it didn't specify what my new loan balance would be! In particular it still would not credit me for the payments that I had made. Therefore I declined the offer.

In XX/XX/XXXX, after consulting with a legal attorney, and with notice given to Nationstar, I deposited {$24000.00} to open a tender account, to hold funds that I could remit pending resolution of my dispute with the lender. This was the amount which, by my own calculation, I owed on the loan as of that date. 

On XX/XX/XXXX Nationstar sent the following letter : " Dear XXXXX, " You are hereby notified that the servicing of your mortgage loan, that is, the right to collect payments from you, is being assigned, sold, or transferred from Nationstar Mortgage XXXX to XXXX XXXX ... '' I have provided this lengthy history to document Nationstar 's inaction, obfuscation, and failure to correct the errors in the servicing of my loan. It seems to me that certain terms of RESPA were specifically aimed at preventing the sort of gross negligence that I have received at the hands of Nationstar Mortgage. For example : Error Resolution Procedures 12 CFR 1024.35 Scope of Error Resolution 12 CFR 1024.35 ( b ) The error resolution procedures apply to the following alleged errors : Failure to accept a payment that complies with the servicers written requirements. 
Failure to apply an accepted payment to principal, interest, escrow, or other charges as required by the mortgage loan and applicable law. 
Failure to credit a payment to the borrowers account as of the date the servicer received it, as required by 12 CFR 1026.36 ( c ) ( 1 ). 
Failure to transfer accurate and timely information relating to servicing to a transferee servicer. 

Response to an Error Notice 12 CFR 1024.35 ( e ) In response to the notice of error, the servicer must either correct the error or conduct a reasonable investigation and determine that no error occurred.

In onboarding the loan without validating the accounting, even after I explicitly alerted them to the accounting discrepancies ; only to eventually sell the loan when it was obvious that the accounting was fraught with errors, without alerting the subsequent servicer, seems to violate : Objectives 12 CFR 1024.38 ( b ) Servicers are required to maintain policies and procedures that are reasonably designed to achieve the following objectives ...

4. Facilitating transfer of information during servicing transfers .... b. Transferee Servicer. The servicers policies and procedures must be reasonably designed to ensure t
hat when it receives a mortgage loan from another servicer, it can ( i ) identify necessary documents or information that may not have been transferred, and ( ii ) obtain such documentation or information from the transferor servicer.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation