Consumer complaint received 2019-10-25
Company: Mr. Cooper Group Inc.
State: TX
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process

Complaint:
My husband and I are both over XXXX and I am XXXX. We have had a homestead exemption for XXXX County Taxes ; the taxes are deferred until the property is sold or we die. The amount deferred is {$17000.00}. Please note the taxes are deferred ... not delinquent. 

We are not wealthy people. Our cars are a XXXX XXXX and a XXXX XXXX. We have lived in this same home, which was built in the mid-XX/XX/XXXX  and has not been remodeled, since XXXX. I have been XXXX for 18 years. Part of that XXXX is connected to XXXX XXXX XXXX ... which is normally controlled with medication. After the emails and my conversation with 'XXXX, ' ( the Mr.Cooper representative ) my XXXX XXXX was XXXX ... not well controlled at all. I am unable to sleep or eat as I should due to the stress caused by this violation of our finances! 

Mr.Cooper had no reason to spend {$17000.00} of OUR money! The amount they paid, that was not delinquent, is ~ {$18000.00} ; I only get {$24000.00} a year from Social Security!!!!! 

According to the XXXX County Appraisal District web site, Texas law permits a homeowner who is XXXX or older or XXXX to defer payment of current property taxes on the persons residence homestead until.no longer owns or occupies the home as a residence. I have included a copy of XXXX County Property Tax Statement showing Residential Homestead ( multiplies ). 

There is no reason for the property taxes to be paid. They are deferrednot delinquent. Mr.Cooper just put us in debt for almost {$18000.00}. They had no right or reason to do so. XXXX County does not consider them past due or delinquent! They are deferred until the property is sold or we die. I feel like we have been violated as they took our money to pay something that did not need to be paid! 

We had informed our previous mortgage company, XXXX XXXX XXXX, of the deferral of the taxes ; they had noted it in our account with them. I have a letter from XXXX acknowledging that the " property taxes associated with your account are on a deferred tax plan. As such, your disbursements for your property taxes will not be made until your property is sold. '' XXXX XXXX XXXX transferred our note to Mr.Cooper on XX/XX/XXXX, according to a letter dated XX/XX/XXXX, from Mr.Cooper. The letter identifies Mr.Cooper as 'new servicer ' and states they will be collecting the mortgage payments from us. " Nothing else about your mortgage loan will change. '' is stated in that letter. 

I also have a letter from the previous servicer, XXXX XXXX, which also states The transfer of the servicing of the mortgage loan will not change anything else about your loan. 

We received a letter from Mr.Cooper about 'delinquent taxes due ' ( remember, they are deferred ... not delinquent ... ) dated XX/XX/XXXX. I called them on XX/XX/XXXX, and spoke with 'XXXX '. I walked her through the XXXX site and she acknowledged that there was a deferral on the taxes. She told me that there were notes about some research done on XX/XX/XXXX. She told me she would submit it to research again and get back with me. I asked for the result of the research be sent to me, which she said she would do. 

THIS IS THE SAME PROCESS I FOLLOWED WITH XXXX XXXX. I HAD NO REASON TO EXPECT A DIFFERENT OUTCOME, AS I HAD BEEN ASSURED BY BOTH LOAN SERVING COMPANIES THAT THERE WOULD BE NO CHANGES IN THE LOAN! 

I have included the letter from XXXX XXXX, dated XX/XX/XXXX, which states Please be advised, our records indicate that the property taxes associated with your account are on a deferred tax plan. As such, your disbursements for your property taxes will not be made until your property is sold. 

Obviously, XXXX did not get back with me about the deferrals. Instead, on XX/XX/XXXX, I received two emails from Mr.Cooper notifying me they had paid a total of {$17000.00} to XXXX County. ( They note on the email that the next payment on our account is scheduled for XX/XX/XXXX [ not my typo! The email states XXXX! ] There was no reason for these taxes to be paid. They are not due or delinquent ; they are DEFERRED. Mr.Cooper has stolen almost {$18000.00} from us! 

I called Mr.Cooper on XX/XX/XXXX at XXXX XXXX and spoke with 'XXXX ' who told me they don't honor deferred taxes and have to protect their interest in the property ... that if we died, they would have to pay the taxes! ( I thought our heirs would have to pay them! ) We want to not have to pay back the amount paid for the taxes. We can not afford a higher house payment, which I am sure this is leading. We have never had an escrow account and do not want one now. To add insult to injury, on XX/XX/XXXX, I received a notice from Mr.Cooper wanting to refinance our loan to save {$210.00} per month! I have since received three ( 3 ) more refinance offers from Mr.Cooper! 

We were assured by both XXXX and Mr.Cooper that our loan would not change! 

Our current house payment is {$1200.00}. Paying the DEFFERED Taxes back over a 12-month period will raise the payment to {$3.00}, XXXX. We can not afford that amount. They will effectively force us to default on the loan. 

I spoke ( XX/XX/XXXX at XXXX XXXX ) with XXXX at the XXXX County Tax Assessor-Collector Office who tells me the taxes are indeed deferred and THE PAYMENT OF SUCH TAXES CAN BE REFUNDED. 

I can not request the refund ; Mr.Cooper has to request the refund, since they are the ones who paid the deferred taxes in the first place.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation