Consumer complaint received 2020-03-04
Company: SELECT PORTFOLIO SERVICING, INC.
State: AZ
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Struggling to pay mortgage

Complaint:
We lived in the subject property since XXXX. 

My clients have lived in the subject property since XXXX. 

Approximately five years ago, my clients entered into a loan modification agreement with Select Portfolio Servicing, LLC ( SPS ) and honored that agreement. The loan was modified to a 2 % interest rate with about {$500000.00} of the balance deferred. In early XXXX, my clients filed a voluntary bankruptcy petition, but continued to make all principal and interest payments timely on the account, in accordance with the loan modification agreement. 

All payments were made without incident until XX/XX/XXXX. When Mr. XXXX called in to SPS to make his XXXX payment as usual, the representative asked if my clients property had been affected by the fires. Mr. XXXX told her that they were mandatorily evacuated. She solicited Mr. XXXX for a FEMA program that she represented would relieve their obligation to make monthly payments for approximately four months. He accepted.

However, when Mr. XXXX called in to resume payments after the represented term of the FEMA relief program, he was told by an SPS representative that he and his wife now owed the 4 months missed as a result of their reliance on the previous SPS employees representations. These terms were not as disclosed to my clients, and my clients would have declined such an offer. 

To complicate matters, in early XX/XX/XXXX, Mr. XXXX had an additional hardship in that he had to have XXXX XXXX XXXX. On or about XX/XX/XXXX, Mr. XXXX again reached out to SPS to ask for relief from the situation where they now owed back payments for their participation in the program solicited by SPS which was not as represented. 

SPS told my clients they could apply for mortgage assistance. My clients did apply but SPS did not timely respond. Mr. XXXX followed up routinely by telephone and SPS kept requiring that he and his wife resend all the information they had already sent in, even when just sent less than a month prior and in no need of refreshing. 

After 5 months, in response to frequent requests from my clients, SPS gave a pretextual reason for declining my clients from the loan modification, stating that they had been declined because they had previously modified their loan five years before. But SPS knew or should have known that the loan had previously been modified both when the FEMA relief program was offered, and when the loan modification application process began in XX/XX/XXXX. 

Even worse, when my clients called SPS XX/XX/XXXX to make the XX/XX/XXXX payment, he was not allowed to pay. An SPS representative told Mr. XXXX that the payment would not be accepted and that their account had been forwarded to their foreclosure department. SPS further represented that unless my clients made full payment of all of the claimed amounts past due, including erroneous amounts added despite SPSs previous representations that the payments were being waived or comped as part of the alleged FEMA relief program, that NO PAYMENTS WOULD BE ACCEPTED. 

In addition, there is an unaccounted escrow shortfall. Under separate cover, my clients have sent a qualified written request under the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act to obtain documentation of the escrow account and certain specified increases in the claimed shortfall. In sum, within the span of approximately 30 days, the claimed escrow shortfall, itself unverified, jumped from {$61000.00} to {$74000.00}, a {$13000.00} increase. 

Time is of the essence as you have instituted the foreclosure process on my clients. 

While these legal matters are being investigated and complied with, cease all trustee sale activities in accordance with the Homeowner Bill of Rights, RESPA, TILA, the FDCPA, and other governing laws, including the trustee sale statutes set forth in the California Code in their entirety. 

SPS told my clients they could apply for mortgage assistance. My clients did apply but SPS did not timely respond. Mr. XXXX followed up routinely by telephone and SPS kept requiring that he and his wife resend all the information they had already sent in, even when just sent less than a month prior and in no need of refreshing. 

After 5 months, in response to frequent requests from my clients, SPS gave a pretextual reason for declining my clients from the loan modification, stating that they had been declined because they had previously modified their loan five years before. But SPS knew or should have known that the loan had previously been modified both when the FEMA relief program was offered, and when the loan modification application process began in XX/XX/XXXX. 

Even worse, when my clients called SPS XX/XX/XXXX to make the XX/XX/XXXX payment, he was not allowed to pay. An SPS representative told Mr. XXXX that the payment would not be accepted and that their account had been forwarded to their foreclosure department. SPS further represented that unless my clients made full payment of all of the claimed amounts past due, including erroneous amounts added despite XXXX previous representations that the payments were being waived or comped as part of the alleged FEMA relief program, that NO PAYMENTS WOULD BE ACCEPTED. 

In addition, there is an unaccounted escrow shortfall. Under separate cover, my clients have sent a qualified written request under the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act to obtain documentation of the escrow account and certain specified increases in the claimed shortfall. In sum, within the span of approximately 30 days, the claimed escrow shortfall, itself unverified, jumped from {$61000.00} to {$74000.00}, a {$13000.00} increase. 

Time is of the essence as SPS has noticed a foreclosure for XX/XX/XXXX, XXXX.

Company public response: Company believes it acted appropriately as authorized by contract or law
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation