Consumer complaint received 2016-12-04
Company: PHH Mortgage Services Corporation
State: IL
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional fixed mortgage
Issue: Loan servicing, payments, escrow account

Complaint:
Of the previous five years of being with both XXXX Mortgage and XXXX XXXX XXXX for our mortgage lenders, we have n't had as many issues with our mortgage account as we currently have with PHH Mortgage. Although the website is relatively simple to navigate, most of the customer service representatives ( CSR ) have been as helpful as using a fish to cut down a tree. Only the Property Tax Department and a supervisor on XXXX occasion were able to clearly understand our issue, the company 's mistake, and reasonable actions to take in order to rectify our predicament. 
Within four months of having our mortgage taken on by PHH Mortgage, we received a letter stating that our mortgage would be increasing by over four hundred dollars without any explanation as to the reasoning. After calling the company, a CSR told us that our escrow account did not have enough funds to cover all payment transactions ; however, it was initially set up to have the total payment along with a buffer for any short-term future tax increase. In discussing the issue with our lawyer and original loan servicing agent, we discovered that PHH Mortgage had paid our tax bill after the same tax bill was paid by our home seller 's real estate company. This caused our escrow account to incur and carry a negative balance for a little under four months until the county tax was refunded to our account. 
After calling PHH Mortgage to explain their error, the CSR was not helpful in trying to determine why our escrow account was negative. This CSR merely repeated that our account had a negative balance, a payment plan could be worked out after talking with a supervisor to lessen our amount owed each month, and that nothing else could be done. We ended up paying over two hundred dollars more than our original mortgage payment for this updated payment plan. After waiting one month, we called to check on the status of the county tax repayment and were transferred to both the Property Tax Department and eventually a supervisor who was able to understand the issue and lay out a solution until the county tax payment was reimbursed. She put our automatic payment plan on hold and told us to send in a check with the original mortgage payment amount until the county tax amount was repaid. We did this for the next two months. 
In the meantime, we began receiving debt collection letters and phone calls from PHH Mortgage ; however, not XXXX single voicemail was left by a CSR. We called PHH Mortgage on XXXX more occasions, each time having to explain the situation from the beginning to each CSR, at which point we were either told that our escrow account did not have sufficient funds or that our XXXX submitted check payments were held in suspense. Neither CSR admitted that PHH Mortgage had made a mistake in paying our county tax bill in error or that the company would rectify the situation without increasing our mortgage payment. The only solution the CSR offered was to run an escrow analysis to determine our future mortgage payment. Additionally, only XXXX of our check payments were credited to the account after two months ; the other check payment was held in suspense until our escrow account balance was brought up to the amount determined by the escrow analysis. 
After the county tax payment was reimbursed to our escrow account, our mortgage payment still increased by over eighty dollars per month. Again, we called PHH Mortgage to inquire : we were not told why the payment had increased or the breakdown of the escrow analysis ; rather, the CSR indicated that our escrow account would not have a two-month excess payment balance if our original mortgage payment was used. Overall, no explanations were offered by PHH Mortgage in this six-month process, nor were we at any point satisfied with the results of calling the customer service center or that our credit scores would be affected.

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