Consumer complaint received 2021-01-07
Company: Specialized Loan Servicing Holdings LLC
State: TN
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process

Complaint:
Hello. In XXXX, XXXX, I received correspondence from Specialized Loan Servicing ( SLS ) regarding my mortgage saying that I was in default due to non-payment and offering me a loan modification to address it. This was news to me at the time, as I had been diligent about my payments since my mortgage was transferred from XXXX XXXX to SLS in XXXX, XXXX. I called numerous times and sent correspondence to SLS requesting they provide me with more information as to why they were showing not receiving my payments. I received no reply. Over the next several months of XXXX, I continued to make payments to SLS, and continued to call and send correspondence asking why my account was showing late and having additional fees. I received no replies and no clear information from agents. Often I would wait on hold for over an hour only to be told that a ticket would be open to investigate and I would be called back. I never received follow up calls. 

In XXXX, XXXX, I spoke with an agent who informed me that in addition to payments for XXXX, XXXX and XXXX, XXXX, I was also in arrears for payments in XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, and XXXX, XXXX. This despite the fact that I had sent these payments via my bank 's electronic bill pay service. A service that I had used successfully multiple times since SLS took over my mortgage in XXXX, XXXX. The agent said that I needed to provide bank statements showing that I'd made the payments. I emailed, faxed, and mailed more correspondence showing not only the bank statements and screen shots of the app showing the funds being sent and withdrawn from my account, but also referencing my previous correspondence from XXXX, XXXX. I received no replies. 

I again called SLS agents, often being on hold for over an hour, throughout the summer months to confirm they'd received my correspondence and to get answers on why my payments had not been posted. At this point, like most Americans, I was having trouble actually making current payments due to the pandemic. But I received no answers or information regarding my previous payments or why they had not been posted. 

Finally in XXXX, XXXX, I spoke with a knowledgeable agent at SLS who informed me that none of my correspondence was in my " file '' and that tickets investigating these payments had not been opened. That there was a specific procedure for opening these tickets and documentation needed in order to do the investigations. She sent me via email a form that described the information needed in order to accomplish this. Later in XXXX, I would be sent a completely different form with requirements for opening tickets to investigate missing payments. 

Beginning in XXXX, XXXX, I contacted my bank to request that they produce one of the accepted forms of documentation that SLS requires. Namely a letter on bank letterhead describing the payments made through their system and the associated ECH transfer ID information. My bank began their own process to produce this documentation. 

In that process, my bank, XXXX ( related to XXXX XXXX XXXX ) discovered that they had sent the payments to SLS for the dates in XXXX, XXXX, and XX/XX/XXXX, but that SLS had rejected them and returned them. However, XXXX 's ECH vendor did not return those funds to my account. So I was unaware that the funds were not received by SLS. I made those payments in good faith, but never given any indication from SLS or XXXX that those funds did not post to my account in literally dozens of correspondences between me and those entities. It wasn't until XXXX tracked these payments down themselves that they discovered that the money had been sitting in " limbo '' for months. Over {$2000.00} worth of my money. 

XXXX detailed this situation in a letter on their letterhead. Per the instructions given to me by SLS, I sent them copies of this documentation along with a request from me that they waive the late fees associated with those payments and any interest that was accrued for not receiving them at that point in time, so that I would not be penalized for the payments being late, having sent them in good faith via XXXX and never told that they were not posted. I then made a payment to SLS for over {$9000.00}, per their instructions, to bring my account current. SLS rejected this payment and furthermore did not include the correspondence from XXXX or me in my records. This happened over XXXX and XXXX of XXXX. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I finally reached a human agent at SLS ( after multiple tries, often times being on hold for over an hour only to be told I'd get a call back that never arrived ) who advised me that there were no records that my $ XXXX payment was received or rejected. A subsequent agent told me that the payment should've been received, but that the previous payments from XXXX, XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX would've been rejected because " they wouldn't bring the account current ''. 

It is beyond my comprehension how making a payment to an account, whether it is in arrears or not, can not be received because it is not for the full amount. How is anyone going to bring their account current if the mortgage holder refuses payment? Regardless of whether or not the payment is for the full arrears amount, this is a good faith effort on the part of the mortgagee to bring the account to current! This makes no sense, and feels very much like the mortgage holder is playing cat and mouse with the mortgagee, digging a larger hole of arrears payments by refusing to apply payments that the mortgagee makes to bring the account to current. In my case, I was never even aware that my account was in arrears in the first place going back to payments SLS rejected or did not post in XXXX and XXXX of XXXX. 

When I asked the agent to escalate the call to a supervisor to explain to me why my payment of over {$9000.00} was rejected just a few weeks earlier, the agent hung up on me. Subsequent calls to SLS are answered by an automated attendant telling me they will call me back. They never call me back. 

My issue here is simple : take my money. I am giving you plenty of funds to bring my account to current status, but the hurdles I must jump through and the methods in which SLS is requiring payment is punitive and not in the interests of them or me as the property holder! This just seems like SLS creating artificial barriers to satisfying the terms of the mortgage in order to create a breach in the contract and hold me accountable for it! All I want is my payments that I submitted in good faith through my bank to be posted as if they were received properly by SLS, with all interest and fees waived. It is not a failure by me to make the payments. It is a failure by SLS to accept them, and XXXX to have alerted me that SLS did not accept them. Yet it is me who is suffering the interest, late fees, and damage to my credit rating because of THEIR SHENANIGANS! 

I have ample documentation of all my correspondence, calls I made, people I spoke with, and the level of effort I've undertaken to try and resolve this issue! I don't want to take this to court, since that will be prohibitively expensive. But what other recourse do I have? This is patently unfair. 

Thank you for your time and attention.

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