Consumer complaint received 2020-08-20
Company: Dovenmuehle Mortgage, Inc.
State: TX
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process

Complaint:
I submit this formal complaint against XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX ( XXXX ) and request your assistance in stopping an action whose effect is to trigger unnecessary foreclosure on our home. Dovenmuehle Mortgage Company is the mortgage servicer. Our mortgage account is in current status, but Dovenmuehle has completely mishandled its responsibility as a servicer regarding our ad valorem taxes. 

In a correspondence dated XX/XX/XXXX, XXXX notified us of a new required monthly mortgage payment of {$3300.00}. Our regular payment of {$1200.00} has been in force since XX/XX/XXXX. The increased payment is the result of Dovenmuehles demand that we pay a cushion for our ad valorem taxes despite our having an existing binding payment agreement with tax authorities, as described below. 

I have called the mortgage company almost daily to get this resolved. I have received no response or reassurance that they are doing anything to rectify this situation. My calls to XXXX XXXX representatives not answered satisfactorily. 

Due to Dovenmuehles failure to respond or act in correcting this error, the increased amount was paid on time on XX/XX/XXXX, depleting our savings. The substantially higher payment creates a catastrophic situation for my wife and I, especially the prospect of losing our home as senior citizens. 

Contrary to lender escrow action to pay off our XXXX property taxes with XXXX XXXX XXXX office, we werent in breach of our tax obligation. We had entered into a legally binding agreement ( see attached ) with XXXX XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX before XXXX sent its tax payment. The payment plan is for monthly installments of {$310.00}, 3 payments of which have already been made. 

The outbreak of the pandemic, the COVID-19 national shutdown and an initial miscommunication with the tax office precluded efforts to reach a payment agreement in XXXX. XXXX was duly informed about our efforts in a phone call placed at XXXX XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX. XXXX, the Dovenmuehle representative, assured me that a note would be entered into our files, accordingly. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, XXXX XXXX XXXX tax office, upon written request from us, undertook to return the {$9500.00} pre-emptively paid by XXXX. It has already reversed the transaction on their books and initiated the process to make full refund to XXXX. 

The XXXX XXXX tax office follows strict criteria in granting property tax payment agreement which in our case, stipulated the full payment of XXXX taxes when due in XX/XX/XXXX. As a result of FCCU interference, the ability to take advantage of stretched-out payments for the XXXX liability has been jeopardized. 

I am a 65 year-old unemployed African-American man in a single-income household with my wife also attaining the same age in XXXX. As part of our commitment to discharge fully the XXXX property taxes on time, we were going to earmark my very first Social Security retirement benefit expected on XX/XX/XXXX along with future receipts into a separate escrow account at the tax office.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation