Consumer complaint received 2021-03-24
Company: Mr. Cooper Group Inc.
State: NY
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Struggling to pay mortgage

Complaint:
Due to covid, my company laid off 25 % of its staff. In order to keep my position, I had to take a 35 % pay cut. This pay cut caused me to fall behind on my payments to Mr. Cooper on my mortgage. I applied for and received forbearance from Mr. Cooper. My payments to Mr. Cooper PRIOR to Covid were in the amount of {$1400.00}. Mr. Cooper told me that I must now escrow my homeowners ' insurance ( which is paid in full annually in XXXX of every year ) my property and school tax payments even though my property tax and school tax had been paid in full. Once I alerted Mr. Cooper that my homeowners insurance had been paid in full and there was no basis to excrow payments for homeowners insurance, they reluctantly removed it. However, they still are still trying to coerce me into an unnecessary escrow which increases my mortgage payment by an additional {$1000.00}!! In order to come out of forbearance, Mr. Cooper has increased my mortgage payment from {$1400.00} to {$2400.00}!! There is no way that I can make an additional {$1000.00} payment on my mortgage. I have the ability to make tax payments via credit card so there is no reason for escrow. Mr. Cooper is a predator and recognizes that if I can not make the {$1400.00} payment, I most assuredly can not make a {$2400.00} payment thereby forcing me into foreclosure. 

As an example, Mr. Cooper tried to front run me on my school tax payment due at the end of XX/XX/XXXX. However, once I realized that Mr. Cooper was a predator, I paid my school tax early by making a payment in XXXX. In keeping with its predatory business model, Mr. Cooper also made a payment of my school taxes to the XXXX of XXXX XXXX " XXXX '' XXXX in XXXX. XXXX promptly returned Mr. Cooper 's payment since I had already made the payment. It is clear that the school tax payment was NOT due until XX/XX/XXXX, but Mr. Cooper tried to continue to force escrow on me despite the fact that I made the payment. Why would Mr. Cooper make a payment that was not due until six weeks later unless they were trying to unlawfully coerce me into tax escrow? Their payment was returned by XXXX so this is simply predatory. 

Mr. Cooper demanded evidence that I paid my XXXX and XXXX property taxes. I sent this evidence to Mr. Cooper promptly. Mr. Cooper claimed to pay my school taxes. I promptly repaid the disputed taxes in full in the amount of {$1300.00}. 

Mr. Cooper has a history of predatory business practices. It paid a total of {$91.00} XXXX to settle allegations by 51 state attorneys general and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau over servicing violations since XXXX. I have no desire to become a statistic due to Mr. Cooper 's predatory practices exercised during Covid relief programs mandated by the US government. 

I have always paid my property taxes directly because the XXXX of XXXX allows payments by credit card and allows taxpayers an extended period of time to pay their taxes due to Covid. I have paid all of my taxes directly to the town for the last 17 years, The only tax exemption that I am eligible for is mortgage interest, property and school taxes. XXXX has also allowed an extension of time to pay taxes as part of Covid relief. Mr. Cooper seeks to strip away my rights to avail myself of XXXX 's Covid tax relief programs. It is clear that Mr. Cooper wants my condo because I have a lot of equity in it. However, my salary is too low to refinance. They have me between a rock and proverbial hard place. I can not take advantage of record low interest rates and they know it. I am sure if there was a thorough examination of its business practices, it would become apparent that Mr. Cooper buckets properties based on the equity in the property. They attack homeowners with the greatest amount of equity in their homes who are also experiencing a financial hardship due to Covid. 

As a side note, I had a forebearance plan with XXXX on my home equity mortgage. After making three ( 3 ) trial payments of {$250.00}, XXXX reduced my home equity payment from {$520.00} to {$250.00}. Isnt that how forbearance is supposed to work to assist homeowners experiencing financial hardship return to solvency and keep their homes? There must be an end to XXXX XXXX predatory practices. I want to keep my home!!

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation