Consumer complaint received 2022-07-28
Company: SERVICEMAC, LLC
State: NY
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process

Complaint:
I have a mortgage that was just transferred ( a second time by the way since the loan closed XX/XX/XXXX ) to ServiceMac on XX/XX/XXXX from XXXX XXXX. XXXX had the loan transferred to them XX/XX/XXXX, so they held it about 4 months. The loan was originated through XXXX XXXX  -- and is a XXXX XXXX XXXX product . The property address is in XXXX FL XXXX. It is a rental condo unit and I do NOT reside there, I rent it. 

I have paid all of my loan payments on time since loan inception ( {$1300.00} principal and interest/ {$46.00} flood insurance escrow ). The total payment has been {$1400.00}. In addition, I voluntarily typically add {$500.00} per month in extra principal. My mortgage contains a mortgage escrow waiver addendum that does NOT allow the lender to pay property taxes or condo unit property/liability insurance. The only thing they can escrow is the Condo unit flood insurance.

My complaint is 2-fold, communications are lacking and an escrow re-calculation that is improper.

I am not receiving any communications about loan transfers since the loan keeps getting sold to different servicing companies. All 3 companies should be aware that I do NOT reside in the unit, and that I live in NY. They were provided with my address and contact information at closing, in the loan closing documents. As an example, I signed up for auto pay in XX/XX/XXXX after I was unable to make my XXXX payment to XXXX. Through website trial and error, I finally discovered ServiceMac as my new loan servicer. Shortly after discovering ServiceMac was my new mortgage servicer, I signed up for the auto pay option which was for the {$1400.00} noted above, plus additional principal of {$500.00}, total payment {$1900.00}. Days later l received a notice XX/XX/XXXX that my new payment was {$2600.00}, plus additional principal {$500.00}, or {$3100.00}. No explanation was given for the change in monthly payment {$1400.00} to {$2600.00}. a whopping increase of {$1200.00}, or {$15000.00} annually. 

I called both servicers ServiceMac and XXXX and was told XXXX redid an escrow recalculation a mere week before they sold the loan to ServiceMac to service starting XX/XX/XXXX. They indicated they had to redo my escrow to account for my property taxes and insurance ( I informed them that I have a waiver of escrow included in my loan so I pay my own property taxes, my own condo unit homeowners policy, and I rely on my XXXX XXXX to pay for the building property and flood insurance ). The only thing ServiceMac and XXXX as mortgage assumers were authorized to escrow and pay ( barring my default/failure tor pay my tax/insurance obligations- which is NOT the case since this loan has only been in existence for XXXX mos ), was the required XXXX condo unit flood insurance. As a requirement to close on the loan XX/XX/XXXX, that flood insurance was paid by me in full and that policy does not expire until XX/XX/XXXX. The escrow analysis sent to me by ServiceMac shows a flood insurance disbursement for {$3600.00} issued XX/XX/XXXX by XXXX, then an insurance refund of - {$2800.00}. This apparently resulted in a negative escrow balance for a payment that should never have been made. I was told this was a lender placed flood policy. I requested that the flood disbursement be credited back to my escrow account in full and I requested a copy of any bill or document that was used as a basis to justify this erroneous payment made from my mortgage escrow balance. I also requested an explanation as to how they came to the conclusion that increasing my monthly payment by {$1200.00} was justified. I also requested confirmation that prior months additional principal payments of {$500.00} were indeed credited to principal and nothing else. Instead of responding, I am receiving communications that ServiceMac blames XXXX, and XXXX has yet to respond to my requests.They answer the phone and say they want to help, but have no answers to provide. Despite having the flood insurance binders and in force policy information for both the condo unit and the XXXX XXXX flood policy at mortgage closing XX/XX/XXXX, and knowing that the current mortgage payment amount excludes taxes, excludes property insurance, and excludes the master flood, and that the unit flood does not renew until XX/XX/XXXX, they re-calculated the escrow improperly anyway and have thus far refused to refund and credit back to my escrow bank forced placed flood insurance. I also sent them the master unit flood renewal that my monthly condominium fees pay for through the master association. 

I view this as potential escrow miscalculation, and I do understand mistakes are made, but this is a substantial amount of money. How these changes can be made, even if they were a mistake, should have been noticed to me with an explanation, in addition to a 2nd mortgage servicing company transfer. How can you expect people to even know where they are to send their payments absent notice and explanation?

Thank you.

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