Consumer complaint received 2021-09-03
Product: Mortgage — Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process — 
Company: Academy Mortgage Corporation (TX)

In XX/XX/XXXX contacted Academy Mortgage Loan Administration Customer Service about the escrow statement they sent. The issues reported at that time via phone call was : 1 ) The company made multiple payments to PMI during XXXX some months 2 ) The company was paying the wrong amount to PMI in XXXX every month 3 ) The increase in mortgage payment to cover an escrow deficiency was too high, and I requested an explanation about how such an escrow discrepancy occurred. I was informed they opened a case and would get back to me, and that the Escrow account was being looked into. I was also told to email XXXX about the PMI issues. I did this on XX/XX/XXXX and received an auto response from PMI that something would be mailed to physical mailing address on file by 30 days. This never happened. I called Academy Mortgage CS again in XX/XX/XXXX, spoke with a different CS rep who said that the inquiry from the other agent I spoke with was " closed having been opened in error ''. She also said the email address I was given was only for removing pmi from the account, therefore I would never get a response. Frustrated I requested how to deal with this in writing since calling CS was not working and was told there was zero option whatsoever to submit a written issue. Then I was told the only option is to fax this number XXXX with my issue. I don't have a fax. At this point I enlisted the assistance of the Academy Mortgage brokers I used to purchase the home and they got involved. Via email communication I requested to know who I can escalate the issue with to get some type of resolve because a fax number was unacceptable option and having gotten the run around for over a month now I wanted things in writing. The brokers stated they would see what they could do to help. The disclosure statement indicated PMI was XXXX but what was being paid was XXXX per month, sometimes multiple times a month. They said the shortage was due to taxes being estimated at XXXX which was on the disclosure form as well, but they were XXXX in actuality. The hazard insurance was also short by XXXX. Therefore the total shortage in the escrow account should only have been XXXX. To resolve this deficiency, Academy mortgage raised the monthly mortgage by over XXXX a month to " catch up '' the escrow account. That is XXXX more per year to pay into the escrow account, when the total yearly payout from the escrow account should be XXXX. That increase seems to be well above the 1/6th allowed cushion. The brokers stated that they got the PMI issue resolved as far as the correct amount going forward which should only be XXXX. They stated the over payments in PMI would be refunded back to us. Several weeks later when the refund didnt happen they said they were told that the refund would be handled by not making a PMI payment for the month of XXXX of this year. However, in XXXX they paid the wrong amount of XXXX, and then every month since they paid the XXXX twice a month. To date we have not gotten the refund in our escrow account or via snail mail. They also tried to sell a refinance to remove PMI completely which would incur additional costs of broker fees. After looking at the fees and costs of a refi, I requested that the issue be corrected instead and declined a refinance which doesnt help financially and at this point we have zero confidence in the competence of this company. They also email the PMI email address at the direction of their contact on the servicing side with me CC 'd. After 60 days, the PMI response said the PMI email is for removal of PMI only and PMI can not assist with the issue. PMI said to contact Academy Mortgage Customer service. Getting absolutely no where on these issues which just seem to be compounding, and meanwhile now having to pay a much larger mortgage than expected, on XXXX I contacted academy mortgage loan administration via the secure messaging on their customer portal. I created three separate tickets for the three separate issues as defined in their portal. PMI, Escrow, and Taxes. In the PMI payments issue I attached a scan of all the emails with the brokers regarding the incorrect PMI payments and the refund requested. The response was very predicable, they said Dear Borrower, Thank you for your recent inquiry regarding the mortgage insurance requirement on your mortgage.If you feel you have met the guidelines for removal or you have any inquiry about the requirements, please submit a written request to : XXXX.You may continue any ongoing dialog regarding PMI through that email address. Thank you for being a valued member. To which I responded that was not helpful that email doesn't handle the question. The next response was Thank you for your recent inquiry regarding PMI. This message is to inform you that your inquiry has been acknowledged and is being researched at this time. Please anticipate a 12 day response time for this particular issue. After 12 days I inquired on a status update and got this response : This is in response to your recent email regarding your Private Mortgage Insurance ( PMI ) payments. Please be advised that the turn around time for an accurate response is 30 days. You may follow up with our PMI Department for further assistance. PMI Department XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, NJ XXXX Fax : ( XXXX ) XXXX XXXX Alternatively, the request and any additional questions may be sent via email to XXXX. I responded with : XXXX XXXX stated 12 days to respond on XXXX, XXXX XXXX stated 12 days to respond on XX/XX/XXXX XXXX XXXX says 30 days to respond on XX/XX/XXXX It has been over 30 days since this issue has been brought to your attention and resolution has been requested. In fact it has now been 90 days since putting this issue in writing originally, and about 30 days additional if we just go by when I called into CS the first time to report this issue. So the question is : When will we be refunded our money that you incorrectly paid to PMI? Given the excessive amount of time to resolve this issue, it really should have been refunded by now. And the response was Dear Borrower, Please be advised we have an open task for our Conversions Department to take a look at your PMI Discrepancy. We have attached the original correspondence you sent on XX/XX/XXXX for their review. Please follow up after XX/XX/XXXX for an update. In the Escrow ticket I gave a summary of the escrow issues I saw requesting why we were being asked to pay XXXX more per month to catch up a max shortfall of XXXX ( which includes their mistake of paying to much PMI in the balance ). Their response was a breakdown of the monthly payment and to say the shortage was XXXX which didn't match their own escrow statement. I responded asking how they were going to correct the incorrect PMI payments which where largely contributing to the shortage, pointed out the multiple payments that went out as well as a new estimated tax which was additional and not part of our loan also causing an incorrect amount. The response was : Thank you for your recent inquiry regarding PMI. This message is to inform you that your inquiry has been acknowledged and is being researched at this time. Please anticipate a 11 day response time for this particular issue. After 11 days followed up and got : Please be advised your PMI concern is still under review. We ask that you allow additional time for resolution. after a couple more weeks inquired on an update and got : Thank you for your recent inquiry regarding your account. Our records show the PMI inquiry still being researched. Regarding the tax issue I sent : Currently the loan shows taxes and insurance upcoming in XX/XX/XXXX of a value of XXXX. I am writing to request what this is related to exactly? This appears to be in error and should be removed from this account. Also if you review the escrow disbursements from last year you will see that you only paid one tax for the property. The response was predictably unhelpful : Dear Borrower, Thank you for your recent inquiry regarding your loan. Please be advised that the tax amounts listed in our servicing systems and secure website may be different than what is requested by the taxing authority. This amount is updated only upon payment of the taxes and not based on the amounts reported due this year from your tax office. Please be assured that our Tax Department will verify the correct amount due prior to disbursing payment. Once payment is disbursed from your escrow account, the site will reflect the actual payment paid. I responded with : This response did not address the question. You are showing two estimated tax accounts, there should only be one. I sent these correspondences to the brokers very frustrated they said they would escalate on their side but it's not their department. The person that it got escalated to called me on XX/XX/XXXX to walk through all the issues directly, clarify her questions said she had been working on it for over a week at that point was hoping for an update on friday XX/XX/XXXX. Friday came and went and in the meantime, PMI responded to the brokers email turfing the PMI issues to academy mortgage customer service. Followed up in email again. on XX/XX/XXXX the update from the person it was escalated to was no update on the PMI and escrow issue, but on the Tax issue they requested a refund from XXXX County for the tax amount of XXXX and said it may take 120 days to get the refund back from the county. I responded to this update providing their own Escrow statement which shows they never made a payment for that amount. Reiterated that the question was why did that amount show up as estimated tax due in XXXX because it should not be on the account at all. Requested documentation and proof that they ever made a payment to XXXX county and also inquired why if a payment was made it is not on the escrow statement? I requested that a resolution and response on all the issues occur by end of day XX/XX/XXXX because at this point after over 4 months of dealing with this, 3 of them in written format via email it was beyond ridiculous that we are this far down the road with zero resolution. On XXXX after I emailed asking for an update the response was no update and they sent it over to a relationship manager to assist. At this point I believe this company is violating several Mortgage servicing regulations. 
Improper Error Resolution procedures, Improper Timely Response practices, etc. Their staff clearly need training on how to handle issues and inquires, as well as how to response with accurate information. We are owed a minimum refund of XXXX that they incorrectly paid out to PMI per their own reporting statements. This refund is way past due in our perspective. It should be returned to the Escrow account Immediately.

The escrow account discrepancy is directly a result of mistakes they have made with PMI payments and the additional Tax estimate of XXXX which are entirely their errors. The additional shortage is because the tax for the property was incorrect on the disclosure and short XXXX. The hazard insurance was also incorrect, and the actual amount different between the disclosure and true pay out it is XXXX. It is their responsibility and obligation to correct these issues in a timely manner when reported to them. They have failed to do this. This was reported originally in XXXX. Its now XXXX and still unresolved. The amount of labor and time involved on our side should be compensated because it is significantly time consuming having to deal with this company and their incompetence. They have increased our monthly mortgage to be over XXXX per month more than originally disclosed at time of purchase one year ago. That is way to high for the total shortage in taxes and hazard insurance, which is only XXXX. When bringing this to their attention they have yet to explain why it is required for us to pay over XXXX a year more to make up a shortage of XXXX. They have refused to re-analyze the escrow account, and they have failed to refund the PMI money they paid in error to the escrow account or to us directly. They are required to remove incorrect tax estimates for properties that are not part of the loan from the escrow account. This is not a tax payment they will make on our behalf, nor is it a property tied to this loan. Now that they are stating they made payments and requested refunds for said payments, but they did not report the payment as coming out of our escrow account, they are also required to provide the proof of this once it has been requested by us. They have not done so.