Consumer complaint received 2018-08-24
Company: Seterus, Inc.
State: WA
Product: Credit reporting, credit repair services, or other personal consumer reports
Sub-product: Credit reporting
Issue: Incorrect information on your report
Sub-issue: Account status incorrect

Complaint:
Dispute/Complaint Summary : Seterus Inc. reports that I did not pay them on time and that I am many months delinquent. I did pay them on time, but for almost five years, during our Chapter XXXX bankruptcy in which this mortgage was excluded, Seterus failed to send me statements and to tell me the payment amount due had gone up. They did send me some late and inspection fee notices but when I questioned them they said nothing could be done until the bankruptcy was discharged. I have asked Seterus to remove the late payment reporting from our credit reports and to waive the fees because they did not properly communicate with us. They declined. 

Detailed Narrative : Re : Seterus failures to communicate payment changes and to remove late payment reporting to the credit bureaus. 

At best, Seterus has shown incompetence and willful disregard for fairness and accuracy in its communications ; at worst it is guilty of criminal malfeasance and intent to defraud in the servicing of our mortgage payments, communications, and reporting to credit bureaus. 

We are attempting to get this rental property loan reinstated or refinanced, improper fees credited, and related erroneous late payment reporting removed from our credit reports, so that my wife and I can get a mortgage and move to a single level home as soon as possible, hopefully before we can no longer get up and down stairs. In response to my written request, on XX/XX/XXXX, Seterus wrote we decline to remove or change any late payment information reported to the credit reporting agencies, as we are required to report the loan accurately. We have reviewed the late payment reporting, and found it to be accurate. 

The late payments accumulated unbeknownst to us during the five years of our Chapter XXXX bankruptcy, filed in XX/XX/XXXX and discharged in XX/XX/XXXX. This mortgage was excluded from the bankruptcy plan by our attorney because he said we should let the house go into foreclosure or sell it ourselves, because it was unexpectedly vacant. Following his advice, we did not make the four payments from XX/XX/XXXX through XX/XX/XXXX. Then we found new tenants and decided to try to keep it as an important part of our retirement plan. Seterus offered us a Modified Mortgage and we made the Trial Period Plan payments starting in XX/XX/XXXX in the amount of {$1400.00}. We sent the signed Loan Modification Agreement paperwork to Seterus in XX/XX/XXXX. On XX/XX/XXXX I made the new trial period payment of {$1400.00}. Then I made the additional required trial period payments, and have made the same payments every month since then until XXXX of this year when I made the new escrow adjusted payment of {$1600.00}. Then Seterus returned our XXXX payment and told us the mortgage was in default and headed for a foreclosure sale. They offered us a new Loan Modification with Trial Period Payments of {$1500.00} which we made on XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX. Instead of committing to a modified 40 year loan we prefer to reinstate the original 30 year loan or refinance at a lower interest rate for 20 or 30 years. 

On XX/XX/XXXX our attorney faxed and mailed to Seterus a letter authorizing and requesting Seterus to send statements and other correspondence concerning our account directly to us. Seterus did correspond directly with us in setting up the trial period payments and the LMA, but did not send to us subsequent statements and modifications to the escrow account. In a letter dated XX/XX/XXXX Seterus admitted that it failed in error to implement the XX/XX/XXXX Loan Modification Agreement. 

During the five years Seterus did periodically notify us of late fees, inspection fees, and attorney fees, with the statement : If you are in a bankruptcy proceeding you will not need to pay these assessments When I repeatedly called about these I was told that because we were in bankruptcy there wasnt anything we could do to make them stop, and that the fees would be taken care of after the bankruptcy was discharged. They didnt tell me that the payments I was making were not enough to be current and that the LMA had not been implemented, until I recently called about the foreclosure notice. Seterus claimed they could not send us statements because we were in bankruptcy : That is not true because Seterus sent us statements for the other loan they service for us. Also, XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX  did a loan modification agreement with us on our primary residence early in the bankruptcy with no issues, and they send us regular statements. I dont believe Seterus reported late payments to the credit agencies until a few months ago, in XXXX or XXXX, and then they reported that I was 120+ days late, even though by then, according to their suspense calculations and all the fees, I was 9 or 10 months late. 

This loan was excluded in the very beginning from protection under the original bankruptcy plan. Seterus applied for and was granted relief in XX/XX/XXXX, and from their XX/XX/XXXX letter : we removed this bankruptcy from our system on XX/XX/XXXX. Even after these events, Seterus did not send me statements and escrow analyses. They did not help me to understand what happened and didnt happen, and the options of what I could do to get on their track, until recently, while they simultaneously began reporting late payments even though I was still making what I thought were the correct payments on time every month. Earlier this year they sent me their Contractual Payment History and Customer Account Activity Statement, but they are confusing and difficult or impossible to understand even by their customer service reps, and possibly full of incorrect entries. I dont trust the accuracy of their Total Amount Due to reinstate the loan. 

My online search of the XXXX XXXX servicing guidelines indicates that Seterus did not follow the specific requirements for outbound contact attempts ( Part D, subpart 2, chapter 2 ( D2-2-02 ) ). If they had, I would have known about the delinquency within a month or two, back in XX/XX/XXXX, I would have made the revised payments, and none of this would have happened. 

My experience with Seterus, and my Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ( CFPB ) research indicates there are many more Seterus customers with similar experience, points to reactive rather than proactive customer service. When required monthly payments increase but the customer continues to make the same payments as before the increase, the system should flag someone to ask why. If the answer is that Seterus failed to notify the customer, then corrective measures should be taken. 

We have applied for financing for a new home but we were told they wont deal with us until the Seterus lates are removed from our credit reports. What is our recourse? Can Seterus be motivated or required to remove the late payment reporting from our credit reports and to waive the fees because they did not properly communicate with us?

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 monetary relief