Consumer complaint received 2016-10-25
Company: Seterus, Inc.
State: FL
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: FHA mortgage
Issue: Loan servicing, payments, escrow account

Complaint:
In brief, Seterus, the current mortgage company will not release insurance funds earmarked for a repair to the house. 
In XXXX XXXX the property at XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX was found to need soil stabilization work done. In comman parlance a '' sinkhole ''. The claim was filed with XXXX insurance in XXXX XXXX. In XXXX XXXX, after review by a XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, the claim was approved. 

In XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, a soil stabilization and foundation remediation company was engaged, and a pre-stabilization cosmetic estimate was performed by. 
XXXX XXXX XXXX was paid XXXX of their portion of the remediation funds and commenced work. The work was completed on XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX was paid the remainder of the remediation upon completion.. Then a second cosmetic inspection was performed by XXXX additional companies XXXX XXXX and XXXX XXXX XXXX. An average of their XXXX estimates was agreed upon by XXXX Insurance as appropriate payments for cosmetic repairs. The check for {$26000.00}, ( copy attached ). was made payable to myself, XXXX XXXX XXXX and XXXX XXXX XXXX as the Holder of the Mortgage. Since then the Loan has transferred to Seterus Inc . The check was cashed by XXXX XXXX XXXX on XXXX XXXX, XXXX. 

XXXX XXXX XXXX sent the money to XXXX prior to Transferring the loan to Seterus. This caused several months of back and forth between Seterus and XXXX and finally a CFPB complaint before the funds were located. Now Seterus agrees that they have the money but now have invented more impediments to releasing the cosmetic repair funds. 

Until the cosmetic work is completed we can not close this claim out. I have received numerous letters from XXXX XXXX asking when the claim will be completed. Now they are planning on cancelling my insurance ( notice attached ) and not reinsuring the house if the claim is not completed and closed. 

I have also received somewhat threatening letters from Seterus about " fraudulently cashed claim checks ''. ( XXXX dated XXXX XXXX, XXXX, copy attached ) I wish to emphasize that the stabilization is complete and and has been signed off by all municipal XXXX XXXX and state agencies that need to do so, as well as XXXX XXXX XXXX. The remainder to close out the claim are numerous but minor cosmetic repairs both inside and outside the house. 

At the time of the claim the house was in foreclosure, it has since been permanently modified and is in good standing. 

Seterus will not release the funds to us to perform the cosmetic repairs. They have said that 1 ) I need to open a new claim or sometimes when they can find the claim 2 ) that all work performed needs to be performed by a XXXX XXXX. The cosmetic work that need to be completed is in no way structural in nature. Several boards on the decks need to be replaced. Baseboards and trim need to be replaced and /or repainted. Floor tiles need to be fixed. Per the state of loricda and XXXX XXXX repairs of this nature, presuming they cost less than {$25000.00} do not require a Licensed XXXX to perform. We have been in contact with then several times via phone and mail : letters attached. 


They, Seterus, Is now saying that their policy is that if repairs cost more than {$10000.00}, they need to be performed by a licenced contractor. I contend that this requirement was not is my original mortgage documents with XXXX Bank on XXXX, was not a requirement at the time the claim was filed, it not a requirement in the XXXX of Florida nor in XXXX XXXX, and that, therefore, they ( Seterus ) can not add unnecessary and onerous restrictions to the disbursements of funds. I further contend that they are intentionally delaying this process in order to " force place '' expensive insurance

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation