Consumer complaint received 2021-03-07
Company: Cornerstone Home Lending Inc.
State: OK
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process

Complaint:
In XX/XX/2019, my family and I moved to Oklahoma and purchased our home here. My original loan was complete by Cornerstone Home Lending and began as follows : Initial loan : 30 yr FHA Interest : 4.125 % Loan amount : {$240000.00} Payment : {$2000.00} Escrow : {$710.00} We kept this loan for approximately a year. After the rates dropped, and my credit had time to recover, I decided to look into my options for refinancing. My goal with refinancing was to get out of the FHA loan to have a conventional loan and save on the mortgage insurance. When I was sent my options, I opted for their option 3 which according to the companies XXXX would be : 20 yr conventional Interest : 3.99 % Loan Amount {$250000.00} Payment : {$2100.00} Escrow : {$630.00} I was reluctant to move forward with the refinance at this point because I was not comfortable with raising my payment. However, when I was sent the prelim CD it showed 3.875 % and the payment was {$1900.00}. I spoke with a representative there to verify and at that point, it seemed like an easy decision because it got me out of FHA, shortened the life of my loan, and actually lowered my payment from what my initial loan was. Now, it has come to light that I have a deficiency of - {$5500.00} in my escrow and a shortage of {$2900.00} for a total of {$8500.00} that I am going to have to either come up with as a lump sum or it will automatically increase my payment from {$1900.00} to {$2900.00} until it is brought current. 
In my first loan, the escrow was estimated and came out to appox. {$710.00} a month and was based on the taxable market value of {$370000.00} which was my purchase price of the home. When I refinanced, my home appraised for an even higher value so I dont understand why this method was not repeated? A mortgage lender, I feel like, should have known the escrow amount was short. If this had been caught during the loan process, I would not have moved forward because the refinance would have increased my payment higher than what I am comfortable with. Now, I have been stuck with this adjustment that I feel should have been prevented. Currently I have a total of {$29000.00} in closing costs between my initial FHA loan and the 20yr refinance I currently have. Also, a total loan increase from {$240000.00} to {$250000.00}. I feel this is a substantial amount of money I have trusted this company with to insure mistakes like this were not made. If I had left my loan alone, I would have saved the {$12000.00} in refinance closing costs, the {$8500.00} I added to my total loan amount and I wouldnt have to come up with an astronomical amount of negative escrow money following one the hardest financial years this country has experienced in my lifetime. I feel like this was either a blatant mistake, or it was done purposely to get me to refinance and go through them a second time. I have reached out to the company to try and remedy this situation but their only response is to split the deficient escrow in 1/3 's between myself, the lender and the title company. This offer is only IF I were to refinance my loan again. I hope we can work something else out to remedy this but I dont feel any more money added to my total loan or any additional closing cost would be in my familys best interest. 

Thanks, XXXX XXXX

Company public response: Company believes it acted appropriately as authorized by contract or law
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation