Consumer complaint received 2018-12-03
Company: Mr. Cooper Group Inc.
State: PA
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: FHA mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process

Complaint:
On or around XX/XX/XXXX, we received an Escrow Review Statement from the mortgage company whod very recently bought our mortgage, Mr Cooper. It stated that our town/county tax had gone up to {$1200.00}, which would raise our monthly payment from {$570.00} to {$730.00}. Another option was to pay our shortage amount of {$740.00} and our payment would only raise to {$660.00}. The statement explained that any changes to what you owe for taxes are determined by our taxing authorities, NOT Mr Cooper. It also explained that any questions about changes to our taxes should be directed to our local taxing authority. 

I contacted Mr Cooper at XXXX at XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX. After a long hold time, I was informed that I was not permitted to speak to anyone at Mr Cooper regarding our loan. My husband had to call them and authorize me on the account for the life of the loan. He did so and I called again on XX/XX/XXXX at XXXX and spoke to a gentleman who identified himself as XXXX from Texas . I  asked him first of all, where did they get the amount of XXXX for our town/county tax? He said XXXX gave them the amount. I said that is not what XXXX XXXX records are and asked again how they came up with that amount and the gentleman said that is what Mr Cooper paid when the town sent us the bill last year. Confused because we didnt even get the mortgage until XXXX of XXXX, I asked how it was they paid a tax bill in XXXX of XXXX when we didnt get the mortgage until a month later. He told me it was some kind of assuming date. I asked who I need to contact to get this corrected and he told me to contact their resolution department at XXXX. 

I contacted our local taxing authority, XXXX XXXX at XXXX at XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX. ( His website is XXXX XXXX XXXX ) He told me that our taxes had NOT increased and would NEVER increase NEARLY as much as Mr Cooper was stating. He also assured me hed never heard of Mr Cooper and had never spoken to or had any correspondence with them regarding our taxes. He verified that our school taxes are XXXX and town/county tax is only {$140.00}. 

I tried to call their resoultion department twice at XXXX and XXXX, only to find it is a NON-Working Number that directed me to call their main number XXXX. I called that number at XXXX XXXX and spoke to XXXX in Texas and explained the situation and she said she would put me through to an Escrow Specialist who  identified herself as XXXX. I asked how we could escalate this issue and she said there was no way to do so. She told me they will contact the county for the correct numbers and that the resolution completion date that they HAVE to have it corrected by would be XX/XX/XXXX. She said we would be able to log into their website and see that it has been fixed and a new escrow statement ready at some point before XXXX XXXX end. 

As of XX/XX/XXXX I logged in and nothing at all had changed. I called XXXX at XXXX and spoke to XXXX in Texas who told me there is no one at Mr. Cooper or their vendor that I can get the proof of our taxes to, because by law, they are only allowed to rely on their 3rd party tax vendor to get that information. She said Ms XXXX simply made a mistake telling me the resolution completion date. She said XXXX must have been thinking 3-5 business days but it actually takes 7-10 business days so actually it would be  resolved by XX/XX/XXXX. She also informed me that they hadnt heard back from Mr Coopers resolution department who would have contacted XXXX XXXX ( our tax man ) at the start of this, insinuating that XXXX XXXX may be to blame for the hold up. 

On XX/XX/XXXX I called XXXX at XXXX and spoke to XXXX in Texas . She mumbled about our account being updated on the XXXX but no amount was entered. She said Mr Cooper had submitted a research request and that she will escalate this issue for me ( which I thanked her for and let her know other reps said that couldnt be done ) and within 3 business days their 3rd party vendor would have to reply and Mr Cooper would then be able to rerun their escrow analysis and update the amounts for me. She told me that she would personally call me back within 3 business days to let me know its rectified. I asked her how I could contact their 3rd party vendor and she gave me a mailing address of XXXX. XXXX XXXX, XXXX, CA XXXX, email of MrCooperMail@Lereta.com and a fax number of XXXX and told me any correspondence needs to have Re : Loan # with our loan number on it. 

As of XX/XX/XXXX, I still had not heard anything back from any of them and nothing had changed online. Throughout this process Id done a lot of googling and found that Mr Cooper ( who was Nationstar Mortgage ) have had pretty serious issues that had to be addressed by state banking regulators in California, New York and Massachussets as well as some very negative customer complaints on sites like XXXX, and have been on the radar of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau since at least XXXX ( https : //www.consumerfinance.gov/XXXX/ ). It became apparent to me that they simply came up with a near {$1000.00} increase in our taxes without consulting our tax office at all, in an effort to cause us to default into a foreclosure or at the very least in order to add more to our escrow account in an attempt to earn more in interest for themselves. Either way, I knew at that point that something was quite apparently wrong and I took to XXXX to see what kind of complaints they had there and saw they were numerous and plenty. I looked back on their timeline and found a few posts listing a customer service number for their social media team. I called that number XXXX at XXXX on XX/XX/. I spoke to XXXX XXXX and told her before I start complaining on XXXX, I thought I would give her one last opportunity to fix this mess. I explained everything and she again pushed the blame on our tax man, XXXX XXXX, saying there had been nothing back from HIM to them or their vendor. I asked if I could get the tax records to them myself as Id wanted to do very early on and she said yes, I can even have XXXX XXXX those to her at XXXX and she assured me that if I could get that to her by the end of the business day she would fix the issues on this account by no later than the end of the week. I also got her email which was XXXX just in case. 

I immediately contacted XXXX XXXX at XXXX at XXXX and he did verify for me again that hes NEVER had ANY correspondence from Mr Cooper or XXXX ( their so called 3rd Party Vendor ) regarding our account. He said he could fax them only if it were a toll free or local number, so he worked with my husband ( who was at work at the time ) and myself to get the tax document showing the tax amount from XXXX of XX/XX/XXXXfor our property faxed to them with our Mr Cooper account # written on it. Despite my husband faxing it to her number twice from his place of business that afternoon, XXXX denied she had received the fax when I called her at back at XXXX and XXXX after hed gotten reciept that the fax had gone through on his end. I then emailed it to her and she did email me back at XXXX saying, I have received the document and will escalate this matter. 

It is now XX/XX/. My husband was forced to pay the increased amount once so far, which has really thrown our budget off this month. It is obvious to us that Mr Cooper has come up with this increase ON THEIR OWN, out of the blue, because our taxes have NOT increased and numerous attempts to resolve it with Mr Cooper have wasted not only our time but even our tax mans time. I have included copies of everything that I thought you may need but dont hesitate to  contact me if there is anything else I can provide. Please help me to resolve this issue as soon as possible.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation