Consumer complaint received 2020-04-01
Company: Shellpoint Partners, LLC
State: IL
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process

Complaint:
My complaint concerns the failure of my loan servicer, NewRez LLC ( " NewRez '' ), to pay my homeowners insurance premium from my escrow account. When I was forced to make the payment to avoid cancellation of the policy, NewRez refused to reimburse me from my escrow account.

On XX/XX/XXXX, I refinanced the mortgage on my condominium located at [ redacted ]. The loan originator was XXXX XXXX XXXX , XXXX. 

When I refinanced the loan, I submitted evidence of insurance that I had homeowners insurance with Illinois XXXX XXXX XXXX ( " XXXX '' ). XXXX listed XXXX XXXX XXXX , XXXX as the mortgagee on my policy, and the premium was set up to be paid from my escrow account. 

Shortly after I refinanced, my mortgage was sold and NewRez was named the new loan servicer on XX/XX/XXXX. NewRez thereafter took no steps to contact XXXX to update the mortgagee clause on the homeowners insurance policy. 

Because NewRez did not notify XXXX  that they had acquired the loan, XXXX sent XXXX XXXX XXXX the bill for the renewal premium in XX/XX/XXXX. I advised XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX that NewRez had acquired the loan. The XXXX agent, who is incredibly responsive, attempted to contact NewRez several times over the next month to get information about how to submit the bill for payment and update the mortagee clause, but New Rez did not respond. A copy of my correspondence with XXXX is attached as Exhibit A. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, XXXX notified me that it still had not received payment of the premium and that my policy would be cancelled if payment was not received by XX/XX/XXXX. Given NewRez 's  complete failure to respond to the XXXX agent on this issue and my difficulties getting NewRez to pay anything out of the escrow on another issue, I had no faith that NewRez would pay the premium by XX/XX/XXXX. I accordingly paid the premium myself on XX/XX/XXXX to avoid cancellation of the policy. A copy of an e-mail confirming that I paid the premium is attached as Exhibit B. 

I called NewRez later that day to request reimbursement of the premium payment and seek an explanation as to why NewRez never responded to XXXX ' inquiries. The customer service representative sent me a form for XXXX to submit to update the mortgage information on the policy, but would not agree to reimburse me for my premium payment from my escrow account. 

XXXX  submitted the form provided by NewRez to update the insurance information on XX/XX/XXXX, but NewRez has not processed it. ( See, Exhibit C ). In subsequent phone calls with NewRez, the representatives tell me that I can not obtain a direct reimbursement of the premium payment from my escrow account. Instead, they say I can only get a reimbursement from XXXX after NewRez pays the premium. NewRez, however, still has not paid the premium, and it will not because the amount due on my XXXX policy is {$0.00}. A copy of my correspondence with NewRez is attached as Exhibit D.

Company public response: Company believes complaint represents an opportunity for improvement to better serve consumers
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation