Consumer complaint received 2015-10-16
Company: Freedom Mortgage Company
State: AL
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: FHA mortgage
Issue: Loan servicing, payments, escrow account

Complaint:
I purchased my home XX/XX/XXXX. Property taxes were high XXXX {$1800.00} XXXX because no one had occupied the home for about a year. Last month, I noticed that my mortgage payment with Freedom Mortgage drastically increased for the XXXX billing period. It went from {$820.00} to {$1000.00}. They said it was from property taxes. They had based their escrow analysis on last year 's property taxes, which were much higher than they are this year because I filed for the homestead exemption XX/XX/XXXX. Property taxes for this year are {$830.00}. I called and they stated to fax in the estimated taxes for this year. I went to XXXX XXXX tax assessor 's office and they gave me a print-out of the estimate and I faxed it in. I called about 2 weeks later checking on the status ( on XXXX XXXX ). They stated that the estimate was " incomplete '', so it could not be processed, even though it had all the necessary information regarding my home and taxes. By that time I had received the actual property tax bill, so I sent in the bill along with the form from my tax assessor 's office stating that I had filed for homestead last year. I explained to the representative that the extra cost on my mortgage payment was placing a financial hardship on my family. The representative stated that she could have the escrow waved for XXXX and would have that tax information expedited in order to get my taxes corrected ASAP. She stated that I could pay my normal payment for XXXX, which was {$810.00}. She took my payment over the phone. XX/XX/XXXX I called to check on the status. The representative stated that she could not see where the tax dept received any of my information ( basically nothing had been done XXXX. She stated she looked up the bill on XXXX XXXX tax department 's website and would put that on file and make sure it got the the tax department. She stated that Freedom Mortgage could not accept my payment made XX/XX/XXXX as a full payment, that I needed to pay the remainder of {$210.00} today for my loan to be current or else I would incur late fees. I made the payment over the phone XX/XX/XXXX. She stated that I would more than likely have to pay the {$1000.00} in XXXX as well. She stated there was no way around it. My complaint is that this should have been taken care of the first time when I sent in the property tax information that came directly from my tax assessor 's office. This is the third time that property taxes have been sent to the tax department, the first 2 times were unsuccessful ; I am hoping the third time 's the charm. I can not afford the extra {$210.00} tacked on to my mortgage payment for an error/carelessness on THEIR side. Every time I call I just wonder if something is actually going to be done or if I am going to find out in 2 weeks that nothing was taken care of. They are probably prolonging this so they can get more money from me.

Company public response: Company chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation