Consumer complaint received 2021-06-22
Company: Mr. Cooper Group Inc.
State: FL
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process

Complaint:
Consumer Finance Protection Bureau : This complaint is about the unfair, deceptive, and abusive practices by Mr. Cooper Mortgage Company in reporting late or missed mortgage payments for our investment rental property ( XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX, GA XXXX ) to credit reporting agencies. We ( XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX and XXXX XXXX ) are submitting this complaint on our own behalf. We live at XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX, FL XXXX, cell XXXX XXXX XXXX. We both are retired XXXX XXXX, veterans with XXXX years of service between us. 

ISSUE : Mr. Cooper reported to all credit reporting agencies ( XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, and XXXX ) that we missed mortgage payments for four ( 4 ) months in a row. As you will read in the attached Payment Analysis ( Exhibit 1 ), we have NEVER missed a mortgage payment to Mr. Cooper, nor has it EVER been late. Rather we did not realize that our escrow payment increased. Keep in mind that the escrow account is voluntary and prepaid and our money. At no time was Mr. Cooper out of pocket to pay for our property taxes or homeowner insurance. 

The Payment Analysis also shows that Mr. Cooper co-mingled our personal escrow funds with the funds used to pay the note owed to Mr. Cooper, then did not apply our payments to the mortgage P & I when the escrow payment was incorrect. This is not in accordance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. In fact Mr. Cooper used our personal escrow funds to ruin our credit. Our voluntary escrow payments were never late nor missed, just incorrect which we paid as soon as we found out about the escrow shortage. It is deceptive to report to credit reporting agencies that our mortgage payments were missed or late, when that is demonstrably not the case. 

BACKGROUND : We found out on XXXX XX/XX/XXXX from XXXX XXXX that our credit scores plummeted due to late or missed payments to Mr. Cooper. 

At the time, we were doing paperless statements as an accommodation to Mr. Cooper. Mr. Cooper did email us every month that the mortgage statements were available online. 
However, those emails did not alert us that there was a change in escrow payments. In fact no email was sent to us telling us there was a new document ( escrow statements ) in our online portal, not for the XX/XX/XXXX escrow statement nor the XX/XX/XXXX escrow statement, although it is their practice to send an email stating that there is a new document in our portal. 

As soon as we were alerted by XXXX XXXX on XXXX XXXX, we went online to the Mr. Cooper portal and found a XX/XX/XXXX escrow account statement stating that we were short by {$1300.00} ( Exhibit 2 ) which we paid immediately. We subsequently emailed Mr. Cooper on XXXX XX/XX/XXXX ( Exhibit 3 ) to confirm that we were paying the escrow shortage, requested that they remove the negative comments from our credit history, and asked what our XXXX XXXX  monthly payment would be. 

As you can read from the attached Contact Analysis ( Exhibit 4 ), we contacted Mr. Cooper by email on XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX, and XXXX XXXX ( Exhibit 3 ). We received a phone call from XXXX from customer service on XXXX XXXX to ask us when we were going to pay our XXXX premium in spite of the emails we sent to Mr. Cooper asking what our XXXX payment was going to be, since we were paying our mortgage payments every month. XXXX said to send them our payment record and get them to update our credit history. 

The written response to our XXXX emails was finally received on XXXX XXXX saying that we will get a response within 30 business days ( Exhibit 5 ). However, we received a XXXX XXXX letter via email that stated that our payments were being placed in a holding account for unapplied funds. The letter then states that they are unable to remove the negative credit reporting that occurred as a result of the incorrect payments ( Exhibit 6 ). Reporting that our mortgage payments were late or missed as a result of Mr. Coopers own bookkeeping practices ( including the co-mingling of funds ) is deceptive and misleading. 

However, on XXXX XX/XX/XXXX, Mr. Cooper sent us a letter stating that they submitted an update to the credit reporting agencies with instructions to remove the negative credit information reported for the months of XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX and to allow the agencies five ( 5 ) days to complete the update ( Exhibit 7 ). A subsequent letter dated XXXX XXXX further supports their contention that they submitted instructions to remove the delinquent reporting for the months of XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX ( Exhibit 8 ). 

To date not only did they not correct the XXXX and XXXX delinquencies with the credit reporting agencies, but we were told by a company ( XXXX XXXX  ) while we were attempting to refinance our Florida home mortgage, that the credit reporting agencies were showing that we missed the XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX payments as well! 

We reported this problem to Mr. Cooper on XXXX XXXX, again on XXXX XXXX, and finally again on XXXX XXXX ( Exhibit 9 ). On XXXX XX/XX/XXXX, Mr. Cooper sent a letter stating that they would provide a response to our XXXX XXXX email within 30 business days ( Exhibit 10 )! 

On XXXX XX/XX/XXXX, Mr. Cooper again sent a letter stating that they would provide a response to our XXXX XX/XX/XXXX email within XXXX business days ( Exhibit 11 )! On XXXX XX/XX/XXXX, Mr. Cooper in a letter responding to our XXXX XXXX email stated that they found no errors in our credit history. 
They determined that a credit correction is not necessary at this time. ( Exhibit 12 ) On XXXX XXXX, we asked via email what did Mr. Cooper report for XXXX and XXXX since it was not clear whether or not they reported that we paid XXXX and XXXX payments ( Exhibit 13 ). On XXXX XXXX Mr. Cooper sent a letter stating that they would respond to our query within 30 days ( Exhibit 14 )!

Thirty days to wait for a response to a pressing time-sensitive issue means that the consumer can not correct a payment problem before Mr. Cooper destroys their credit. It seems to us that Mr. Cooper has even violated the requirement to refrain from reporting missed or late payments to credit reporting agencies for sixty days when there is an open dispute. 

On XXXX XXXX, my husband tried to reach someone who could assist us with this issue. If you review the contact analysis from XXXX XXXX to XXXX XXXX, we called or emailed the research department or customer service 14 times in a four month period. He was finally referred to a Mr. XXXX XXXX at the Escalation Resolution Department. He sent us a Verification of Mortgage that showed that we were 60 days delinquent for XXXX XXXX, 60 days delinquent for XX/XX/XXXX, and 30 days delinquent for XX/XX/XXXX ( Exhibit 15 ). THERE WAS NO RECOGNITION THAT THEY SUPPOSEDLY INSTRUCTED THE CREDIT REPORTING AGENCIES TO REMOVE NEGATIVE COMMENTS FOR XXXX AND XX/XX/XXXX! We emailed several times, but there was no actual response to our emails ( Exhibit 16 ). 

If you review the Payment Analysis ( Exhibit 1 ) for XXXX for the period XX/XX/XXXX to XX/XX/XXXX, you will find that we paid the mortgage P & I payments ON TIME EVERY TIME. Mr. Cooper was never impacted by our personal voluntary escrow shortage which was brought up to date as soon as we found out it was short. Yet Mr. Cooper reports four late or missed mortgage payments to the credit reporting agencies. See the attached credit reports from XXXX and XXXX via XXXX XXXX ( Exhibits 17 and 18 ). 

While waiting for Mr. Cooper to let us know what our XXXX payment should be, we paid the regular monthly payment of {$2100.00} due XX/XX/XXXX cited on the XX/XX/XXXX Mortgage Loan Statement ( Exhibit 19 ), since we assumed that by paying the escrow shortage, we were caught up and the regular monthly payment would apply. How wrong we were! 

Notice also in the Payment XXXX ( Exhibit 1 ) that we were fraudulently forced to pay two mortgage payments in XXXX XXXX {$2100.00} on XX/XX/XXXX and {$2900.00} on XX/XX/XXXX ), to comply with the demands of the customer service people who fraudulently claimed that this would bring us current. In reality, we paid fourteen ( 14 ) mortgage payments in thirteen ( 13 ) months for a total of {$21000.00}, while Mr. Cooper claims that we paid 13 payments in 13 months for a total of {$20000.00}. As you can see from the Analysis, Mr. Coopers accounting is unfathomable. 

All of these calls were recorded by Mr. Cooper and should be available for your review. The last communication we had was with XXXX on XXXX XXXX in which she agreed that all the payments were received on time and was going to send this information to some department on an expedited basis. Instead we find that we are being punished for pursuing a positive resolution to this matter. 

IMPACT : These adverse mortgage payment comments stay on our credit history for seven ( 7 ) years and impacts our ability to get refinancing our home, to apply for a {$350000.00} construction loan to add a building to our property, and to apply for grants for our Veterans and Youth Volunteer nonprofit organization. 

We are in our seventies and find this situation unfair, abusive, deceptive, fraudulent, and intolerable. We have been materially damaged by Mr. Coopers intransigent attitude toward correcting our credit history by not being able to refinance or get a construction loan at the lower interest rates or at any interest rates for that matter. Further, grant funding agencies look at credit scores to determine character and right now we look like dirt balls. 

If our credit reports are not changed, the amount of financial damage done to us because we can not refinance at a lower interest rate nor get the construction loan we need nor qualify for grants for our nonprofit is incalculable. 

RELIEF SOUGHT : ( 1 ) We seek assistance from the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau to get Mr. Cooper to instruct the credit reporting agencies to remove the XXXX delinquency comments from our credit history immediately and report that we have paid all of our mortgage payments ON TIME EVERY TIME. 

( 2 ) We seek to have the extra mortgage payment of {$2100.00} in XXXX returned to us, as well as the late fees. 

( 3 ) A rule be implemented that mortgage companies must report as paid on time that part of a payment that covers the Principle & Interest of a note. 

( 4 ) A rule be implemented that mortgage companies can not report mortgage payments as missed or late if only the voluntary escrow payment is incorrect. 

Respectfully submitted for resolution, XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX ( XXXX. ) XXXX XXXX XXXX. 
XXXX, FL XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX cell List of Exhibits : ( 1 ) Mr. Cooper Payment Analysis XXXX ( 2 ) Escrow Stmt XXXX ( 3 ) XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX etc. 
( 4 ) Mr. Cooper Contact Analysis XXXX ( 5 ) Cooper Mortg Response XXXX ( 6 ) Cooper Mortg Response XXXX ( 7 ) Cooper Mortg Credit Report Change XXXX ( 8 ) Cooper Mortg Credit Report Change XXXX ( 9 ) XXXX URGENT_Correction Needed XXXX, XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX ( 10 ) Cooper Mortg Response XXXX ( 11 ) Cooper Mortg Response XXXX ( 12 ) Cooper Mortg Response XXXX ( 13 ) XXXX URGENT_Correction Needed XXXX ( 14 ) Cooper Mortg Response XXXX ( 15 ) Verification of Mortgage XXXX ( 16 ) XXXX to XXXX XXXX XXXX ( 17 ) XXXX XXXX Detail ( 18 ) XXXX XXXX Detail ( 19 ) XX/XX/XXXX XXXX Due XXXX

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation