Consumer complaint received 2021-03-21
Company: AmeriHome Mortgage Company, LLC
State: FL
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: FHA mortgage
Issue: Applying for a mortgage or refinancing an existing mortgage

Complaint:
In late XXXX or early XXXX of XXXX I inquired about an FHA streamline refinance with the lender who bought my loan from the initial purchase of my first home. I had been approached by other lenders but thought I would ask my current one ( AmeriHome ) to see how they compared. I bought my home in XX/XX/XXXX & was looking to refinance for a lower monthly payment. 

I was initially told by MrXXXX XXXX with AmeriHome that it probably wouldn't be able to close until XXXX because of how busy they were. After my initial contact I submitted documents which included the proposed XXXX tax rate depending on board approval. This raises the taxes substantially. I expected this to be accounted for at closing for both the cost of the XXXX taxes & for the projected XXXX taxes. I spoke with Mr. XXXX specifically about it when I received the estimated tax rate. 

Somewhere along during this process, my mother was hospitalized, so although Mr. XXXX said we could close in XXXX I asked if we could close in XXXX. I felt pressure to close in XXXX. Also, the timing of the refinance made it so the XXXX taxes wouldn't be paid with the initial loan. Unfortunately, I closed on the refinance without catching the omissions of the shortages to account for the tax increase for the XXXX & XXXX taxes. 

In XXXX, when I got my mortgage statement that showed no taxes for XXXX, I asked Mr. XXXX if the taxes had been accounted for in the refinance & he told me it was a title company issue. I then called AmeriHome customer service & let them know my XXXX taxes didn't seem to be accounted for so they gave me an email to send the tax bill to. 

In XXXX, I went on their website to get my account info & saw that my monthly payment was slated increase substantially ( higher than my original monthly payment ), yet my XXXX not XXXX statement made no note of this. The website didn't give a reason for the increase. So I called AmeriHome to ask what this was about. The customer service representative said it was a result of an escrow analysis done. He said that I should have received a copy, but when he looked, he noticed that I wasn't sent the escrow analysis. I asked him to send it to me. 

I made a complaint on the XXXX website & was contacted by XXXX XXXX with the AmeriHome president 's office. She spent time researching, then told me she found out from the title company that they sent the tax payment back by the county because the board hasn't approved the budget, but the funds were not returned. Then the next day told me the title company had sent ~ {$1500.00} back to AmeriHome & {$500.00} to me, so that wasn't where the shortage came from. She essentially took over a month to arrive at the conclusion of what I originally complained about : I provided updated tax info at closing which was not used by the sales team to accurately assess the escrow & monthly payment. Their solution is for leadership to give feedback to the sales team - although I'm confident the sales team is aware of their shell game tactics. While trying to be helpful, throughout this process she has provided me with inaccurate & incomplete info. 

In addition, when I tried to make a payment for the escrow shortage, they applied it to the new higher payment instead of the escrow shortage. When I made the monthly payment based on the amount that it should be after the paying the escrow shortage, they didn't correct the escrow shortage payment & properly adjust the monthly payment. 

Not only this, their customer service automated phone system has a default to hang up on customers expecting to be transferred to a live person. I called 3 times & it hung up on me after saying I would be connected. 

I am beyond frustrated with this company. I am hoping someone can help make sure XXXX is held accountable for its questionable practices & what seems like advise of the FHA refinance process.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation