Consumer complaint received 2024-10-31
Product: Mortgage — Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process — Escrow, taxes, or insurance
Company: Freedom Mortgage Company (MA)

This letter is in response to the XX/XX/year> phone conversation I had with an employee from your escrow department. I have to be honest with the conversation did not go well for me. In fact, I am very disappointed in how the conversation was handled. 
Please see below in regards to a summary of the things that have taken place with Freedom Mortgage since they began servicing my account. 

I received communication by email sometime in XX/XX/year> that Freedom Mortgage had set up an escrow account for me. I thought this was an error as I pay my taxes and insurance myself. I called Freedom Mortgage on XX/XX/year> and again on XX/XX/year> at XXXX XXXX  ( see attached screenshot from my phone ) and explained this to them and they informed me that they would inform the correct parties at Freedom Mortgage about this. They also gave me an address to which I should send a letter requesting that Freedom Mortgage remove the escrow from my account. I immediately sent the letter in the mail to the address that was given to me ( Freedom Mortgage, XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX, Indiana XXXX ) At no time during these phone calls did they inform me that there was a problem with my account and that I needed to make payments ( property tax payments ) to anyone. If something was wrong with my account and I was deemed to have been delinquent, this would have been the time to have informed me of this. No one informed me of this when I made this call to Freedom Mortgage. I understood that this was an error on the part of Freedom Mortgage. This is what I believed after the conclusion of my conversation with the Freedom Mortgage person. Since phone calls are recorded at Freedom Mortgage, I would encourage you to listen to this phone call. 

On XX/XX/year>, I called Freedom Mortgage again for the third time, after I received another email from them about setting up an escrow account. I spoke with a lady from the Escrow department. I explained the situation to her regarding the escrow account. She stated that Freedom Mortgage had sent me a letter on XX/XX/year> informing me that I was delinquent on my property taxes. I informed her that I had never received the letter in the mail. She emailed me a copy of the letter, and it is clear to see why I never received it. The mailing address is incorrect. I am sure the post office was not able to deliver that letter to any known address within the USA. They had XXXX different cities listed on the letter where there should have only been XXXX city listed. 

When I read the letter dated XX/XX/year>, it stated that I was delinquent on my property taxes for the property that they are now servicing. However, this assertion is incorrect as my property taxes were paid in full through XX/XX/year>. As such, the information contained in their XX/XX/year> letter to me was incorrect and in violation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act, which requires creditors to maintain correct consumer files/records. Please see the attached file from the XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX that clearly shows that my taxes was paid in full until XX/XX/year>. 

Since my property taxes were paid in full and not delinquent at the time the letter was sent to me, the earliest date that they could have informed me that my property taxes were delinquent would have been on XX/XX/year>, as the new bill for my taxes was due on XX/XX/year>, and I would have had until midnight on XX/XX/year> to make that payment. 
I believe Freedom Mortgage is engaging in unfair and deceptive business practices, which is illegal conduct in most states. It is clear to me by your overzealous actions that you do not like it when customers handle their own taxes and insurance payments. I have handled my taxes and insurance payments for the last XXXX years with the company that they purchased my loan from ( XXXX ). I have paid my taxes in the same manner as I am currently doing, and never once did XXXX Mortgage do what they have done to me ( forced me to escrow my taxes ). 

When I closed on this loan with them, my credit score was XXXX. My credit score is now XXXX as of XX/XX/year>. The highest credit score is XXXX. Please see the attached file from XXXX evidencing this. 

During the XX/XX/year> phone call with the lady from the escrow department she informed me that before Freedom Mortgage would consider removing the escrow from my account, I had to make the escrow current by paying {$1900.00} ( XX/XX/year> escrow payment made to the city of XXXX ) ; plus {$1800.00} ( XX/XX/year> escrow payment made to the city of XXXX ). A total amount of {$3700.00}. I knew this amount that she requested to be incorrect as the only amount that I owed for taxes was for XXXX quarter and the quarter had not yet expired. She gave me incorrect information on how I was to make the escrow account current. 

She also demanded that I pay my property taxes now even though the bill was not due until XX/XX/year>. Once again, this is a violation of the Consumer Protection Law, and the Fair Credit Reporting Act ( failing to maintain correct consumer files/records and engaging in unfair and deceptive business practices. If my taxes are not due, they can not force me to pay them just because the escrow account that I never asked them to set up is short. As far as I am concerned, Freedom Mortgage attempted to extort money from me during this phone call. They attempted to collect a debt that was not legally owed to you as the city of XXXX had not received this payment. But more importantly, the bill for that payment was not yet due. 

Since I knew the information this lady was providing me was incorrect, I informed her that I would call the City Of XXXX XXXX XXXX on a three-way call so we could rectify this situation. We did this and discovered the following ; ( XXXX ) They have only received XXXX payment from Freedom Mortgage {$1900.00}. ( XXXX ) I was not delinquent on XX/XX/year>. ( XXXX ) the next bill for the payment of property taxes was not due until XX/XX/year>. As such, Freedom Mortgage has failed to maintain correct consumer files and has errored in their demand for repayment from me. 

I agree that the XXXX taxes were paid late, but they were not delinquent to the point where the city of XXXX was going to take my property and place a XXXX on my home simply because I failed to make a timely payment of {$1900.00}. I consider the demands and the actions undertaken by Freedom Mortgage to be predatory and unjust. Especially when I consider the fact that Freedom Mortgage continues to make mistakes in their communications with me. 

On that same phone call, I informed the lady at Freedom Mortgage that they needed to issue a bill in the amount of the payment that they made to the XXXX of XXXX and send it to me to pay. Doing so would make the escrow current. I do not owe Freedom Mortgage any other money for the escrow. To date, I have not received a letter from Freedom Mortgage requesting repayment in this amount ( {$1900.00} ) as they are insisting that I will be escrowing my taxes. 

Freedom Mortgage has increased my monthly mortgage obligation from {$2100.00} to {$3100.00}. This new amount is not something that I consented to. I intentionally chose not to escrow my mortgage in an attempt to better protect myself in the event that my tenants did not pay their rent. Placing this new monthly obligation on me will likely force the foreclosure and eventual default of my mortgage loan. I have never made a late payment to any mortgage lender in my life and I have had mortgages for over XXXX  years. This is not the XXXX  property that I have owned. 

The actions enforced by Freedom Mortgage I believe to be predatory in nature. They do not wish for customers to pay the taxes and insurance on their own. Since they don't like this, they should stop buying loans that have this feature. I was so happy with the last lender that I closed my loan with. I never had any issues with them or vice versa. I paid them on time, managed my taxes and insurance on my own, and never had any issues with them or the city of XXXX, or my insurance company. When possible, I will try my best to refinance out of this loan. Freedom Mortgage has had my loan for less than XXXX  months and look at the problems they are trying to give me. I feel that Freedom Mortgage is behaving like harbor sharks in a highly regulated environment. 
There are so many people who dont pay their mortgage on time to their lender. You would think that Freedom Mortgage would be happy to have a customer who has a history of paying their mortgages XXXX  % on time for the last XXXX  years. 

As I was about to send this letter along with the attachments to Freedom Mortgage, I noticed that their records are now showing that the escrow account is now short - {$4300.00}. This is incorrect information. The only amount I was delinquent was the XX/XX/year> bill. When I tried to pay it, they had already paid it. I have already paid my XX/XX/year> property taxes. 

I respectfully ask that Freedom Mortgage remove the escrow that they have enforced upon me, review the phone call logs for the XXXX times that I called them to inquire as to the status of my account and they will hear that at no time did anyone from their company inform me that there was an issue with the property taxes. 

I find their actions to be unjust since I had never received the XX/XX/year> letter from them. Had I received the letter, according to the details in the letter, I would have had XXXX days to make the property tax payment to avoid the escrowing of the property taxes. I can not begin to tell you how sad I am that my loan was sold to these people. I never had any problems before with the original lender that closed on my loan. I paid my taxes the same way that I was paying them before. 

Moving forward, I will not do loans with mortgage companies. I will stick with traditional lenders like XXXX  XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX, and XXXX XXXX. These types of lenders typically do not sell their loans to predatory lenders like Freedom Mortgage. They usually keep the loans that they close. This is a borrower 's nightmare. I can not believe that I have found myself in this position with this lender. 

Freedom Mortgage claims that i signed paperwork giving them permission ot reinstate my escrow. I would like for them to show me in writing the paperwork that states that I gave them permission to reinstate an escrow for the life of the loan. 

See attached files. 
excuse all typos.