Consumer complaint received 2017-06-11
Company: Ocwen Financial Corporation
State: CA
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process

Complaint:
I have filed this complaint 3 times now. with the CFPB. All I get is a standard letter full of more lies from Ocwen. We were told on numerous occasions that our past due taxes would be included in our payment and it said it in our modification paperwork that we signed. On SEVERAL occasions an Ocwen representative told us that our modification would include our past taxes. Well they LIED. If we were told the truth we would of negotiated it differently. I believe that is a violation of UDAAP. I specifically said that " I was glad that the past taxes would be included as we could not afford to pay them in addition to the new modified loan payment. '' They have that recorded message also. Our modification papers that we signed said that the new principal balance includes all amounts and arrearages that are past due. The everyday American would believe that include their taxes if they are past due ESPECIALLY when the lender has assured and reassured them ( us ) that it did. But they are crooks and apparently crooks can get away with what ever they like. Oh, and the debt forgiveness, we were told was supposed to be a specific amount each year for 3 years. That was an other lie. They violated the law and nailed us with the entire amount all in one year. I will be alerting the IRS about that as well. If you cant believe what your lender tells you and puts in writing then there is a problem. So were are CC'ing our congressmen and women starting with   XXXX   XXXX   asking them for help and to pass a law to STOP lenders with violating the law. I 'm tired of Ocwen paying their way out of being held responsible. They need to be held responsible to their customers.
<P/>
Ocwen is in violation of UDAAP-Unfair Deceptive Abusive Acts & Practices. They bought our loan and reassured us a number or times that our past taxes would be included in the new modified loan amount. They also went as far to say that the only way the payment would go up was if our property taxes went up. We have a 23 year fixed loan on a Shared Loan Modification plan with Ocwen. For the first year our payment stayed the same as it should because its a fixed loan. The following 3+ years our payment went up more than {$850.00} a month. Upon further investigation we found that a ) they were charging us for taxes that were previously collected by our prior lender thus double dipping, & b ) they are also charging us for taxes that they told us several times would be included in the new loan amount, we have proof.
<P/>
This has caused us substantial monetary injury due to this unfair practice. Ocwen has notified us ( we have proof ) that it will continue to go up, thus eventually forcing us out of our home which we believe was their end game to begin with. We could not avoid this injury since the material information about the pricing was modified and or withheld after we committed to the purchasing of the product therefore unable to avoid the injury.
<P/>
Ocwen also charged us for 18 property inspections totalling {$180.00} and 6 valuations totalling {$650.00} for a grand total of {$840.00}. An Ocwen representative sent us the paperwork with all of this information on it when we complained about not receiving a copy of our appraisal for over a year. We had to file a complaint with the CFPB in 2015 to legally get a copy of our appraisal from Ocwen. Upon further investigation of the Ocwen sent document we noticed that they applied our first 3 mortgage payments but then reversed the last payment as if they never received it. So it appears as if we only made 2 payments when we made three. This amount is {$3600.00}. Since I started this letter Ocwen has credited us for the misplaced payment but still owes us lates fees and interest they charged us for the four years that THEY lost our payment and want this money back! OCWEN told us that they would open a ticket and look into this that was 60 days ago with no further contact. At the time this was going on Ocwen was being sued in Federal Court. We found this out after the fact or we would of put in a claim for fraudulent fee charges.
<P/>
To rectify this matter this is what needs to happen. Ocwen will refund us for the following in the form of a check 1. ) {$180.00} -- for the  XXXX  inspections  XXXX  -- for the  XXXX  evaluations -- totaling &  XXXX . We want a check issued to us. They have charged us more than this on a monthly bassi on a fixed loan for the last 3 years considering they have fraudulently increased our payment now {$850.00} a MONTH! We work hard for our money and want it back 2. ) Regarding the misapplied mtg. amt. of {$3600.00} that was just applied to our loan.- and was lost for 4 years we want all late fees and interest that we paid on an inaccurate balance credited back to us. We more interest for 4 years on a payment they lost. We want detailed notarized proof.
<P/>
3. ) Regarding property taxes ; we had an escrow account with our past lender and now Ocwen is telling us we owe them for those taxes. That is double dipping and illegal but they are doing it knowing that the only option we have is to pay it or go back into Foreclosure which is their end game we believe. There are also past taxes that we were assured several times from Ocwen that would be included in the new loan, their paperwork even says this and they are hitting us for those as well. By our accounting and a third party would need to check this. They owe us {$14000.00} approx.
<P/>
Grand total {$16000.00} and we want a refund To all congressmen and women reading this. We have a suggestion. Since Ocwen does n't mind being fined millions of dollars I propose the following ; have the public police them. Every time one of their customers finds an error that Ocwen has to pay it back 10 fold ( ten times the offense ) to the borrower up to a certain dollar amount and after that dollar amount Ocwen needs to pay off the loan on the home ( not showing it as a write off that would negatively affect the owner ) thus buying the borrower their home. Maybe, just maybe if their millions of borrowers were watching their every move they would conduct their business legally esp. if they ran the risk of loosing the notes by paying them off in the borrowers behalf. I know it sounds crazy but considering their track record its not really that crazy.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation