Consumer complaint received 2018-02-02
Company: U.S. BANCORP
State: WA
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process

Complaint:
On or around XX/XX/XXXX, we received a letter from XXXX, our homeowner insurance company, stating that our homeowner 's insurance would be cancelled on XX/XX/XXXX due to non-payment. 

Our homeowner 's insurance is to be paid through our Escrow account through our mortgage at US Bank. 

We contacted XXXX, who informed us that they had sent two letters to US Bank, starting in XX/XX/XXXX, and had received no response, so they had to cancel the homeowner 's insurance if we did not pay. 

We reviewed our mortgage statements and determined that US Bank had been collecting for the insurance through our Escrow account through XX/XX/XXXX, and then abruptly stopped collecting for homeowner 's insurance in XX/XX/XXXX. At no time did we change the terms of our mortgage. 

We then contacted US Bank and spoke with a representative who reviewed our mortgage. He stated that yes, the terms of our mortgage, did include collecting for homeowner 's insurance through Escrow, and that it was collected through XX/XX/XXXX, but he could not see any reason why they stopped collecting it. At one point, he said, " Honestly, it looks like human error, like someone pushed a wrong button, but I see no documentation on this at all. '' He turned it over to US Bank 's insurance department to review and said it would take about 2 weeks. 

At that point, we had no choice but to pay the homeowner 's insurance ourselves to avoid cancellation as US Bank could not resolve it in a timely manner. Luckily, we had the funds to do so. And, luckily, the letter arrived when it did, as we were taking a 2-week vacation, and, had we missed the letter, we would have had our home uninsured while we were gone due to US Bank 's error. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, we received an email from XXXX XXXX at US Bank, whom I assume is with the insurance department. He wrote, " I have received a request to review the escrow on your loan. It looks like, according to your closing documents, that escrow was requested for your homeowners policy at closing. Your account was never set to escrow in our system, and has been set to non escrow since XX/XX/XXXX. I have updated your account, and your premium will now be paid from your escrow account in the future. If you wish to change this at any time, please give us a call at XXXX. '' On XX/XX/XXXX, we responded, " Thank you for the information ; however ; the information you are providing is not correct.If you look back carefully, you will see that you began collecting escrow for homeowners beginning immediately and through XX/XX/XXXX of last year when you suddenly stopped doing so. I am curious as to why you were unable to see that information when I can clearly see it on all my statements? I look forward to your further review and information. '' We received no response, and on XX/XX/XXXX, we wrote, " I wrote back to you on XX/XX/XXXX indicating that the information you provided, stating that the account was never set to escrow for our homeowners policy in your system was incorrect, as you collected escrow for homeowner 's immediately upon receiving the loan through XX/XX/XXXX. I would like to truly understand what happened as the explanation provided was incorrect. Please respond with information as to how this occurred, and how we almost lost our homeowner 's insurance due to you discontinuing escrow without notification, by XX/XX/XXXX. '' On XX/XX/XXXX, XXXX XXXX responded, " I am sorry, I can not see exactly when Hazard Insurance was collected for your escrow account, as I am not in the Escrow Dept. All I can see is in our system, your premium was not disbursed because it was not set to escrow by an error in our system. If you have further questions about your escrow please call XXXX. '' We immediately responded the same day, " Which is who we contacted immediately when we received notice of cancellation of our insurance. They indicated they could see no reason that it would suddenly stop and sent to your department to determine how the error had occurred. However, you are telling me you can not see that it was originally going into escrow and then stopped. We will go ahead and escalate. '' XXXX XXXX wrote back on XX/XX/XXXX, " Let me talk with my manager this morning, she can help me get in contact with a manager in the escrow department and hopefully I can get some better answers for you. I assure you myself or someone within the bank will reach out to you by the end of the week. '' We immediately wrote back, " Thank you, XXXX that would be great. It is just extremely frustrating to not know how this happened. We were leaving on vacation when we got a letter saying our homeowners insurance was being cancelled : Had that letter come two days later, we would have had an empty home while we were gone that was uninsured which is frightening. And XXXX told us they had contacted US Bank twice alerting them to this before contacting us. And then the question is what happened to the money that was collected for the insurance and put into Escrow through XX/XX/XXXX? We have statements showing it was collected. We appreciate the follow up so we can understand how this happened, how it will not happen again, and where the money that was collected for the insurance and put into Escrow went. '' We did not hear back from him, and on XX/XX/XXXX, we received a mortgage statement showing that {$0.00} had been put into Escrow for insurance. We wrote back to XXXX XXXX, saying, " I know you assured us that someone would get back to us by the end of last week. That did not happen. And, today, we got a statement showing {$0.00} taken out for insurance this month. We need an answer today -- this is incredibly frustrating, and we have lost any trust whatsoever in US Bank. '' On XX/XX/XXXX, we received a message from the US Bank Hazard Department saying, " This email is in response to your recent request regarding your homeowner 's insurance. It is always a pleasure to assist you with any questions you may have. 

U.S. Bank reviewed your HUD-1 Settlement Statement and verified your homeowners insurance was escrowed at the close of your loan. We have made the necessary changes to your account, and will begin escrowing for your homeowners starting with your XX/XX/XXXX payment. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience this issue has caused. '' So, we are still at a complete loss : 1 ) Why did they stop taking the insurance money into Escrow? 

2 ) Why, when notified by our insurance company -- twice -- did they do nothing about paying the insurance or contacting us? 

3 ) What happened to the money that was taken into Escrow from XX/XX/XXXX through XX/XX/XXXX? 

4 ) Why are they unable to see that they did indeed take out that money when we can see it on our statements? 

5 ) Why did XXXX XXXX tell us it would be corrected in XX/XX/XXXX, and then our XX/XX/XXXX statement says that they took out {$0.00}? And why did we then receive another message saying it was corrected for XX/XX/XXXX when it supposedly was corrected for XX/XX/XXXX? 

We finally decided to come to you as we can not get any responses from US Bank that make sense. 

Thank you for your help!

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 explanation