Consumer complaint received 2017-08-15
Company: LD Holdings Group, LLC
State: GA
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process

Complaint:
I noticed my mortgage payment increased from {$1500.00} to {$1600.00}. This is nearly $ 120/month or $ XXXX/year increase. I called my insurance company and confirmed my insurance premium had not increased by that amount and it had not. I went online to confirm my property taxes had not increased by that amount and noticed that the XX/XX/XXXX tax bill for the city of XXXX had not yet been issued. Last year the amount paid was {$3300.00}. I confirmed this amount on the escrow summary I viewed on my mortgage companies ( Loan Depot XXXX # XXXX ) website. When I finally reached someone at Loan Depot to help me understand what was the cause of this increase in my monthly mortgage payment, I was told it was due to an escrow study that was completed in XX/XX/XXXX that projected a negative amount in my escrow account because of a tax payment that was scheduled for XX/XX/XXXXin the amount of {$3300.00}. This is the amount that I paid last year in atlanta city taxes but it was not paid until XX/XX/XXXX. Loan Depot has moved my expected tax payment date ahead by 5 months and as a result my escrow account monthly installments has increased to cover the alleged {$1500.00} shortage. I confirmed with the customer service representative that the funds had not been taken out of my account because i was concerned what was done with them because the county tax website shows that no amount is due nor does it even have an amount that will be due for XX/XX/XXXX. I asked Loan Depots customer service representative ( XXXX at ext XXXX ) to reverse the impact of this change to my monthly mortgage payment and return me to the amount that was previously being paid. HE said he would authorize my account to allow short payments until another escrow study could be completed. The time frame he indicated to complete that study was atleast 30 days. I expressed frustration with the time frame as well as the idea of short-paying my mortgage when they were not able to articulate to me why the projection had the payment being applied in XX/XX/XXXX for a bill that is always due in XX/XX/XXXX. This is the second time I have had an issues with this company and my escrow account. They failed to an installment between XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX and I subsequently incurred over {$100.00} in late fees which Loan Depot just paid out of my escrow account without notifying me. When i discovered this a year later it took filing a complaint with the CFPT to persuade them to reimburse me for the amount of lates fees that were paid from my escrow account because of their error. Please investigate this matter to the fullest because I can not help but think this is a predatory tactic they use to increase monthly mortgage payments on customers in an effort to charge fees and potentially foreclose on homes as a results of undue increase to peoples monthly mortgage payments.

Company public response: Company believes it acted appropriately as authorized by contract or law
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation