Consumer complaint received 2022-03-29
Company: Specialized Loan Servicing Holdings LLC
State: PA
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process

Complaint:
Quick Timeline : Originated loan on new home with XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXX in XX/XX/XXXX. 

Loan sold to Specialized Loan Servicing LLC ( SLS ) a month or two later. 

Spring XXXX, I receive XXXX interim property school tax bill, see attachment. 

I immediately contact SLS about payment, as my escrow was funded at closing to handle all property tax payments.

SLS does not have a way to share the bill electronically, so I have to mail the original, which I do, in early XX/XX/XXXX. 

A few months go by, I remember to check SLS, and see it wasn't paid yet. On XX/XX/XXXX I send the message ( See attachments ) to SLS checking on the status of the bill. 

First SLS received the bill and did nothing with it. Then they needed tax cert docs from my county before they would pay it, why I have no idea, but then they sent an insufficient monetary fee to the county when requesting the docs. I found this out because I spent hours on the phone with SLS and my county clerk to figure out what was going on. SLS does not resolve the issue before XX/XX/XXXX, bill goes to collections. 

In a conversation with them in XX/XX/XXXX I stated that I would pay the bill out of pocket when I receive it and they could refund me the penalties and interest, and they said that was fine. 

I received and paid the delinquent bill out of pocket in XX/XX/XXXX. See bill and receipt attached, and my XXXX XXXX statement showing the personal check amount paid. 

After this, I called SLS to be refunded. I paid {$2700.00} out of pocket. The original bill paid on time was {$2200.00}. I was/am due the {$480.00} difference from SLS for their incompetence.

Every time I call, it's like there is no record of any history, and I have to explain the whole situation again. I do, they tell me my previous request was denied, I ask to speak to a manager, explain the whole situation again, they submit a new request. Apparently there is a frontend group we the customer get to speak to, and then there is a back end group that makes the decisions, and we the customer ARE NOT allowed to speak to them. They make a decision based on the info the front end people submit, and there is no correspondence or communication back to the customer of the decision. You need to call again and explain the whole situation again just to find out the status of your last claim. 

All 3 of my claims for the penalties and interest I paid of out of pocket were rejected, on the grounds that they are not responsible for interim tax bills. That's fine, but when the customer comes to SLS with all the documentation and requests the bill to be paid with escrow funds, and you SLS are too incompetent to do that on time, it IS your fault. It's literally the most helpless/frustrating feeling. I've never had a financial payment problem my whole life. But my loan gets sold to this sham of a company and now I'm left footing the bill for it. No way. It's insane they're still in business based on other complaints I've read. 

Funny note, SLS claims they are not responsible for the bill. But on XX/XX/XXXX, shortly before I finally received the delinquent bill and paid it, SLS, unprompted by me, tried to pay an amount of {$2600.00} for this bill. It was insufficient, and returned. See Mortgage transaction history screenshot attached. I hadn't spoken to them about this bill since XX/XX/XXXX, and if it's not their responsibility, why were they trying to pay the full amount with XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXXrom my escrow in XX/XX/XXXX? So confusing, so incompetent, straight up thievery. Please help me.

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