Consumer complaint received 2015-12-19
Company: Ditech Financial LLC
State: GA
Product: Debt collection
Sub-product: Mortgage
Issue: Cont'd attempts collect debt not owed
Sub-issue: Debt is not mine

Complaint:
This complaint is directed to Ditech, formerly Green Tree, concerning an error made by Ditech regarding my escrow account. Ditech is now sending pending foreclosure letters to me claiming that I am over 60 days past due on a balance that is both incorrect an unwarranted. The balance they claim that I owe them stems from an error they made concerning collection of tax and hazard insurance monies tied to an escrow account that I did not have with them. This started in XXXX when I removed my escrow account with Green Tree, now Ditech, because of unfair collection practices that Green Tree had put into place when XXXX XXXX XXXX sold my loan to them. My original complaint to the CFPB in XXXX is attached with a correspondence notice from Green Tree acknowledging the complaint and their agreement the cancel collection of escrow for taxes and hazard insurance. In XXXX, Ditech decided to, once again, start collecting escrow for taxes and hazard insurance without my knowledge or approval because city taxes on my property had failed to be paid in XXXX which I was not aware. Prior to XXXX, my county and city taxes were combined with only XXXX payment needed to include both. In XXXX, the county and the city started billing these separately. I was unaware of this because I never received a bill from the city ( it was mailed to an old address ), only the county, which I paid in full as I had been doing since XXXX when I canceled collection of taxes and hazard insurance with Green Tree/Ditech. Because of the balance owed to the city, Ditech took it upon themselves to once again open and start collecting escrow for my account and paid not only the city taxes owed for XXXX but the county taxes as well. They also paid both the county and city taxes again in XXXX. The major concern here is that I was not aware that they had once again started collecting escrow for these purposes and I too was paying my county taxes which I thought also included the city as it always had since I purchased the property. In other words, both Ditech and I were paying my county taxes. I do not dispute that I unknowingly failed to pay my city taxes and am fully willing to pay Ditech the funds back that they paid on my behalf, however, it is a major concern to me that Ditech failed to contact me in any way when they made the decision to once again start collecting for taxes in escrow without my consent. After another complaint letter to Ditech, formerly Green Tree, concerning this issue they have once again removed collection of escrow for taxes and are in the process of trying to collect reimbursement for county taxes that they paid for on my behalf that I also paid. This is where my major concern comes in. Because of the balance that was created on my account due to payments that Ditech made to both the county and city on my behalf that should not have been made, they are now requiring me to pay over {$1900.00} to bring the account balance current while they wait for refunds that they will turn right back around and credit my account with. I have never missed a payment to either Green Tree or Ditech and despite unknowingly missing tax payments to the city for the year XXXX and XXXX, I have always paid all taxes owed on my property in a timely fashion. I currently owe Ditech {$450.00} for city taxes they paid on my behalf and do not feel like I owe a dollar more. Ditech is unwilling to correct the situation and continues to ask for the full balance. I am asking for some much needed help to rectify this situation so I can move forward with a current account without receiving foreclosure letters/warnings from Ditech because of non-payment for funds that I do not owe them. It just seems as if Ditech has adopted many of the practices that made Green Tree so unsuccessful and disliked by so many. Please help!!!

Company public response: Company believes the complaint is the result of a misunderstanding
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation