Consumer complaint received 2021-02-17
Company: SELECT PORTFOLIO SERVICING, INC.
State: AZ
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process

Complaint:
My written complaint : Select Portfolio Serving ( SPS ), a home loan servicer, was responsible for paying my XXXX taxes out of my escrow account. The money in the escrow account was more than enough to cover the taxes. They did not pay the taxes, and I had to pay a delinquency fee on my XXXX taxes. I am owed {$260.00} due to SPSs lax business practices and faulty error-checking. 

In XX/XX/XXXX I bought a condominium using a conventional home loan, with a standard escrow account, initially serviced by XXXX XXXX XXXX. In XXXX XXXX the loan servicer changed to XXXX XXXX XXXX and the escrow account followed. 

Starting around late XX/XX/XXXX, I received notice that my XXXX property taxes had not been paid. I had always had an escrow account with sufficient funds from which the property taxes and homeowners insurance should have been paid. I called the tax body and they told me to contact my loan servicer. I called Select Portfolio Servicing ( around XX/XX/XXXX XXXX and they asked that I fax them the delinquent tax notice, which I did. I did not receive a response for several weeks, so I called again ( around XX/XX/XXXX ) and was told that the forms had not been attached to my profile and to wait another week. I did not get a response. 

In XXXX I had started looking into refinancing my property, but the process did not begin in XXXX until XXXX XXXX. 

Around XX/XX/XXXX I called Select Portfolio Servicing again and was told that taxes had been paid on the wrong address, though the person on the phone seemed new and was interpreting another employees notes. He asked me to call back in a couple weeks. 

In XX/XX/XXXX, my refinance process was coming to a close and I was ready to pay the fees involved. The fees included my delinquent XXXX taxes and my XXXX taxes. At close, my loan was transferred to XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. I received a check from XXXX XXXX XXXX with my entire escrow amount, from which clearly no taxes or insurance had been paid. 

On the note of insurance my insurance company had contacted me when the insurance had not been paid in XXXX, and I paid with my credit card. They said that they had tried to get in contact with Select Portfolio Servicing to no avail. I understand that since there were no delinquent fees on the insurance, the escrow return had covered the insurance amount, albeit several months late. The issue here is the property taxes.

After receiving the escrow return check from Select Portfolio Servicing, I called again. They told me that the previous servicer to them ( XXXX  XXXX  XXXX ) should have paid the taxes, since they had held the loan when taxes are normally paid. However, SPSs tax department is responsible for checking that taxes had been paid before transferring a loan. The XXXX taxes were never paid, all my calls and faxes have gone nowhere, and I am still owed the delinquent amount as of XX/XX/XXXX. 

Numbers : Original XXXX Taxes : {$2400.00}. Amount I paid when I closed on my refinance : {$2700.00}. Amount owed me by Select Portfolio Servicing : {$260.00}.

Company public response: Company believes complaint is the result of an isolated error
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation