Consumer complaint received 2018-05-01
Company: Ditech Financial LLC
State: DC
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process

Complaint:
For the tax year of XX/XX/XXXX, the District of Columbia Office of Tax and Revenue sent me a property tax bill of {$10000.00} ( for the second half of XX/XX/XXXX ) because they incorrectly deemed my property as vacant. Accordingly, my escrow service ( Ditech Financial LLC ) paid the amount of {$10000.00} to the District of Columbia within the appropriate time-frame. The payment was posted on XX/XX/XXXX. I subsequently contacted the District of Columbia and submitted the appropriate paperwork to prove that my property was in fact occupied ( and not vacant ) and the District of Columbia issued a corrected property tax bill in XX/XX/XXXX reflecting what the charge should have been for the second half of XX/XX/XXXX : {$1800.00}, and also acknowledging the amount of over-payment : {$8800.00}. After receiving this corrected bill and acknowledgement in XX/XX/XXXX, I contacted the District again to ask how I can get refunded for the over-payment. The District told me to have my escrow service request the refund from them since the escrow had made the actual payment. So in XX/XX/XXXX, I contacted Ditech Financial to request the refund. They told me that they do these types of requests all the time and that they work with the District frequently and were very familiar with refund process. Ditech told me they would request the refund from the District and the refund would probably take several weeks to process. XX/XX/XXXX rolls around and I receive my Escrow Analysis for the XX/XX/XXXX tax year from Ditech and they tell me that because of the $ XXXX  payment in XX/XX/XXXX, my escrow was in arrears and my new monthly payment as of XX/XX/XXXX would go up about {$800.00}. I called them that a refund should have been requested and processed by now in order to avoid the massive increase in my monthly payment. Ditech claimed they requested the refund from the District but still had not heard back and that the District was likely still processing it. I did not trust this response and contacted the District myself and was told that Ditech never requested a refund at all. The District checked all the way back to XX/XX/XXXX and did not see any request from Ditech regarding my property. So on XX/XX/XXXX, I contacted Ditech and told them that they never made a refund request to the District. Ditech told me they had faxed the request in XX/XX/XXXX and numerous times after that. I called back the District and they said that they don't process fax requests and that all refund requests must be submitted via email at : XXXX. I called back Ditech and gave them this email and told them that they should have emailed the request instead of faxing it. Ditech claimed that they have a working relationship with the District and always fax their requests. Ditech also refused to contact the District themselves to verify that I was correct or to even directly speak with them to see what had happened, even after I had begged them to help me. However, Ditech told me that they would now submit the request via email. I called Ditech back the following day on XX/XX/XXXX to confirm that they emailed the request. They told me that they added the email to their notes and that it would go through at the end of the day. On XX/XX/XXXX, I contacted the District to see if they finally received my refund request from Ditech via email. They told me they had not and checked their records all the way back to XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX. I called Ditech and they told me that they could not determine if they had sent an email and their notes indicated that they would FAX a request. I told them this was unacceptable and they refused to connect me with a supervisor and claimed their back-end " research '' department was handling the issue. I gave them the email again and begged them to send the District an email requesting the refund and they told me to call back the next day to see if the email would finally be sent. This is unacceptable and they are refusing to help me get my refund. At this point I have overpaid the district by over {$8000.00} via my escrow account and am paying an extra {$800.00} a month on my mortgage to make-up for the deficit. I dont know how much longer I can afford this massive payment and Ditech is not assuring me that they will get me my refund. They refuse to email the District per my instructions and even refuse to contact the District themselves which they should have done from the very beginning. The District has been very helpful and accommodating to me, assuring me they will process the refund once Ditech submits the request, but Ditech refuses to do so.

Company public response: Company believes complaint caused principally by actions of third party outside the control or direction of the company
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation