Consumer complaint received 2022-03-10
Company: WASHINGTON FEDERAL BANK
State: TX
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process

Complaint:
Our mortgage was transferred to XXXX during the summer of XXXX. Our mortgage includes an escrow account to be used to pay our taxes and insurance annually. We received a call from our insurance company indicating our homeowners insurance had not been paid by our mortgage company and as a result we could be without coverage on our property. I reached out to XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX, and no one was available to help us. We called again on XX/XX/XXXX and were told to reach out to the escrow dept. because the person on the line couldn't help, and the escrow team wasn't in the office yet. We then spent Monday - Thursday trying to get in contact with someone at XXXX to help us. We left voicemails, and kept calling their toll free number, only to sit on the line until someone would answer, they never did. The recording just kept indicating they were experiencing high call volumes. We spent XXXX hours on hold through the course of 3 days. I then called a branch directly hoping they could help and get in touch directly with the Escrow dept. The branch rep advised she would reach out to them and contact me with updates. She did follow back up in a few hours, and her reasoning as to why our insurance wasn't paid was because it was the responsibility of the previous mortgage company. Wow! Seriously!? Our loan transferred to this company in XXXX and we made out XXXX payment in XXXX! Why would the previous company be responsible for a payment due in XXXX the following year. Then I get a call back from the customer service line, 3 days later asking do we still need help. Yes we do! I asked about the insurance, and she confirmed she didn't know why it wasn't paid, but that I could talk to the insurance dept. I asked did she have our insurance policy on file, and she confirmed yes and named our insurance company. Fast forward to today, I spoke to the insurance department, who advised they never received our insurance information from their servicing department so they ASSUMED they didn't have it on file. I asked if after onboarding the loan if you have information missing do you reach out to the other team to confirm if they have it or not before assuming it wasn't provided. She replied No. I asked so you have no QC onboarding process to check files for completeness, and you wait until you get a notice from someone's insurance stating payments have not been made before you reach out to the customer and ask for insurance? He response, YES. I don't understand why these people don't have common sense. You have an escrow surplus at the end of the year of over $ XXXX, you are required to refund anything over {$50.00} to the customer and at that time the customer can reapply to escrow if they wish. If I had a customer with a surplus over $ XXXX a the end of the year common sense would sync in and say let 's make sure this money doesn't need to be paid to taxes or insurance because this seems like a high surplus. Not at XXXX, they didn't think to do that at all. They just let our insurance lapse, and were in the process of force placing insurance when all along they had our money in escrow for the insurance payment and the insurance policy information. There are SO many gaps in their processes and apparently they don't have controls in place to ensure issues like this don't arise causing customer stress and harm. This issue still is not resolved, and last we spoke today they were going issue a check to the insurance and send it via us mail with no tracking number. I asked could they XXXX it or at least send it certified since they failed to make our insurance payment and they advised they can not.

Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief