Consumer complaint received 2017-06-16
Company: PHH Mortgage Services Corporation
State: OR
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process

Complaint:
PHH Mortgage states in its loan documentation, " any application of payment, insurance proceeds, or  Miscellaneous Proceeds to principal due under the Note shall not extend or postpone the due date, or change the amount, of the Periodic Payments. '' Unfortunately, this wording in the Deed of Trust is inconsistent. For example, by making an additional payment to principal and keeping the monthly periodic payment constant, the loan will be paid off before the maturation date of the 15-year loan. This means that many of the latter Periodic Payments will not need to be paid ( becoming void ). Thus, their due dates will effectively be brought closer to the present day, meaning their due dates will have changed ( violating  the provisions of the loan ). Alternatively, with the loan having been paid off early, these last periodic payments ' amounts will have been decreased to  XXXX , and thus the amount of these particular periodic payments will have changed ( again, violating the provisions of the loan ). As you can see, either of these interpretations results in violating the provisions of the Deed of Trust. Therefore, because of the poor wording of this provision, any additional payment applied to the loan will result in this provision of the Deed of Trust being violated.  <P/>  I should not be penalized or restricted if the Deed of Trust was not worded properly or competently. The poor choice of words should also not allow PHH Mortgage to force me to utilize how the Periodic Payments are to be revised when I make an additional payment. In my case, I wanted the Periodic Payment amounts to be reduced and the due dates not altered in any way, but PHH Mortgage insisted that the Periodic Payment amounts be held constant and the due dates of many of the Periodic Payments erased ( or the amounts of the latter Periodic Payments changed to  XXXX  ). Why should PHH Mortgage be allowed to pick how the additional payment is to be applied, and to charge me {$300.00} if I want the payment to be applied the alternate way? It was PHH Mortgage 's error in wording, and yet I am to pay the penalty for their incompetence? Because of this, I believe it is only right that PHH Mortgage be assessed their charge of {$300.00} because they chose to alter the  Periodic Payments to their liking and advantage. Further, since they unilaterally made this decision without my knowledge, they need to compensate me an additional {$300.00} because of the financial harm done to me when the full Periodic Payment amounts continued to be automatically withdrawn from my bank account after I expected them to be substantially reduced -- I had to scramble and perform non-ideal money transfers to make sure my checking account was not overdrawn and bouncing checks with my other creditors, possibly damaging my standing with them and my general credit rating.  <P/>  PHH Mortgage has demonstrated their sloppiness in handling my loan in many other ways. PHH Mortgage suddenly stopped sending out monthly mortgage statements ( to all of their clients ). Instead, they started sending out emails that referred to digital monthly statements on their website. However, there never was a comprehensive, itemized statement provided on the website. ( My wife 's attorney asked for such a statement, but I could not provide it. ) That glitch was fixed late last year, and bec ause of complaints that customers did not have access to any monthly statement, they resumed sending out paper statements in the mail. Are n't there regulations stating minimum requirements for the lender to inform their mortgagee of the status of their loan? What penalties does a lender suffer when these requirements are blatantly and significantly violated?  <P/> What is even more disturbing than the sloppiness and error-prone practices of PHH Mortgage is their attitude when a client exposes their practices and inadequacies, and complains about the harm done to them. They deny any wrongdoing, and make it clear that they intend to continue on without any corrective action. Please do n't allow them to do this. Please incentivize them to clean up their act!

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation