Consumer complaint received 2020-05-01
Company: Specialized Loan Servicing Holdings LLC
State: MD
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process

Complaint:
On XX/XX/XXXX, I sent a letter to the Department of the Treasury 's Office of Thrift Supervision to request its assistance with ongoing problems that I have been having with my mortgage company, Specialized Loan Servicing. The company has created an  escrow account in my name and is charging me for hazard insurance, which I currently and have always had. I have owned my home for 17 years and have always maintained a hazard insurance policy for my home. I absolutely do not need ( nor do I want ) Specialized Loan Servicing to provide me with a policy. I have repeatedly told them that I have a policy, but the company simply ignores me. It has added approximately {$150.00} per month to my mortgage payment, which is an amount that I absolutely refuse to pay because I maintain my own policy which is currently paid in full for the XXXX term. 

I contacted the Office of Thrift Supervision ( OTS ) on XX/XX/XXXX, to check the status of its progress with my complaint. OTS states that to date, it has no record of my complaint. The representative with whom I spoke suggested that the CFPB might be a better agency with which to file my complaint and suggested that I resend my letter to CFPB, so I have attached a copy of my original letter along with the documentation that was originally submitted with the letter. In the past, Specialized Loan Servicing ( SLS ) also erroneously ( and I now believe deliberately ) claimed that my property taxes were delinquent and threatened to create an escrow account for my taxes. Again, there is absolutely no issue with my property taxes, so I have included the property tax issue in my complaint.

In my letter, I requested that Specialized Loan Servicing be censured and penalized for faulty record keeping. However, yesterday XXXX XX/XX/XXXX XXXX, I discovered information that leads me to believe that Specialized Loan Servicing should also be investigated for fraudulent business practices. 

A friend, who owns multiple rental properties, informed me that I could review my mortgage company 's business rating through a simple internet search. I was unaware that it was possible to obtain such information. I was appalled by the information that I discovered. A quick internet search uncovered numerous online complaints from individuals like me who were experiencing problems, such as mine, with Specialized Loan Servicing. There were complaints from other individuals who had also been forced by SLS to purchase hazard insurance, when they already had their own policies. There were others whose mortgage payments never posted to their accounts, so they were forced to make multiple additional payments simply to be able to access their accounts and hopefully receive assistance from SLS representatives to correct what they knew to be mistakes. There will still others who had been forced into foreclosure by SLS due to processing mistakes that the homeowners claim that SLS made. Like me, many of these individuals did not chose SLS as their mortgage lender, but rather had mortgages that had been sold to SLS by XXXX XXXX Bank. I recall the XXXX XXXX scandal from just a few years ago. Much of what I read about the XXXX XXXX fiasco sounds eerily similar to the online complaints from SLS customers that I recently discovered.

I visited the XXXX  website and discovered that the XXXX  given Specialized Loan Servicing a rating of either F or NR for " No Rating '' because the XXXX  refused to rate Specialized Loan Servicing. To date, XXXX  has received more than 600 complaints from homeowners regarding their problems with SLS. I do not understand how such a company can be allowed to operate. For this reason, I implore you to not only assist me in resolving my complaint, but to also investigate SLS 's business practices. 

I have included copies of internet searches and the XXXX  rating that I discovered for your reference. I am hopeful that this information will prove useful in resolving my complaint and investigating the complaints made by others.

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation