Consumer complaint received 2017-03-15
Company: NATIONSTAR MORTGAGE LLC
State: OR
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional fixed mortgage
Issue: Loan servicing, payments, escrow account

Complaint:
I initiated my first request for PMI cancellation in XXXX XXXX to XXXX. XXXX discovered they were only serving XXXX out of our XXXX and delayed the request until they could add the remaining XXXX. In XXXX XXXX, I submitted a formal request for PMI removal with the appraisal fee. In XXXX XXXX an appraiser showed up and appraised XXXX out of our XXXX. Since the value of our property is in our acreage, we felt this was not the " fair '' appraisal we were entitled to in the Homeowners Protection Act and XXXX agreed. They told me they fired the previous appraiser and put a request in to have the property appraised- we live XXXX from the biggest city in our state but after 5 months of claiming to be looking for an appraiser, they were unable to find one. ( We were however, contacted by an appraising agency, on behalf of the request XXXX submitted, from an appraiser in Minnesota, over XXXX away ... XXXX XXXX agreed to have the PMI removal back-dated to XXXX XXXX. We were transferred to another mortgage company in XXXX XXXX with 0 progress made on the PMI removal. During this time, I initiated a call every 2 weeks with XXXX, often spending hours on the phone, recording my phone calls. Up until XXXX XXXX, the PMI request was 'pending. ' When our mortgage was transferred to Nationstar Mortgage, I was assured by both companies that the PMI request was still pending and Nationstar would do everything they could to ensure a timely appraisal for our request for PMI removal. We were very relieved when an " appraiser '' came to our house in XXXX XXXX and guaranteed he was appraising our full property on be-half of our mortgage company. However, 2 months past with no word from our mortgage company and after numerous attempts to reach Nationstar 's PMI department and spending many hours on hold, I was told by a PMI agent on XXXX XXXX XXXX that my request for PMI removal was cancelled because XXXX Mortgage made a " corporate refund '' of my appraisal fee. ( My guess is the appraisal came in too high and they did n't want to cancel PMI? ) I NEVER AGREED TO CANCEL MY REQUEST FOR PMI REMOVAL, let alone received a refund of any kind. Additionally, Nationstar attempted to charge me additional money for what they called an increase in appraisal costs ... I was told an agent would call me by XXXX XXXX. However, no call back and it 's currently XXXX XXXX, another unsuccessful day after being on hold with Nationstar for almost 1 hour. 

Further, during communication with XXXX, I was told by multiple XXXX agents that my property was n't worth anything based on the property taxes we pay. None of the agents who told me this understood what a farm deferral was or how it worked, as our property taxes are over 5 times lower with our farm deferral. We feel we were discriminated against based on customer service agents unprofessional appraisal of our property and our request for PMI removal was illegally dismissed. 

Our property has been professional appraised three times since our purchase, including by our county, and the appraisal average is twice the minimum needed to remove the PMI. The property is worth twice our loan and this is NOT a situation in which mortgage insurance is needed. This is a classic example of how PMI is being abused by lenders in our country and how lenders are abusing The Homeowners Protection Act.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation