Consumer complaint received 2021-03-12
Company: Freedom Mortgage Company
State: FL
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: VA mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process

Complaint:
Hello! My mortgage lender is Freedom Mortgage. For the most part, they have been a good company to work with. However, I've had an issue regarding escrow and homeowner 's insurance. I had a policy in place with XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX ( XXXX ). I believe the effective dates were XX/XX/XXXX - XX/XX/XXXX. In XX/XX/XXXX, I received a notice that the premium for XXXX was going to increase over {$1000.00}. Because of this, I reached out to my insurance agent to shop around for another company. They were able to secure me a quote with XXXX XXXX XXXX for much less. 

Freedom Mortgage had already paid out the premium to XXXX, so I requested cancellation through my agent. I received email confirmation that my agent sent the new policy information over to Freedom Mortgage on XX/XX/XXXX. Sometime in the XXXX timeframe, I contacted Freedom to request the status of the premium refund ( I was told to contact XXXX directly for this ) and to let them know the agent sent over the new insurance information. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, a notice of rescission was sent from XXXX 's saying that my Homeowner 's Insurance policy was cancelled due to a lack of premium payment. I received this document on/around XX/XX/XXXX. On XX/XX/XXXX, I immediately contacted my agent to try and figure out what was going on. She informed me that the premium was never paid, and promptly got me another policy. The policy effective date was XX/XX/XXXX. Freedom did pay out this premium on XX/XX/XXXX. 

Due to the lapse in coverage from XX/XX/XXXX to XX/XX/XXXX, Freedom sent me a letter stating that I needed to provide proof of insurance or they would implement " Lender Placed Insurance '' for approximately {$740.00}. I called Freedom, explaining that the original XXXX XXXX policy was put in place, but due to a failure to pay the premium, it was cancelled. They told me it was put into a file, and that they would decide what the outcome would be shortly. In the end, Freedom Mortgage put the Lender Placed Insurance in place. I was contacted and told that they had only charged me what I was expected to pay from my original policy, and that they would cover the difference. However, based on my escrow account balance, a total of XXXX was taken out. My policy total from XXXX is {$2000.00}. The 56 days that I was without insurance would have cost me about {$320.00}, not {$740.00}. So even with Freedom 's outcome of me paying what I would have owed, they overcharged approximately {$420.00} from my escrow account. Ultimately, I do believe that, given the circumstances and my due diligence ( not to mention the hours my wife and I have spent on the phone trying to remedy the situation ), Freedom Mortgage should have been responsible for making the payment from my escrow. Thus, the lender placed insurance premium should be paid for by Freedom Mortgage. Thank you in advance for your time spent on this matter!

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