Consumer complaint received 2024-06-12
Product: Mortgage — Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process — Escrow, taxes, or insurance
Company: PLANET HOME LENDING, LLC (AR)

I closed on my home over a year ago on XX/XX/XXXX. 
I called Planet Home Lending customer service not one, but THREE times and repeated back what seemed too good to be true that I did not owe a payment until XXXX. 
My closing company told me XXXX. 
I expressed my concern and followed up twice more. 
Suddenly, in XXXX, I was told I was in default by three payments and would have to go on a repayment plan through XXXX of this year adding $ 500 monthly to my note. 
I fought that hard. 
I completed the payment plan. 
They refunded me {$500.00} escrow overage ( random check received ) in XXXX. 
Now, they are trying to up my payment yet again by {$70.00} a month which does not add up. 
I have only a {$30.00} per month increase due to insurance/tax increase. 
The highest point of contact, XXXX XXXX, refuses to respond stating my loan advisor XXXX XXXX ( listed online in my portal as such ) is supposed to take care of any issues-yet she forwards everything to customer service and does nothing. 
The lies in this last year are unreal. 
I have a paper mail ONLY do not contact that is current that they continue to ignore. 
I have requested email contact only. 

See attached copy of yesterdays and todays email conversation. 
I need help without taking it the legal route. 
I just want to make my payments without constant difficulty and surprises. 
This company is touted all over XXXX  for dishonest and unethical business practices, and I am stuck with them! 
Many state they keep insurance payouts etc. 
I love my home, and have no intentions of selling or refinancing so something has to give! 

Copy of emails : XXXX XXXX & XXXX XXXX : Once again, I stated I expected a response yesterday and NOT to state you would send it to another department, yet that is exactly what your company did! 
A formal mailed response within 30 days is ridiculous because I have a do not contact for physical mail, NOT EMAIL. 
Therefore, all responses need to be via email. 
This is not new, yet your company continues to illegally violate that physical mail do not contact and paper mail comes to my home. 
Secondarily, the stock response below does not confirm you have changed me from 12 to 24 months! 

I need my once again XXXX XXXX XXXX  to actually do her job and not redirect to another department to address this if you, XXXX XXXX, continue to refuse. 
I do not owe a {$70.00} increase. 
I owe a {$30.00} increase as proved in XXXX and white below. 
Additionally, I stated I wanted it divided by 24 versus 12 months as offered below without having to use the loss mitigation department for 36 or more months. 
Someone needs to confirm that has been completed. 

XXXX ) Address the erroneous increase with proof ( thats if you can find any ) via email TODAY. 

XXXX ) Confirm the 24 months change from 12 months via email TODAY. 

XXXX ) Confirm my corrected new payment amount for XXXX via email TODAY. 

XXXX ) Lastly, what day after the first of each month do you charge late fees and report the payment to the credit bureaus as late? 
Ive been told many different days by your customer service department, and would like this settled once and for all. 

Truly, I have never seen such a disorganized company that can not appreciate a timely paying client. 
Im not going anywhere, selling, or refinancing so youre stuck with me.

I expect things to improve.

You should be grateful I didnt sue over the payment plan being forced on me after three recorded calls from your customer service department stated otherwise. 
I suggest you improve your care of my loan. 

XXXX XXXX XXXX XX/XX/XXXX, at XXXX, Planet Home Lending XXXX wrote : Thank you for contacting Planet, We have received your complaint, and your concerns will be thoroughly reviewed. You will receive a formal written response mailed to you within 30 business days of receipt. 

If you have any additional questions, please do not hesitate to contact Customer Service Monday through Friday, XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX EST at our toll-free number, XXXX. 

Thank you, Planet Home Lending , LLC ATTENTION TO ANY DEBTOR IN BANKRUPTCY OR WHO HAS RECEIVED A DISCHARGE IN BANKRUPTCY : Please be advised that this letter constitutes neither a demand for the payment of the captioned debt nor a notice of personal liability to any recipient hereof who might have received a discharge of such debt in accordance with applicable bankruptcy laws or who might be subject to the automatic stay of Section 362 of the United States Bankruptcy Code.

Please be advised that Planet Home Lending , LLC is a debt collector attempting to collect a debt and any information obtained may be used for that purpose. 

This email message and any files transmitted with it are confidential and contain privileged or copyright information. If you are not the named addressee you should not disseminate, distribute or copy this e-mail. Please notify the sender immediately by e-mail if you have received this e-mail by mistake and delete this e-mail from your system. E-mail transmission can not be guaranteed to be secure or error-free as information could be intercepted, corrupted, lost, destroyed, arrive late or incomplete, or contain viruses. The sender, therefore, does not accept liability for any errors or omissions in the contents of this message, which arise as a result of e-mail transmission. If verification is required please request a hard-copy version. XXXX ID # XXXX No employee or agent is authorized to conclude any binding agreement or reach a binding agreement on any terms on behalf of the Company with another party by email without express written confirmation by the Company. Any views expressed in this message are those of the individual sender. 

Email is not a secure method of transmitting sensitive information, such as a social security number, unless it is a secure, encrypted or password-protected email. Accordingly, you should only use email for inquiries and not for submitting documentation containing personal information unless it is secure, encrypted or password protected. If you choose to submit personal information via non-secure email, you are doing so at your own risk. 


This email is a service from Planet Home Lending. Delivered by XXXX XXXX XX/XX/XXXX at XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX wrote : Your numbers are not adding up as usual! 

Insurance : Increase of {$310.00} which is {$1800.00} minus {$1400.00}. ( Understand the surplus being sent and our reimbursement to you-that has nothing to do with those numbers ). 
Insurance is increased {$310.00} a year divided by twelve is : {$25.00} a month. 

Taxes : Increase of {$52.00} which is {$2500.00} minus {$2400.00}. 
Taxes are increased by {$52.00} divided by twelve are : {$4.00} Two month surplus increased from {$660.00} to {$720.00} which is equivalent to two YEARS NOT MONTHS AS YOU STATED worth of homeowners at {$310.00} plus {$52.00} which is those two amounts times two which equals the {$720.00} figure. 
Your email stated two months-thats two years, so explain where youre getting a new payment difference of {$70.00} monthly! 
Also, add the homeowners at {$25.00} plus the tax at $ XXXXthats {$30.00} a month. 
Your referencing having {$720.00} as a two month cushion which is actually TWO YEARS of the homeowners and taxes increase. 
If you take the XXXX and divide by XXXX  you get {$60.00} which would be OVER the difference between the new payment amount of {$2400.00} minus my former payment amount of {$2400.00} which is EXACTLY A {$70.00} increase minus the {$30.00} for homeowners and taxes increase of $ XXXX  yearly divided by XXXX which is the {$30.00}. 
Why are you increasing my payment by {$70.00} instead of {$30.00}??? 
DO NOT respond with the two month surplus cushion of $ XXXXbecause ONCE AGAIN that is {$60.00} monthly which does not equal my increase with the monthly homeowners and taxes! 

This is NOT the first time I have caught blatant lies with your company in the last year-and rest assured my lawyer ( XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX  will receive a copy of this ), and is abreast of everything from day 1 with your company. 

You need to get your numbers correct, and then we want it divided by XXXX as we do not want to deal with the horrific loss mitigation department again to get XXXX. 
I expect a response today-not some pitiful we will have to send this to our accounting or escrow department and get back to you within 24-48 hours. 
It is just after XXXX XXXX and XXXX EST depending on which of your many offices you are operating out of XXXX XXXX XXXX XX/XX/XXXX, at XXXX, Planet Home Lending XXXX wrote : This ticket was created on your behalf. 

# XXXX To add additional comments, reply to this email. 

Good afternoon, We received your concerns regarding your escrow account. Please be advised escrow analysis can be performed annually or when there is a change in your escrow items. The below explanations of your performed escrow analyses should help you understand how your escrow is calculated. 

An escrow analysis performed on XX/XX/XXXX, effective for XX/XX/XXXX, indicates the annual taxes were {$2400.00} and homeowner insurance premium were {$1400.00}. 
Planet is required to send back overages of more than {$50.00} back to the borrower. A surplus check was sent to you in the amount of {$550.00}, when your escrow account had more than minimum required balance of {$660.00} which is the two-month cushion required by state law, Federal law ( RESPA ). The cushion helps minimize the amount your escrow account could be overdrawn if tax or insurance payments increase. The cushion can increase if the escrow items increase. 

An escrow analysis performed on XX/XX/XXXX, effective for XX/XX/XXXX, your escrow account fell below the minimum required balance of {$720.00} which means you had a shortage of {$480.00} in your escrow account. Taxes increased to the amount of {$2500.00} and the homeowner insurance increased to {$1800.00}. In addition, the amount paid to State Farms on XXXX XXXX, was {$2000.00}, before we received the premium change on XX/XX/XXXX, of {$1800.00}, which {$270.00} was deposited back into escrow on XX/XX/XXXX. Due to the increases, it caused an escrow shortage, an increase in your monthly escrow collection, and an increase in your two-month cushion. The total shortage has been divided over 12 months and {$40.00} was automatically added to your monthly payment beginning XX/XX/XXXX. Your new payment amount including the shortage will be {$2400.00}. 

The annual escrow items are divided by 12 months to determine your new monthly escrow collections which will be {$360.00} moving forward and the annual escrow items amounts are divided by 2 months to determine your two-month cushion. 

Once your shortage is satisfied, your new monthly payment will be {$2400.00} if a new analysis has not been completed. If you are unable to afford your new payment amount and would like to spread the shortage out greater than 12 months, you may request an escrow shortage spread for XXXX, XXXX, XXXX or XXXX  months. Please let us know how long you would like to request the escrow spread for. If requesting a spread between 36-60 months, please contact our Loan Counseling Department at XXXX to update your financial information as part of this process. 

If you have any additional questions, please do not hesitate to contact Customer Service Monday through Friday, XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX EST at our toll-free number, XXXX. 

Thank you, Planet Home Lending , LLC ATTENTION TO ANY DEBTOR IN BANKRUPTCY OR WHO HAS RECEIVED A DISCHARGE IN BANKRUPTCY : Please be advised that this letter constitutes neither a demand for the payment of the captioned debt nor a notice of personal liability to any recipient hereof who might have received a discharge of such debt in accordance with applicable bankruptcy laws or who might be subject to the automatic stay of Section 362 of the United States Bankruptcy Code.

Please be advised that Planet Home Lending , LLC is a debt collector attempting to collect a debt and any information obtained may be used for that purpose.

This email message and any files transmitted with it are confidential and contain privileged or copyright information. If you are not the named addressee you should not disseminate, distribute or copy this e-mail. Please notify the sender immediately by e-mail if you have received this e-mail by mistake and delete this e-mail from your system. E-mail transmission can not be guaranteed to be secure or error-free as information could be intercepted, corrupted, lost, destroyed, arrive late or incomplete, or contain viruses. The sender, therefore, does not accept liability for any errors or omissions in the contents of this message, which arise as a result of e-mail transmission. If verification is required please request a hard-copy version. XXXX ID # XXXX No employee or agent is authorized to conclude any binding agreement or reach a binding agreement on any terms on behalf of the Company with another party by email without express written confirmation by the Company. Any views expressed in this message are those of the individual sender. 

Email is not a secure method of transmitting sensitive information, such as a social security number, unless it is a secure, encrypted or password-protected email. Accordingly, you should only use email for inquiries and not for submitting documentation containing personal information unless it is secure, encrypted or password protected. If you choose to submit personal information via non-secure email, you are doing so at your own risk. 


This email is a service from Planet Home Lending. Delivered by XXXX [ XXXX ] [ XXXX ]