Consumer complaint received 2016-12-21
Product: Mortgage — FHA mortgage
Issue: Loan servicing, payments, escrow account — 
Company: Caliber Home Loans, Inc. (MD)

Caliber Home Loans is refusing to pay a bill that was outlined in my Escrow to be paid from Escrow. My Account Number is : XXXX In the State of Maryland, when you have a new build or new construction home in a development that has never had any water/sewage or other pipes, the county for which you live in charges the payment for laying those pipes to you the homeowner. The Homeowner is responsible for this bill on an annual basis and it is serviced out of different companies. It is typically called a Front Foot-Impound but the billing company who collects the money on behalf of the State will name it whatever they want. This is an annual bill that must be paid for whatever the County and/or Sate approximates it out to be. Usually it is about 20 years at a fixed rate. If you do not pay this fee, you will receive a lien on your property for not paying it. On XXXX/XXXX/XXXX my husband and I closed on our home and had this Front Foot-Impound Fee written into our Escrow by our lawyers and our original lender Prosperity Mortgages. Prosperity then sold our mortgage to Caliber Home Loans. Caliber accepted our mortgage as it stood with Prosperity, which included accepting that this Front Foot-Impound fee was built into our escrow and that it should pay out of our Escrow. Our house is not a total new build for us, but it is XXXX years old, so we still owe 13 more years on the Front Foot-Impound Fee as the new owners ( again - we have it built in to pay from our Escrow - see attached documents ). On XXXX/XXXX/XXXX, we received our first Front Foot-Impound Fee from XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX titled the XXXX XXXX XXXX ( again the State of Maryland allows 3rd party companies to collect the fees on their behalf and they title them however they are titled - not something we can control ). I took the bill to our HOA president to confirmed that this was the Front Foot-Impound Fee for our community and however I needed to pay it, it needed to be paid or I would receive a lien. Again - I have it to come out of Escrow. On XXXX/XXXX/XXXX, I contacted Caliber, explained the bill to the Tax Department and sent in the documents including a copy of my Escrow Account Breakdown stating that it should pay out of my Escrow. Caliber 's Tax Department stated that they would pay out the bill by XXXX/XXXX/XXXX. Please note this bill is due XXXX/XXXX/XXXX or else, you have a lien on our property. If received after XXXX/XXXX/XXXX it will be {$490.00} and anything later causes a lien. On XXXX/XXXX/XXXX, I decided on my own to call Caliber and double check on the status of the bill. I spoke w/ Sequioa in the Tax Department who indicated that Caliber decided that they were not going to pay the bill because they thought it was a water utility bill. I asked why when Caliber decided to not pay the bill : why did I not get an email, text message, formal letter, phone call, smoke signal, or courier pigeon to inform me of such. We are one week from the due date and no correspondence was received from Caliber in regard to their decision and lack of action. I spoke with a manager ( XXXX ) after XXXX put me on hold for 10 minutes due to " phone issues ''. Again I was advised that they did n't believe it was the Front Foot-Impound Fee because it did n't directly say that. I was also advised by XXXX that Caliber never intended to pay for this bill because they did n't budget for it. But again, this was in the loan documents they agreed to when they took over the loan.Not once did Caliber call the company to double check what I was sending them. Caliber tried to inform me that Caliber did n't have to pay the fee although Caliber accepted the loan from Prosperity as is, thus they are violating the contract Caliber accepted the loan under. Caliber is violating my loan documents and agreement, putting my home in jeopardy with the County of XXXX XXXX in Maryland and leaving me open to financial risk.