Consumer complaint received 2020-01-08
Company: PENTAGON FEDERAL CREDIT UNION
State: MD
Product: Debt collection
Sub-product: Mortgage debt
Issue: Written notification about debt
Sub-issue: Didn't receive enough information to verify debt

Complaint:
Around XX/XX/XXXX, I received an annual escrow account disclosue statment stating that my new mortgage would increase from $ {$2200.00} to {$2700.00} ( {$410.00} increase ) due to a shortage in my escrow account. When I contacted PenFed Credit Union, they determined that PenFed erronously dropped my homeowners insurance with XXXX XXXX in my mortgage payment sometime around XX/XX/XXXX and never notified me that my insurance was dropped. Neither XXXX XXXX XXXX or myself requested that my insurance be dropped from my mortgage payment. By XX/XX/XXXX, Penfed had realized that they did not collect for my home owners insurance with XXXX XXXX and therefore I fell short in my escrow account which ultimately increased my mortgage payment by {$410.00} per month. 

The issue that I take with Penfed Credit Union is that when an annual escrow is being analyzed, it is based on the previous year costs which always causes a escrow shortage. With Penfed Credit Union, I have had escrow shortages for XXXX ( {$2200.00} ) ; XXXX ( {$900.00} ), XXXX ( {$810.00} ), and XXXX XXXX {$330.00} ). What I have discovered is that the annual escrow disclosure statement is produced based on last year calculations rather than on current and new costs received from XXXX XXXX XXXX and from my Maryland County Tax Office. Each XXXX, the new calculations from XXXX XXXX and from the Maryland State Tax County Office are obtained by Penfed to update their records, but they fail to compare last years and the current year ' calculations and notify me of any adjustments that needs to be made to my mortgage payment including my escrow account. Rather, they wait until the following year in XXXX and tell me that there is a shortage in my escrow account. I would like to see the CFPB to require mortagage lenders to either : 1 ) wait until they receive new and accurate calculations from their home owners insurance company and from the State County Tax Office rather than use the previous year calculations ; 2 ) notify me immediately and make the new adjustment to my current mortage payment or 3 ) make mortgage companies do an assessment of your escrow account bi-annually. In this way, this avoids escrow shortages altogether. When I first spoke with a Penfed representative about my situation, she told me that she had seen higher escrow shorgages than {$2200.00}. This is unacceptable for mortgage companies to just allow shortages to drag on for 11 to 12 months and not notify the customer. Shortages in escrow accounts can certainly lead to foreclosures or you having to sell your house. Finally, I feel that I should not have had to pay the escrow shortgage given they admitted it was their fault for mistakenly dropping my homeowners insurance. Any documentation, clarification, or assistance you need, I am available.

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