Consumer complaint received 2018-10-15
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: MO
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process

Complaint:
Dear Agent of the CFPB, or to whom it may concern, This message regards obstruction by Bank of America, which is attempting to prevent me from closing an escrow account that I am under no  obligation to maintain. 

In XXXX, I contacted my mortgage company, Bank of America, to request the escrow account attached to my mortgage be cancelled. They refused, because I had just switched home-owner 's insurance and they needed proof of insurance, otherwise they would purchase a lender-placed policy. At that time, which was Monday, XXXX XXXX, I was in contact with XXXX XXXX ( XXXX ), and she told me that I could submit documentation ( including proof of payment ) to prevent the lender-placed policy from being executed. Without a lender-placed policy, I would be free to cancel the escrow account. 

We agreed to that Friday ( XXXX XXXX ) as a deadline, because that was the date they had scheduled to send the letter to give notice of the lack of insurance documentation. I would provide the required documentation and she would see to it that the escrow account was closed. 

Meanwhile, I asked my insurance agent to bill me directly, which was done by his employee XXXX XXXX ( XXXX ), who requested payment and provided payment instructions to me in an email ( dated XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX ). However, when Ms. XXXX contacted Bank of America, which was evidently just after the aforementioned email, she was told that the insurance would be paid through escrow. In her words, quoted from an email to me sent one hour after the previous one ( XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX  ) : " I just spoke with your mortgage company, Bank of America, to verify some info and they informed me that they will be escrowing the insurance, so they asked me to forward the invoice to them. You can disregard the last email with the payment instructions. '' Apparently, Ms. XXXX failed to properly inform her insurance department of the agreement she made with me, and they went ahead with the escrow payment, contrary to my request and in violation of my agreement with Ms. XXXX. 

After that, I attempted to have the escrow payment cancelled, but Ms. XXXX obstructed my attempts to settle the matter, and rather than risk making a payment to my insurance company and also being billed from the escrow account, I sent an email ( dated Fri. XXXX XXXX ) to my insurance agent Ms. XXXX : [ beginning of quoted email ] Dear XXXX and XXXX , As per XXXX XXXX recommendation, I am putting the three of us in conversation. 

At this point, here is the resolution I would like to see : 1. The payment already made from BofA to XXXX/XXXX  of XXXX should proceed for this year 's insurance premium. ( XXXX, please do not proceed with the credit card payment slip. ) 2. Next year 's premium should not be made from escrow -- please bill me directly. 
3. XXXX, please cancel the pending property tax payment, which is due XX/XX/XXXX ( not XXXX as noted on the escrow account ), and instruct the relevant departments not to make any future payments from that account. 
4. Once I have paid the remaining balance on the escrow account, please close it immediately. 

Please let me know whether this solution is possible. 
Thank you XXXX [ End of quoted email ] I never received a reply to this email. My insurance agent did as requested, but Bank of America not only failed to remove the upcoming tax and insurance payments, as requested in items 2 and 3, but has increased my escrow payment, as of the mortgage bill due XXXX XXXX. 

Regarding the tax payment as well, my attempts to settle this matter have been obstructed by Ms. XXXX and Bank of America. Previously, during the conversation between myself and Ms. XXXX on XXXX XXXX, I requested that property tax be removed from the escrow account. At that time, my request was refused -- Ms. XXXX cited the Bank of America policy that payments from escrow would not be cancelled when they are due less than two months from the present date. However, as I explained on XXXX XXXX, Bank of America had incorrectly listed the due date for my city tax as XXXX XXXX, XXXX. In fact, property taxes are and have always been due in the City of XXXX XXXX on XXXX XXXX. XXXX XXXX is the date the bill is sent out, not the due date. The website of the XXXX XXXX City Collector of Revenue leaves no doubt : " Each XXXX, the Collector of Revenue Office sends a tax notice to all landowners. Taxes are due by XX/XX/XXXX of each year '' ( XXXX XXXX XXXX ). 

Indeed, Bank of America is aware of this, as is demonstrated by the fact that in past years tax payments made by Bank of America from escrow on my behalf were dated XXXX XXXX ( XXXX ) and XXXX XXXX ( XXXX ), not XXXX XXXX. I explained this to Ms. XXXX on XXXX XXXX and she agreed that she would see to it that the tax payment was removed, but she would only agree to doing so after I had provided the documentation she requested. ( Incidentally, proof of insurance was provided by Ms. XXXX on XXXX XXXX, and proof of payment occurred at the same time, when Bank of America itself made the payment ). 

Despite the agreement of XXXX XXXX to remove the city tax from the escrow account once my insurance policy was properly documented with Bank of America, and despite my having reiterated that request on XXXX XXXX in the email quoted above, Ms. XXXX and Bank of America have to this day neither complied with my request nor responded to the email making the request. They will no doubt claim that they made attempts to contact me by phone, but that is just more obstruction, as is evident from their failure to respond to the content of my written request, not in writing nor by leaving a message. 

The resolution I seek is the same as what I quoted above ( less parts 1 and 2, which were addressed to my insurance agent and to which they have already complied ) : " 3. XXXX, please cancel the pending property tax payment, which is due XX/XX/XXXX ( not XXXX as noted on the escrow account ), and instruct the relevant departments not to make any future payments from that account. 
" 4. Once I have paid the remaining balance on the escrow account, please close it immediately. '' Any help you can provide me toward achieving this solution would be very much appreciated. Of special concern is the fact that Bank of America has increased my monthly escrow payment substantially, beginning XXXX XXXX. Please let me know if you are in need of any additional information. 

Thank you! 
Sincerely, XXXX

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