Consumer complaint received 2019-05-24
Product: Mortgage — Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process — 
Company: BMO Bank, N.A. (IL)

Last XX/XX/XXXX I received a letter from BMO Harris Bank that as of XX/XX/XXXX, they would no longer pay our property taxes ( both, property tax and Homeowners are included in mortgage payment ). I thought it was odd, but just thought that they were discontinuing this practice and we would have to begin paying ourselves in XXXX when first installment was due. I figured BMO would recalculate my payment to reflect this. In XX/XX/XXXX, much to my surprise, I got a letter from my county saying that my property had been sold for delinquent taxes! I was irate. I never received notice that BMO hadn't paid the XXXX XXXX installment, which was before XXXX. It took 3 days to reach a human. I was told that they no longer had interest in our property so they didn't pay them. I asked what that meant and why did I not get a letter informing me that they didn't pay. She put me on hold and never came back. In XXXX we received our mortgage statement and it demanded full payment of nearly {$18000.00}. I called again, which took nearly a week to reach someone. I was then told that our mortgage had been " tagged '' incorrectly as if we had filed bankruptcy against the house and that they problem would be fixed immediately. It was not. In XXXX, again we got the mortgage statement and it asked for {$18000.00} again. So I started trying to call again ... .I was NEVER able to reach a human!! I also wanted to know why, if they were no longer taking money out for escrow, why has my payment not gone down, and where was this money going. After trying to call several times over a 2 week period, I called a local branch and asked for the manager. XXXX XXXX is the branch manager at the XXXX branch in XXXX, Il. The first time we spoke was XX/XX/XXXX. She attempted to call the mortgage department and was told that that information is internal?!!? Even their own branch manager was unable to reach someone! She then sent an E-mail explaining the issue. Nothing was fixed as of XX/XX/XXXX so I called XXXX again. She said that she had gotten a response and they were going to fix it immediately. I also received notice that my homeowners was due in a week. My wife and I are on a tight budget so we did not have an extra {$500.00} laying around to pay it as it is included ( supposedly ) in our mortgage. I am now worried, so I called XXXX once again on XX/XX/XXXX. Still, nothing has been fixed. XXXX had sent a 2nd E-mail and they responded that they had to gather information in order to fix it ... but they are the ones with all the information! On XX/XX/XXXX I received a letter that my homeowners insurance has been cancelled. This is a rental home so I pray that no one is injured now. I called XXXX once again today, XX/XX/XXXX. Still no word ... .not fixed ... XXXX taxes were not paid either ... .so now ... we owe {$1000.00} in taxes ... {$500.00} to homeowners. This is crazy!! My wife and I have never been late on our payments to BMO or anyone. But we are being made to look like deadbeats! Our names were in the paper for the property being sold for taxes. Our homeowners has dumped us. Please help!!! Our next step is a lawsuit. One last thing. Since we have continued to make full monthly payments, where has escrow money been going? They have my number..WHY COULDN'T THEY JUST TAKE THE TIME TO CALL ME? Why has it taken 10 months to fix a simple problem?