Consumer complaint received 2020-04-21
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: NC
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process

Complaint:
**See Printer-Friendly PDF version of this complaint ( Complaint vs Bank of America.pdf ) ** Hello, I am filing this complaint against Bank of America ( BoA ) for unfair lending practices which include the following : 1. Not applying mortgage payments correctly 2. Mismanagement of escrows 3. Misreporting mortgage account status to customer and credit reporting agencies 4. Requiring unnecessary mortgage insurance premium ( MIP ) 5. Charging unnecessary additional fees Since XX/XX/XXXX, I started paying my escrow on my own and only paid my Principal & Interest ( P & I ) to Bank of America due to mismanagement of my escrows and continued assessment of mortgage insurance premium even though Ive owned my home for over 16 years. Below are the details of my complaint : On XX/XX/XXXX I called Bank of America to inquire about unscheduled increase in my mortgage payment. My monthly payment had increased from {$2000.00} to {$3900.00} to {$4100.00}. I was informed by the representative that I had a {$1000.00} escrow shortage. ( See attached BoA Escrow Shortage Pmt XXXX ) I paid that amount in full over the phone to bring my escrow current that day. I was told that my mortgage payment would go back down to {$3900.00} once the payment was processed in the system the following month or the billing cycle after that. That did not happen. 

Five months later, in XX/XX/XXXX, my mortgage payment increased once again to {$4100.00}. I was not aware of that increase until XX/XX/XXXX when my mortgage again increased yet again to {$4200.00}. When I called on XX/XX/XXXX to inquire about these payment increases, I was told it was due to another shortage in escrow. That same day I paid another {$930.00} over the phone to satisfy the shortage in escrow. ( See attached BoA Escrow Shortage Pmt XXXX ) Once again, I was told that my mortgage payment would go back down to {$4100.00} once the payment was processed. The Following month the mortgage statement was still {$4200.00}. 

After making all these payments toward my escrow, my account never went back to {$3900.00} nor {$4100.00}. This led me to conclude that BoA is willfully incompetent in managing my escrows and/or deliberately using escrow mismanagement as a way to : 1. increase customers mortgage payment and 2. charge unnecessary mortgage insurance premium Because of the escrow mismanagement and unfair practices, I appealed the increases and the MIP charge over the phone on XX/XX/XXXX. When I did not receive a response, I once again appealed in writing on XX/XX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX and again on XX/XX/XXXX ( See attached BoA Letters_Attachments.pdf ). I requested that BoA do the following : 1. Remove escrows from my mortgage payments and allow me to manage payments of my taxes and insurance on my own.

2. BoA to reassess the value of my home to take into consideration the current estimated home values from independent third parties, specifically, XXXX, Redfin.com and XXXX and discontinue MIP charges. 

I provided BoA with copies of the above third-party reports ( See attached XXXX XXXX XXXX ) showing the current average value of my home at {$630000.00} not the {$510000.00} that I paid for the home 15 years ago that BoA continues to use to value my home. As an alternative, I suggested in my letter that BoA may conduct its own appraisal to have a more accurate value of my home if the submitted estimates were not sufficient. 

On XX/XX/XXXX BoA denied my request on the basis that I lack equity in my home ( See attached BoA Denied Letter to Remove Escrow.pdf ). BoA indicated that my loan-to-value ( LTV ) was 83 % and needed to be at 80 %. They refused to use my current home value which is nearly {$150000.00} more than the original price in XXXX. They indicated that they only consider the sell price. However, the LTV stated in the denied letter is not consistent with neither current value nor the sell price. 

BoA accepted the monthly P & I payments without fail, through XX/XX/XXXX. However, on XX/XX/XXXX, I went to the branch to make my monthly P & I payment, the teller indicated that they can not accept my payment anymore. To ensure my payment would not be late, I made my payment online via ACH from my bank. After the payment was processed electronically, BoA refunded my account on XX/XX/XXXX. ( See attached BoA Monthly Mortg Pmt Branch XXXX and Mortg Pmt Transactions From XXXX showing all payment transactions from XX/XX/XXXX through XX/XX/XXXX ) To ensure I maintain my monthly payment to BoA in a timely manner as Ive always done, I again made my XXXX P & I payment on XX/XX/XXXX. Once again, BoA refunded my mortgage payments back to my account a week later on XX/XX/XXXX ( See attached BoA Returned XXXX XXXX XXXX ). I have since transferred my mortgage payments to a savings account at XXXX XXXX  and will continue to do so until this matter is resolved. Also, since XXXX, I paid my taxes and insurance separately on my own ( See attached BoA XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX and Insurance Overpayment XXXX ). BoA, however, have overrode my payments resulting to overpayment of both my taxes and insurance. I have saved all taxes and insurance funds as well as the last 2 months of P & I payments. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I received an Intent to Accelerate letter from BoA ( See attached BoA Notice Intent to Accelerate.pdf ). They have also sent me notices assessing me the following unnecessary charges : On XX/XX/XXXX, {$290.00} Title Fee ( See attached BoA Title XXXX XXXX On XX/XX/XXXX, {$17.00} Inspection-Occupied fee ( See attached XXXX XXXX XXXX ) On XX/XX/XXXX, I called to get an update on my account because my online access has been disabled, BoA informed me that I am already in foreclosure.

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