Consumer complaint received 2020-12-09
Company: United Shore Financial Services, LLC
State: CA
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process

Complaint:
I purchased a home in XX/XX/XXXX. My loan is through United Wholesale Mortgage ( UWM ). My loan payments include the actual mortgage as well as payments to an escrow account that covers the property taxes and homeowner 's insurance. UWM is supposed to pay the taxes and insurance using funds from this account. 

The county tax offices issued two secured tax bills based on the XX/XX/XXXX value of the house ( prior to my purchase ). This value was much lower than the new value of the house ( based on my purchase price ). These bills included a secured tax bill for the period of XXXX and a secured tax bill for XXXX. I personally paid the first secured bill ( from XXXX ), as I didn't know any better. UWM has paid the first installment of the XX/XX/XXXX-XX/XX/XXXXsecured tax bill. Both of these bills were relatively small, because they reflected the XX/XX/XXXX value of the house, which had not been sold for decades. 

The county then issued two SUPPLEMENTAL tax bills, which were much much higher, in keeping with the purchase price of the house. There is one bill from XXXX and a second bill for the XXXX tax year. Because these were officially supplemental property tax bills, they were mailed to us, not to UWM. However, UWM has been collecting escrow funds that are more than sufficient to pay these large tax bills. The impound account was specifically set up to anticipate the actual tax burden associated with the purchase price.

We called UWM repeatedly and mailed them multiple emails with the supplemental tax bills attached. We were told over and over that UWM contracts all its tax payments with XXXX and that XXXX does not provide a phone number that we are allowed to have. Instead, we must email them, which we did. I attached both bills. I have contact them multiple times. I have received illogical and false replies that defy explanation. At one point, they said there were insufficient funds in the escrow account to pay the supplemental bills, even though this was completely false, and the escrow account had sufficient funds ( and was accruing more on a monthly basis ) to pay both supplemental tax bills, the secured tax bill, and the homeowner 's insurance bill. They weren't just wrong about the adequacy of funds, they were wrong by thousands of dollars. 

Next, they replied that they had paid the bills. But they only paid the secured tax bill and the XXXX supplemental tax bill. They completely ignored the XX/XX/XXXX XXXX supplemental tax bill, even though it was always included in my correspondence and explicitly mentioned in the body of my emails. 

I wrote again, requesting that they pay the XXXX supplemental tax bill that they had inexplicably ignored. They then wrote back saying that, in order to pay any supplemental tax bills, I needed to provide proof that the closing agent had included extra funds in our escrow account for possible tax needs. This was infuriating, since they had already paid the other supplemental bill without that information, also, they are in possession of the account and all deposit information, so they are perfectly aware that such closing funds are there, and last we had already sent them this proof two months earlier ( in a message that they refused to reply to because it came from my husband who is not listed on the mortgage, and so they claimed he hadn't proved he had a right to correspond with them, even through he included all the information needed including my name, SSN, parcel address, loan number, etc. ). All subsequent mail was sent by me, starting XX/XX/XXXX. When I re-sent the closing cost information, they replied that I hadn't included identifying information ( I had included all of it but my mailing address, which is the parcel address, which was there ). Then they replied that they had already paid the taxes, and proceeded to list the OTHER supplemental tax bill and the secured tax bill they paid, even though my message very clearly in 12 point bold type explained that I was asking them to pay the SECOND SUPPLEMENTAL tax bill.

We have called and emailed UWM and XXXX multiple times, starting XX/XX/XXXX. Each time, the email responses are almost nonsensical and new and random reasons for their failure to pay the second supplemental tax bill are provided. These " reasons '' defy logic. In addition, there is no way to reply to their response. Each time I reply, they again give themselves 15 days to respond to my reply, and each response they give has nothing to do with the last message, as if the prior emails were completely ignored. In XXXX, there is very little written record, as I spent that entire month calling them. They told me they were going to respond to my letter on XX/XX/XXXX and that they couldn't do anything until then. But then their response was to fail to pay the second supplemental bill, by which time the bill was nearly due. I then sent more written correspondence, including today. Today, when I wrote, they replied that I hadn't included identifying information, even though the message included that information. This is an example of how I can't even begin to communicate with them, as they make statements that defy understanding.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation