Consumer complaint received 2021-01-28
Company: PENNYMAC LOAN SERVICES, LLC.
State: TX
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process

Complaint:
In XX/XX/XXXX when the COVID-19 pandemic hit I reached out to Penny Mac for assistance ( forbearance ) for my mortgage loan payments since my wife who works for a doctor 's office hours were cut in half or more than half. She attempted to file for unemployment benefits however couldn't get through to the TWC ( Texas Workforce Commission ). They were overwhelmed with unemployment fillings. We also knew that the assistance that the gov't was offering was going to be delayed since they did not have our banking information in their system. 

I was advised, offered and approved for 90 days of forbearance assistance ( XXXX, XXXX & XXXX XXXX. Note : I have never been late on a mortgage payment since the inception of the loan. I was advised that if I could afford my escrow payments ( {$970.00} ) per month to make those payments so I wasn't playing catch up on amount owed come tax time. We were told they would be held in suspense until after the forbearance had concluded and would be applied according once the loan returned to normal. My normal monthly installment was {$1600.00} so if I was making my escrow account payment I was only missing the principle payment of {$710.00}. 

My wife finally received her unemployment benefits and we also received our stimulus check so we resumed our payments in full dated XXXX. Obviously we didn't need the additional forbearance payment for XXXX since our finances had returned to normal. 

When I logged into my account in XXXX to review the ledger of my account I noticed that the escrow payments weren't be applied properly so I called Penny Mac to find out what was going on. I was told that I was in default on my loan payments and due for my XXXX payment. I advised multiple reps after being transfers several times that none of this is correct. What are they doing with the payments that I've been making, where and why are they being applied as they are and why did my escrow analysis show a shortage increasing my payment to {$1700.00}. It made no since since I had paid the penalty the latter part of XXXX to catch up the shortage and decrease my payment. No one, and I mean no one could give me an answer to why the payments were being applied as they were and why I was considered late on my payments when I was protected under the forbearance and the Cares Act. 

After 8 calls to Penny Mac without a consistent answer from anyone including " The LOSS MITIGATION '' department I decided that I wanted to refinance my loan. One of the requirement of refinancing with XX/XX/XXXX was that I had to make three consecutive payments to be considered or qualified for the refinance so I made my XXXX and XXXX payments. 

XXXX XXXX requested 20 day payoff on the loan which was over {$6000.00} more than the balance owed on the account. So I called Penny Mac again to find out where they're coming up with this payoff amount. I was told that the two payments totaling over {$2400.00} principle and interest were being added to the balance of my loan. I asked how that was even possible being that I had paid my escrow ( taxes and insurance ) for the two months that I was under the forbearance. I asked how that's even legal, a forbearance extends out the maturity date of the loan, you can't just added to the balance of my loan it's against the law that the terms of my loan is being changed without and updated loan documents. At this point I'm furious because this is holding up my refinance and costing me money. I was told that the two payments that I missed while under the forbearance would be made up as a balloon payment on the maturity date of my loan. Now they're telling me they're adding over {$2400.00} to the balance of my loan. This is an illegal practice and against state and federal lending practices. 

I've added the last Penny Mac ledger that I had access to. Since they received over $ XXXX in payoff amount my online access to the account has been shut down although it's showing activity of a payment being made date XXXX. Now how can that be. As far as I know my loan balance at the time of payoff should have been {$130000.00}. 

I'm extremely troubled by this situation and can't seem to find anyone who is willing to straighten all of this out. I've turned all of the documentation over to our family CPA to attempt to figure this out. I just don't have any access to updated information so I'm currently at a standstill. My biggest concern is that I have no documentation or communications from Penny Mac regarding and of the documentation surrounding the forbearance.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation