Consumer complaint received 2022-08-22
Product: Mortgage — Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process — 
Company: Shellpoint Partners, LLC (TX)

Earlier this month on the payment history of my current mortgage lender Newrez 's customer online portal, I noticed the transaction " Surplus Disbursement '' of {$4400.00} ( transaction date of XX/XX/XXXX ) which was paid out of my escrow balance. I was surprised since the recently released XXXX County estimated property taxes for my property in XXXX is about {$8500.00}, and it did not make sense to me that tax surplus disbursements would be made in XXXX ( especially since tax bills are sent in XXXX and due in the following XXXX ). 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I called Newrez customer service, and the rep ( Rep # 1 ) informed me that based on a Newrez tax analysis done in XX/XX/XXXX, I was disbursed {$4400.00} in XXXX via a check that was supposedly sent to my house. I informed Rep # 1 that I had not received any check in the mail from Newrez and that their company basing XXXX property taxes on my XXXX property taxes is illogical since my home was built in XX/XX/XXXX and my XXXX taxes were substantially low because taxes were based on just the land value ( i.e. XXXX taxes will be substantially higher because taxes will be based on property value ). Newrez tax estimates aside, I was concerned about {$4400.00} being taken out of my escrow balance and never being sent to me via check or electronic deposit. I asked Rep # 1 to put that amount towards my escrow balance again and was told it is not possible for her to do that, so she suggested that she put an internal request to void the check and send another check to which I could pay again on Newrez online portal towards my escrow balance. I asked if that amount can just be electronically deposited to my XXXX checking account. She was able to confirm the checking account number & routing number and told me that the request was submitted and that the {$4400.00} should take 2-3 business days to be deposited in my XXXX checking account. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I checked my XXXX statement and noticed that {$4400.00} was never deposited by Newrez. I called Newrez customer service again and explained to the rep ( Rep # 2 ) everything that I had discussed with Rep # 1 and that I had never received the surplus disbursement in my checking account. After investigating, Rep # 2 told me that Rep # 1 made a mistake in the request that she submitted by forgetting to opt in for electronic transfer. Despite my frustration on whatever implications that had, I asked Rep # 2 to electronically deposit the surplus disbursement towards my XXXX checking account the correct way, and I further asked if there is a way for me to track the progress of it, whether it is an email confirmation or something on the Newrez portal. Rep # 2 told me that they could only submit requests/track progress of requests internally, that she was able to submit a new request the correct way, and that the {$4400.00} should take 3-5 business days to be deposited in my XXXX checking account. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I checked my XXXX statement and noticed that once again, {$4400.00} was never deposited by Newrez. I called Newrez customer service for the THIRD time and explained to the rep ( Rep # 3, XXXX ) the whole situation. I asked about what happened the the previous requests submitted by Rep # 1 and Rep # 2 and she told me that she only saw one submitted request and that it had been closed. At this point, I am beyond frustrated since there should be been two previously submitted requests and it feels like Im back to square one. After Rep # 3 made the suggestion to submit a new request to electronically deposit {$4400.00} towards my checking account, I told her I will be submitting a complaint to CFPB because this is the THIRD time a request is being submitted with no way of me tracking its progress. Rep # 3 then proposed to submit a request to put the {$4400.00} towards my escrow balance again, to which I had informed her that Rep # 1 said it was not possible and that the conflicting information was frustrating. Nonetheless, Rep # 3 told me she submitted the new request and that it should take 2-3 business days for the {$4400.00} to be put towards my escrow balance again. Considering that nothing resulted from the previous two requests submitted by Rep # 1 and # 2, I have little hope that anything will come out of this new request submitted by Rep # 3.

Whether it was the method of sending me the surplus disbursement or the estimated times of completion for requests that could not be tracked, the conflicting information I had received from the three Newrez customer service reps was absolutely alarming, let alone the fact that there has been XXXX progress since my first call and the {$4400.00} surplus disbursement from XXXX is still nowhere to be found!