Consumer complaint received 2023-08-07
Company: TRUIST FINANCIAL CORPORATION
State: FL
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process

Complaint:
To Whom It May Concern : I am writing to dispute two incorrect mortgage lates that Truist Bank has placed on my account. I am a real estate professional and earn my living from purchasing properties, renting them out, and/or selling them. I currently own 15 properties and have 5 active mortgages with Truist. I paid off another loan with Truist two years. Additionally, I have other mortgages with other lenders which I have never had a late payment on. My livelihood is contingent on my having good credit in order to finance the properties I purchase. 


The mortgage lates I am disputing is with Truist. I am happy to provide the loan number upon request. This loan was opened in XX/XX/XXXX. All my required mortgage payments are on auto draft with Truist. The monthly required payment on this loan is {$1200.00}. Each month I pay a total of {$1600.00} and I pay my taxes and insurance separately on my own as they are not escrowed. I have provided my initial loan documents from the closing showing Escrows had been waived and were not required as part of the monthly payment. This is an important point that I do not escrow my taxes and insurance. 

In late XXXX I received a letter from Truist saying my mortgage payment for XXXX was late and had not been received in full. I went into my account online to see if the funds had been taken and they had in fact been taken and paid to Truist. I called up a customer service member from Truist on XX/XX/XXXX to better understand what the discrepancy was. I was informed that there was an error on their part and that the funds had been received to pay the mortgage in full and that no further action was needed by me. 

I received another letter from Truist in early XXXX stating they hadnt received XXXX full payment. Again, I called the Truist customer service and again they confirmed that the XXXX payment had been received and no further action was necessary. On XX/XX/XXXX, I opened another Truist letter that stated XXXX payment hadnt been received in full. Again, I called Truist customer service to inquire about this discrepancy. I was informed that Truist applied part of the funds received in XXXX and in XXXX towards taxes and insurance. This was a clear mistake as I DO NOT escrow my taxes or insurance. This left a shortage in the payments applied towards the required Principal balance of the loan causing the required payment to not be paid in full. The issue here is they incorrectly applied my payments to a taxes and insurance payment that I dont have with them because I pay that on my own and do not escrow. I asked the representative if my prior calls were all in their notes and could she see the prior conversations I had on the multiple calls I had made to get this correct. The customer service representative confirmed she could see all my prior calls and apologized for the inconvenience. 

I inquired to see if the shortfall of funds applied to the principal balance due to incorrect funds being applied to taxes and insurance caused the payments for XXXX and XXXX to be 30 days late. She confirmed that it would show up as a 30 day late due to this. She told me I can dispute this thru Truist and provided me the link to it. I completed the dispute online and never received any information in return. I then submitted formal dispute requests thru the mail to each of the credit bureaus. I received a response from two of the bureaus saying that Truist didn't agree with my dispute so I am writing to CFPB for assistance in this matter. 

I am attaching documentation to this showing that I do not escrow my taxes and insurance and that Truist incorrectly applied my payments to escrows instead of the full amount being applied to the principal balance. 


I have attached as documentation of this error by Truist the following items : Initial Mortgage note showing required monthly payment with no required escrows Executed Waiver of Escrow document that was part of the loan documents from the property closing on XX/XX/XXXX Insurance Declaration page showing there was never a lapse in insurance and the insurance was in place and paid for in XXXX as required ( proof that the funds I paid should not have been applied towards escrows ) XXXX Property tax document showing property taxes for this home were paid by end of XXXX on time and there was no balance on XX/XX/XXXX Truist Loan Statement from XX/XX/XXXX showing a required payment of {$1200.00} with no escrows required Statement from XX/XX/XXXX showing a new required payment of {$1800.00} ( with {$560.00} increase ) being required for escrows. This is the mistake that was made for XXXX and XXXX payment as well. This is documented proof they were requiring to make escrow payments towards my mortgage and had increased the required payment by {$560.00}. 

I am asking to have these two late mortgage payments that are currently reflected on my credit to be immediately removed. Without this occurring, I will not have a high enough credit score to continue purchasing properties and this mistaken mortgage late was of no fault of my own doing. I greatly appreciate your assistance. 

Sincerely,

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