Consumer complaint received 2018-05-16
Product: Mortgage — Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process — 
Company: PHH Mortgage Services Corporation (CA)

My home was damaged by a sudden and accidental pipe burst on XX/XX/XXXX. My insurance company issued a check for repair of my home on or about XX/XX/XXXX. I forwarded the check to my mortgage company, PHH Mortgage on XX/XX/XXXX. Meanwhile I was financing the repairs to my home with my own money because the night of the flood I had signed contracts for restoration and demolition, and the next day, for repairs. All of the restoration, demolition, contents and repair companies are affiliated with each other, and just showed up at my house. The insurance company did not tell me there was a list of preferred providers, and these guys were not on that list, so I was liable for the money under the contracts, myself. Some worked through my insurance company others did not and demanded progress payments, so I made progress payments. I was in contact with the PHH Mortgage Loss Draft unit and was told that if I submitted a litany of documents, they would release funds to me. I began to submit documents. You can not directly submit them, you have to upload them to their website, and even then they profess that it will take 2 to 3 business days just to associate the documents with your account. Then, PHH Mortgage would reject documents for the most inane reasons. One of my documents, a contractor 's substitute XXXX form, provided by PHH Mortgage, was filled out by my tile contractor, and he did not put the zip code on his business address. It was rejected for that. PHH Mortgage does not call you or otherwise communicate with you to let you know documents were rejected, you have to check the status through the website. As a consumer, you can not see the documents once you upload them, and you are not aware of what precise document was rejected, so you have to call them. Every single call results in some other process that takes " 3 to 5 business days '' to correct. I was told funds would be released to me when I had an inspection. I had an inspection. The inspector certified 75 % work was complete. I was told I should be eligible for release of 75 % of my insurance check. At some point very late in the process, I was told that they were going to issue 2 party checks to me and my contractors. No one had told me that before. I had been paying them. They would not release funds to me, only, even though I had paid the contractors. They said they could reimburse me for what I had paid when I could produce evidence of " paid in full. '' I submitted all my cancelled checks. That wasn't good enough. I had all of the contractors issue me invoices that said paid in full. I submitted cancelled checks, and paid in full receipts on Monday for my flooring contractors ( totaling approx. {$20000.00} ). Today,  Wednesday XX/XX/XXXX, they rejected a cancelled check as evidence of payment to my tile contractor. I am over {$30000.00} into the repair of my home with my own money and my insurance company has paid on my claim over a month ago. My home is nearly complete. There is absolutely no evidence of fraud on my part, all my contractors are getting paid, the inspector has certified 75 % work complete, and took pictures. Then, it started to dawn on me ... this is not about sufficient evidence - this is about intentional delay. My theory is they are earning interest on consumer 's insurance checks and refusing to pay out. I could understand getting wrong information a few times, or a few delays, but the incompetency and constant delays have been so persistent that they really can't be explained, other than they are about delay. Is there no rules in place to regulate these guys when they hold your insurance money hostage? I am completely out of money. I still owe contractors who did restoration work and who can not get full payment from my insurance company. They are threatening to send me to collections for any amounts not paid by my insurance. I need help. I have money to pay everyone and to make myself whole. PHH Mortgage is unreasonably withholding funds due me. I need this money to complete the work on my home and allow my family to move back in.