Consumer complaint received 2021-04-21
Company: Freedom Mortgage Company
State: SC
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: VA mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process

Complaint:
What happened? Bottom line = Freedom Mortgage paid an overage in the amount of {$10000.00} to the tax office, XXXX County, XXXX, SC XX/XX/XXXX. I purchased a second home XXXX primary residence XXXX XX/XX/XXXX. The tax rate should have been at XXXX ; however, I didn't receive the request to establish this home ( XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX, SC XXXX cost of home : {>= $1,000,000}. My previous address = XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX was vacant for over a year. Subsequently, I completed the forms during the time period XX/XX/XXXX - XX/XX/XXXX. 

Beginning XXXX XXXX, I realized there was a problem because of the mortgage statement for XXXX indicating that there was an overpayment and Freedom will be deducting an additional {$1100.00} every 14 days along with my usual amount of {$1300.00} so a total of XXXX. This almost would result a total of {$4900.00} which is almost double of what I would previously pay ( XXXX ) starting in XXXX. The first overage payment of {$1100.00} was deducted on XXXX XXXX and then again, XXXX XXXX. On XXXX XXXX, they received their overage disbursement from XXXX XXXX in the amount of {$10000.00}. 

I have contacted numerous customer service reps, escalation managers, and supervisors, beginning XXXX XXXX through today. I have several issues or concerns. 

1. I believe that Freedom Mortgage did not make an effort to make contact with the third party company, XXXX XXXX in an attempt to resolve the issue of their payment since I verified that I established primary residence in enough time for processing. My wife contacted XXXX XXXX once on XXXX XXXX and I contacted them on the XXXX in an effort to get them to expedite payment so Freedom XXXX would not continue to take the overage amount from my checking account. I faxed them a receipt from my county tax office dated, XX/XX/XXXX acknowledging that they owe XXXX a refund in the amount of {$10000.00}. It was faxed to the tax office of XXXX. No of their representatives informed me of any attempts to resolve the situation other than making entries in their database and doing escrow analysis which resulted in telling me the same information that I already knew. 

2. Next Issue : never got the same answer when I talked to their customer service reps and managers or supervisors. Just repetition of what was already known and verifying my information. On XXXX XXXX ( XXXX, escalation mgr, tax dept id # XXXX? informed me that he had the authority to provide some type of waiver because I had proved the overage overage was in route from XXXX XXXX. He promised to get back with me within a couple of days but never followed through. Later, I was told that this was not possible because I was responsible for the overage until they received a check from XXXX XXXX. Note : Freedom Mort. received their overage refund from XXXX Cty Tax Office ( over XXXX ) on XXXX XXXX. 

3. Issue : In total, approximately {$2400.00} was drafted from my checking account, along with the XXXX from above. Last week, I contacted Freedom ( customer svc and tax dept ). after receiving my mortgage statement for XX/XX/XXXX which indicated that Freedom Mortage simply added the money to my principal ( I should have received directly back into my checking account ). I informed XXXX that I never authorized this, I wanted my money back to spend as I choose because I already get my mortgage deducted every 14 days which results in one extra payment towards the principal each year any way. XXXX ( escalation manager, id XXXX, tax dept stated he would ensure that the {$2400.00} would be deposited to my checking account not later than today, XXXX. 

4. Issue : When I called today, I spoke with XXXX ID : XXXX who attempted to verify my routing number and checking account which tells me that another delay is coming because last week XXXX never asked for this information. They already have this information on file because of the way I pay my mortgage ( automatic deduction/ach withdrawal ).

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 explanation