Consumer complaint received 2020-08-09
Company: BERKSHIRE HILLS BANCORP, INC
State: MA
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Home equity loan or line of credit (HELOC)
Issue: Trouble during payment process

Complaint:
This concerns property I have owned since XXXX. The property is in a flood zone and it has had FEMA NFIP coverage every year since. The property has had mortgages since XXXX through numerous banks as they were bought and sold : XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX , XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, and now Berkshire Bank. While I was at XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX I took out a HELOC. I believe is it going on year 4 I continued with the same Flood Insurance and increased each year along with my Home Hazard Coverage to always cover the lenders interest as that is what I was told from XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. But XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXXt also told me that both the Mortgage and HELOC would just transfer over to Berkshire Bank. 
That did not happen and I found out on my XXXX statement that no payments were made and Berkshire Bank was expecting not only the interest payments but a penalty besides. 
I visited the XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX to find out what was going on because my checking account showed that both in XXXX and XXXX they automatically withdrew {$200.00} to not only cover the required interest but the rest was to go against the principal. I stay from XXXX to XXXX and the loan manager that was helping me became really nervous that we were going to set the alarm off if we were not out of the bank by XXXX. She finally saw that they were applying the {$200.00} to the mortgage despite the account was set up and stated it was to go against the HELOC. 
I asked for the checking account statement to be mailed as both the mortgage and HELOC were but I have no idea why the checking account just stopped. Well I then got a letter XX/XX/XXXX stating they did not have a copy of property insurance policy on file. I took the letter with a copy of my home owners policy for them to copy and forward to XXXX, NY. 
XX/XX/XXXX another letter came. This was now a FINAL NOTICE stating now the Flood Insurance was not sufficient coverage at {$110000.00} even though the outstanding principal balance of the loan was less. I made a telephone call and spoke to a XXXX at the XXXX XXXX Berkshire Bank Branch at XXXX and she confirmed I was OK because my balance was at {$110000.00} I took it as all was OK Well, XX/XX/XXXX another letter. FLOOD SECOND NOTICE. This has a paragraph for Massachusetts, and it states HELOC should be for the full value of the credit line, outstanding principal on the equity loan etc. This Property is in Rhode Island and from what I was told : Page 27 of the N.F.I.P Mandatory Purchase of Flood Insurance Guidelines also list first : To meet compliance requirements, the amount of flood insurance must at least be, but is not limited to, the lowest of : The outstanding principal balance of the loan ( s ) ; And from page 28 of the Mandatory Purchase of Flood Insurance  Guidelines : A Federally Regulated Lender is not required to escrow for flood insurance unless they are escrowing for other items. 

I pay this bill every year in full usually in XXXX. {$1700.00} was paid XX/XX/XXXX for {$110000.00} coverage XX/XX/XXXX another letter. FLOOD PLACEMENT NOTICE Now let me say this. I am XXXX, XXXX, a female, and a 20 year XXXX veteran. I am sick that they are basically discriminating against me. No one has sent me any replies. I was told they called me from New York. However, I have caller ID and do not answer the various XXXX numbers that come in daily. There is no excuse for anyone not to have continued mailing as to exactly what was needed. 

The worst is yet to come as they have written even if I were to get additional insurance I will not get a full refund of what they took from my account without my written permission. Instead they state they will credit or refund any unearned premiums on a pro rata basis. This is totally wrong.

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 monetary relief