Consumer complaint received 2021-06-15
Company: Shellpoint Partners, LLC
State: CA
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process

Complaint:
We have made every mortgage payment, without fail, on time, during our mortgage. We have missed no payments, no payments have been tardy. 

In addition to our regular payments, we have made two additional payments -- {$1100.00} on XX/XX/XXXX and {$1700.00} on XX/XX/XXXX. 

The {$1100.00} XXXX payment was to reimburse ( pay back ) XXXX XXXX for an escrow they improperly attached to our mortgage. XXXX subsequently removed and closed the escrow in XX/XX/XXXX. 

NewRez however continued to collect for escrow, even though the escrow was closed. 
, Subsequently, even though we and our attorney sent dozens of letters, faxes, emails, official complaint letters -- NewRez completely ignored everything, in violation of CFPB rules which state we are due answers or relief within 30 days. 

The XXXX {$1700.00} payment was " paid under protest '' to keep NewRez from foreclosing on our home because the original XXXX payment was not credited correctly to our account and NewRez continued to collect for escrow -- by improperly taking now-closed escrow payments from our regular mortgage payments and reclassifying them as partial payments and charging penalties and fees. 

I have made two previous complaints to this Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, CFPB complaint XXXX in XX/XX/XXXX and CFPB complaint XXXX in XX/XX/XXXX -- NewRez still has not corrected this problem. 

In an XX/XX/XXXX response to our XX/XX/XXXX CFPB complaint, NewRez said this : " Your complaint states that an escrow account was established in error by your previous server XXXX XXXX ( XXXX ) in XXXX. XXXX paid your homeowners premium. When you discovered this error, you repaid XXXX for the funds paid in error for your insurance premium. The escrow should have been removed, but the payment was not applied correctly, and XXXX never removed the escrow from your loan. This caused each payment made since XX/XX/XXXX when this error occurred to be misapplied. You are requesting NewRez correctly apply all the funds since XX/XX/XXXX. All penalties and interest should be removed, and any partial payments resulting from the escrow added in error should be applied as esc row payments. The escrow should be removed. '' " ... All payments made since XX/XX/XXXX have been reversed and reapplied to your loan. However, BECAUSE THE the XX/XX/XXXX ESCROW BALANCE HAD ALREADY BEEN DISPURSED TO YOU ( italics mine ), a remaining balance is owed to satisfy the XX/XX/XXXX installment. '' Please note that we previously RETURNED to NewRez all " unapplied dispursments '' ( escrow balances ) paid to us in error because those funds were supposed to be applied to our regular mortgage payments, not disbursed to us. With a letter explaining why these amounts needed to applied to our regular mortgage payments -- we repaid NewRez/Shellpoint dispursement check # XXXX for {$85.00}, check # XXXX for {$790.00} and check # XXXX for {$1000.00}. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, NewRez again sent documents saying our mortgage was past due ( bear in mind, we have NEVER missed a payment ) with another threat of foreclosure. 

I appreciate that NewRez finally has removed the escrow from our loan, but ... 

We still have not received back the {$1700.00} we paid under protest on XX/XX/XXXX to prevent foreclosure because of NewRez totally ignoring six months of letters and complaints NewRez to fix this thing.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation