Consumer complaint received 2018-04-25
Company: PRIMELENDING, A PLAINSCAPITAL COMPANY
State: TX
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Struggling to pay mortgage

Complaint:
I closed on my house on XX/XX/XXXX with PrimeLending A PlainsCapital Company. The closing documents stated that my monthly payment ( principal, interest, escrow ) would be {$1400.00}. I've made every payment on time if not earlier than the due date. 
On XX/XX/XXXX I received a notice from my lender stating that due to my annual escrow account disclosure statement, my escrow had a shortage of {$1100.00}. The statement that was sent said that because originally the {$480.00} I was paying to my escrow would not be enough to cover my taxes in XX/XX/XXXX they have to raise my monthly escrow charge to {$550.00}. All together the shortage fee and the new escrow charge is raising my monthly payment to {$1600.00}. 
This was shocking because according to my county tax office in XXXX Texas from XX/XX/XXXX to XX/XX/XXXX my taxes went down from {$4600.00} to {$4500.00}. I filed for my homestead exemption in XX/XX/XXXX and it now shows on the XX/XX/XXXXtax office documents. 

I called PrimeLending that evening and tried to get an answer as to why there was a shortage and what would have caused this but the only answer they would give me is that " my taxes went up and there isn't enough money in my escrow to cover it. I now owe them {$1100.00} and they are raising my monthly escrow deposit to {$550.00} to cover next years disbursements. '' I then asked again where they are getting these numbers from and the representative repeated herself but then also read the Annual escrow account disclosure statement to me line for line. I said thank you for that but that doesn't explain where you're getting these numbers. 
I proceeded to say that the information they have cant be correct because the XXXX XXXX shows its lower by {$100.00}. The representative stated that " if I have documentation of this discrepancy that I could fax it to their office and they would research it and adjust it back if needed. '' The fax number they gave me was XXXX. She told me to send the documents with a cover letter attention Research department along with my loan number. She said it can take up to 20 days for them to process the new information and for my account to be updated. I took screen shots from the XXXX County Appraisal Districts website of my XX/XX/XXXXtax information and I sent these documents on XX/XX/XXXX. 

On XX/XX/XXXX I emailed my loan processor who processed my loan asking for her to call me because I had a few questions. She never called or returned my email. 

On XX/XX/XXXX I called PrimeLending again at XXXX XXXX and asked if they received my documents and if there is any update in the situation. Their representative XXXX, said they never received my paper work and that I should try sending it again. This time XXXX told me that in addition to sending the screen shots, I should also send copies of my home stead application and the XXXX XXXX XX/XX/XXXX notice of appraised value I got in the mail ( which matches the screen shots I took off their web page ). 
I then again asked, where are you getting this information and can you send me a copy of your documents showing why I have shortage and what proof they had to back up this increase. She then told me to " look at the annual escrow account disclosure statement they had mailed me and that it explains everything there. That is how they base any shortage or overage on account escrows. '' After this call I pulled out my closing documents and started going through them. When looking at page 2 of the Closing Disclosure I discovered that under Other Costs - section G there is a line for Property taxes and it says {$320.00} per month for 12 months which totals to {$3800.00}. That raised a flag because that didn't match anything I had from XX/XX/XXXXwhen I purchased the house or from the current tax year XX/XX/XXXX. I went back to the XXXX XXXX site and started looking at previous years. I started at XX/XX/XXXX where I found that the taxes almost matched the closing documents, they were only {$.00} apart. It appeared PrimeLending had used the wrong tax year on my closing documents. The current years tax information is available to view online in XX/XX/XXXX and our tax office mails out a hard copy of this information the first week of XX/XX/XXXX. There is no reason why the XX/XX/XXXX numbers which were a year and a half old at that time should have been used on my closing documents. 

I then called PrimeLending back once again on XX/XX/XXXX at XXXX and spoke with their representative XX/XX/XXXX. I asked where the property tax number came from on my closing documents, She couldn't tell me. knowing the information I had just discovered, I then asked do you use old taxing jurisdiction numbers to get people a lower payment up front on their loans and she said, yes. I said, you don't use current numbers for closing, then expect people to pay for it later? she said, sometimes. I said, now I have to pay a fee because someone either didn't do their job right by using up to date numbers or purposefully used old numbers to trick me into using their lending company? she said, that's just how it is sometimes.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation