Consumer complaint received 2019-08-14
Company: Shellpoint Partners, LLC
State: WA
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process

Complaint:
Hello, We would like to issue a formal complaint against Shellpoint Mortgage Servicing for their improper actions in servicing our previous mortgage loan. We were referred to your agency by XXXX XXXX of the South Carolina XXXX XXXX XXXX after her attempts to mediate with Shellpoint did not produce an acceptable resolution. 

It has been a very difficult time trying to work with Shellpoint and we will try to explain the situation and our complaint further below ; please feel free to let us know if you would like to know more via a call and we will gladly send you our phone number to speak further. 

- We purchased a house in late XX/XX/XXXX with our original lender, XXXX. XXXX subsequently sold our mortgage to Shellpoint. When we decided to refinance the loan in XX/XX/XXXX, the new refinance lender notified us that Shellpoint had not paid the full amount of property taxes due to XXXX XXXX in XX/XX/XXXX from our escrow account. Instead of paying the over $ XXXX amount that was due, Shellpoint only paid {$560.00}. By the time we found out, there was still a remaining balance of nearly $ XXXX and our property had incurred an additional $ XXXX in interest and penalties from XXXX XXXX ( a figure that continued to grow as we waited months for Shellpoint to resolve the issue and even get us a response ). The attachment ( XXXX XXXX Prop Tax Payments Penalties Interest ( JKL XXXX ) ) details these amounts. 
- Another attachment ( Initial Escrow Disclosure vs. Shellpoint Escrow Disclosure ( JKL XXXX ) ) shows the Initial Escrow Account Disclosure Statement that was a part of our closing documents for the purchase of the house in XX/XX/XXXX and the Annual Escrow Account Disclosure Statement that we recently received from Shellpoint. As you can see in the Initial Escrow Disclosure ( and will be verified in other materials contained within the closing documents XXXX, it was clearly understood that the payment due for property taxes in XX/XX/XXXX was over $ XXXX. Moreover, the figures used to calculate the monthly escrow payment that we had to make also used the over $ XXXX amount. Yet inexplicably, as seen in Shellpoints XXXX XXXX, Shellpoint only made a payment of {$560.00} from our escrow in XX/XX/XXXX. In response to our first written inquiry to Shellpoint, Shellpoint states that they were not liable because we did not inform them of the correct amount however, the correct amount was already listed in the closing loan documents. Also, Shellpoint was already able to determine the correct figure for the XX/XX/XXXX property tax payment directly from XXXX XXXX XXXX has never explained why it could not similarly determine the correct amount for the XX/XX/XXXX payment. 
- Similarly in the same attachment, you can also see in Shellpoints escrow disclosure that the amount in escrow ballooned to over {$8200.00} because of their mistake in XX/XX/XXXX. Section XXXX of RESPA prohibits lenders from requiring an exorbitant amount in the escrow account, providing a cushion of at most only XXXX more than the total disbursements for the year. If you total all of the disbursements for the year listed in Shellpoints XXXX XXXX ( {$4500.00} ) and add the RESPA permitted cushion ( {$750.00} ), the maximum escrow amount permitted by RESPA was {$5200.00}. Yet Shellpoint was over this maximum permitted amount during five of the months, with the highest amount being {$8200.00}. RESPA requires that a lender return any excess above {$50.00} to the borrower, which Shellpoint never did. It was not until our refinance had been closed for over a month that we finally received our escrow amount. 
- In another attachment ( Examples of Correct Prop Tax from Closing Docs ( JKL XXXX ) ), there are additional examples of how the lender anticipated ( and used for calculating our monthly mortgage payment amount ) an XX/XX/XXXX property tax amount of over $ XXXX in the closing documents. In the Uniform Residential Loan Application, First Payment Letter, Closing Disclosure, and Estimated Borrowers Statement, a figure of {$550.00} was listed as the amount collected in each monthly mortgage payment specifically to pay for the property taxes. Yet despite this figure, Shellpoint makes an XX/XX/XXXX property tax payment of only {$560.00}, an amount that is clearly disproportionately small compared to the escrow amount they collected from and required of us. 
- Another attachment XXXX Written Correspondence to Shellpoint ( XXXX XXXX ) ) details some of the written correspondence that we have had with Shellpoint. In response to our numerous written requests, XXXX has only responded with auto-generated receipt notices, written letters that request more time to review the issue ( with no timeline given ), and an encrypted email that states Shellpoint would not be liable for the interest and penalties because we did not notify them of the correct amount ( as mentioned above ) ( we can provide any additional correspondence from Shellpoint upon request, please let us know ). We have also tried numerous times to call them but we only are given their general customer service line ( not their XXXX XXXX Department, which analyzes such claims ), who are not trained on these issues and can do nothing to help, despite our having to tell them the entire issue over and over again each time we are connected to a new general customer service rep. When such general service reps tell us that Shellpoints XXXX XXXX Department is the group that handles such issues, and we then ask them for the Loan Servicing Departments phone number or to be transferred directly to them, we are told that the XXXX XXXX Department does not have a phone number and that we are not permitted to speak with them. It seems unreasonable for a companys customer service department to engage in these types of practices, essentially discouraging customers from expressing their rights and encouraging them to give up instead. 
- We finally received a refund of our escrow amount from Shellpoint in early XXXX, yet it still did not include the {$500.00} in penalties and interest that we paid to XXXX XXXX due to Shellpoint 's underpayment in XX/XX/XXXX. 

We greatly appreciate any help that you can give us to resolve this matter. All we want is for Shellpoint to reimburse us for the interest and penalties ( {$500.00} XXXX that we have incurred from XXXX XXXX due to Shellpoints improper actions and for them to admit fault and stop these unreasonable practices against borrowers. 
Thanks.

Company public response: Company believes it acted appropriately as authorized by contract or law
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation