Consumer complaint received 2019-12-20
Company: Fay Servicing, LLC
State: WA
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Struggling to pay mortgage

Complaint:
XX/XX/XXXX My problem with my mortgage is solely the result of the incompetent and predatory manner in which my mortgage has been handled by first XXXX XXXX and later Fay Servicing ( who is my mortgage servicer since XXXX XXXX sold my mortgage to a debt collector ). 

Back in early XXXX, I did not have any problems with my mortgage ( exhibits 'AA-1 ', 'AA2 ', and 'AA-3 ' ),  which I had been paying consistently, through a couple refinances, since the early XXXX. Outside of the fact that what I do for a living has, and does, just barely pay the bills, there were no problems except occasionally getting a little behind on my mortgage payments, but then always catching up. That is pretty much how things have worked for 28 years ... that long payment history being caused by a couple re-finances. ( exhibit 'A ', XXXX XXXX statement from XX/XX/XXXX ) Until, that is, one day, out of the blue, I received a letter from XXXX XXXX stating that there was a deficit in my escrow account of {$4300.00}. ( exhibit 'B ; ) The letter then demanded that I either pay that amount in full, immediately, or increase my mortgage payments {$580.00} per month to {$1800.00} until the deficit was eliminated. As I previously mentioned, my income barely paid, with occasional difficulty, my usual payment, so neither of these options were either acceptable or possible. 

That letter also stated that this shortfall was due to my XXXX County WA property taxes having not been paid fully for a ( short ) period of time. I have never over the life of my mortgage been the party responsible for seeing that the taxes were paid correctly or on time. It has always been handled by my lender out of my escrow account, so of course I was totally unaware of ANY tax issues that might have caused an escrow shortfall. 

As it turns out, XXXX County had, unbeknownst to myself ( OR, apparently, XXXX XXXX ), changed the way they compute residential real estate taxes in such a manner that it disqualified certain taxpayers who had, up until that time, been taking advantage of the County 's 'Senior Exemption ', which had, until that time, been allowing me a substantial discount on my property tax bill. 

XXXX XXXX had been computing the escrow set-aside for my property taxes based upon this Senior Exemption. XXXX XXXX did not, for reasons unknown to me, catch this sudden increase in my billed property tax amount ( remember ... I don't get a bill ) until the COUNTY informed them of back taxes owing. This was due to no fault of mine, since for over 25 years I had never received nor seen a tax bill. ( exhibit 'C ' ... copy of tax bill FROM XXXX County TO XXXX XXXX in XXXX of XXXX, faxed to me FROM XXXX XXXX after they did an internal documents search. Apparently XXXX XXXX never saw, or at least didn't comply with, this tax adjustment in a timely manner. ) So, unable to comply with XXXX XXXX XXXX   remedy for making up the deficit, I continued making my {$1200.00} mortgage payments, which XXXX XXXX always accepted. While doing so, I began the task of spending many months and countless hours fighting XXXX County to re-instate my Senior Exemption that had been unfairly and discriminatorily withdrawn from me. ( I say discriminatorily because the way the new, extremely complicated, rules were written, certain characteristics of a particular residential property, uncharacteristic of every property, became factors, so only certain Senior Exemptions were canceled. ) In any event, while fighting with the county, and XXXX XXXX, I continued making my monthly payments of {$1200.00}, with the expectation that sooner or later I would prevail in my argument with the assessor, get my Senior Exemption reinstated, have the county refund me the tax overcharge, send it to XXXX XXXX, and put the matter behind me. 

Unfortunately, that was not to be the case. Even though I explained all of this to XXXX XXXX many MANY times, both by phone and letter, including applying for a loan modification ( denied ), on XX/XX/XXXX, they informed me by letter ( exhibit 'D ' ) that they had sold my mortgage to a bill collector, and that beginning XX/XX/XXXX, all monthly payments should be sent to Fay Servicing. A very STUPID move I would point out, but anyone who follows the news knows that stupid moves are standard operating procedure for XXXX XXXX. So I began sending my {$1200.00} monthly payments ( not the {$1800.00} that both XXXX XXXX had and Fay Servicing were demanding ) to Fay Servicing. ( exhibits 'J1 ', 'J2 ', 'J3 ' ) ( At the time, I was in one of my " a little behind '' phases, so my first payments were made a bit late ... not on their respective due dates. ) It wasn't very long after that, that I DID successfully resolve my dispute with XXXX County and received, from the County, a {$4600.00} excess tax rebate check ( exhibits 'F ' and 'F-1 ' ), whereupon I immediately mailed Fay Servicing a check in the amount of {$4300.00}, the full amount of the original deficit. ( I can't explain the small discrepancy between the two amounts. ) I sent that along with two, late, monthly payments of {$1200.00}. Fay Servicing accepted these payments. The County also sent me a new, revised, tax bill for XXXX. ( exhibit 'G ' ) I continued sending Fay Servicing my {$1200.00} mortgage payments, but, for no reason that I am aware of, Fay Servicing returned the checks un-cashed ( exhibit 'H ' ) and informed me that they were foreclosing on me unless I complied with their demand that I pay them the ridiculous sum of, I believe at the time, around {$8000.00} ( including any number of questionable and probably fictitious add-ons ). Since I had paid my back taxes into escrow in full, and made almost all of the intervening payments, that amount was around six or seven thousand dollars above what I actually owed. I must have tried twenty times to explain to Fay Servicing that, the back taxes having been paid and the escrow account being up-to-date, all past and present {$1800.00} per month payment requests were illegitimate Fay Servicing is required, by law, to continue, as the new loan servicer, the original mortgage terms and conditions, and there is no way my loan amortizes correctly under its original terms with payments in that amount! And now, of course, since Fay Servicing has refused to accept any more monthly payments from me, the total they claim I'm in arrears is something like sixteen thousand dollars! 

This has all been explained to Fay Servicing MANY times, both by myself and by an attorney, by both phone and certified letter, WITH full documentation, but they continue to totally ignore these facts and press on with their predatory foreclosure attempt. And why wouldn't they, with only {$120000.00} owing on a {$400000.00} property??? 

Since Fay Servicing began rejecting my monthly payments I have been depositing my mortgage payments into a personal savings account. ( exhibit 'I ' ) First XXXX XXXX and then Fay Servicing , through their ignorant and predatory business practices, have cost me hundreds of frustrating hours of aggravation and thousands of dollars in lost and compromised work time, and I want it to stop. I want an accurate, fair and competent re-calculation of my mortgage and a re-institution of my original terms and conditions. I will keep this home, probably until I die, as it is also my place of business, and that can't be re-located. 

Hopefully your office can talk some sense into Fay Servicing. 

Thank you XXXX. 
XXXX, WA

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation