Consumer complaint received 2024-04-06
Product: Mortgage — Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process — Escrow, taxes, or insurance
Company: PNC Bank N.A. (TX)

Dear Sir/Madam, I am filing this complaint against PNC Bank XXXX mortgage division. On or around XX/XX/XXXX, we were notified of a forced placed homeowners insurance for lapse of coverage at a huge cost of {$6400.00} a year. Upon finding out this humongous cost, compared to our previous premium of {$1300.00} a year, we decided to buy our own at a cost of {$1700.00}, covering {$880000.00} compared to PNCs insurance coverage of {$770000.00}. The problem is PNC Bank, Mortgage division is back-charging us for homeowners insurance service that was not provided, and we need a refund immediately to be deposited in our XXXX account to reduce our monthly payment to make it more manageable. They are charging us from XX/XX/XXXX through XX/XX/XXXX for lack of coverage since XX/XX/XXXX, but the insurance was placed on XX/XX/XXXX. How can any business, insurance company or not, charge over {$5000.00} in one month for Homeowners Insurance coverage? That is exactly what PNC Bank did. While they have every right to place forced homeowners insurance coverage on a property, they did so late in the year, notifying us on XX/XX/XXXX, making us think that the coverage starts from XX/XX/XXXX to XX/XX/XXXX. They do not have the right to charge us for a period that services were not provided. 

The attached statements show our regular mortgage payments of {$2500.00} from XX/XX/XXXX through XX/XX/XXXX with no XXXX. The increase in payment is only after the insurance was placed on XX/XX/XXXX, with the new payment of {$5100.00}, starting in XX/XX/XXXX, which proves my point that if they provided insurance service from XXXX through XX/XX/XXXX, the payment increase would have occurred around XX/XX/XXXX. Their argument is the insurance coverage goes as far back as XX/XX/XXXX when literally, the insurance coverage was not bought at that time and therefore no insurance service was provided with no coverage on the home during that period, even though our insurance company notified them of the impending expiration and asked PNC to make full payment. If PNC had bought the insurance coverage on or around XX/XX/XXXX, it would make sense to increase our payment right there and then around XX/XX/XXXX instead of waiting for 9 months to increase our mortgage payments. This is a SCAM! 

After we bought our own insurance, the refund we received from PNC Bank to our XXXX  was only {$1100.00} out of {$6400.00} for less than a month coverage, causing a partial shortage, forcing us to pay {$5100.00} a month for 4 months until we asked an escalation XXXX who revised our payments to {$3100.00} starting XX/XX/XXXX, after spreading payments of the XXXX  shortage over 60 months. A bit relief but still high ; that is why we are asking PNC Bank mortgage division to refund over {$5000.00} to our XXXX  account for a sigh of relief, since between XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX, there was no insurance coverage and no disaster occurred and can not charge us for service that was not provided. After we cancelled the PNC Bank forced place insurance, they tried to find a way to make us pay by charging us from XX/XX/XXXX to XX/XX/XXXX, when the insurance was not even purchased until XX/XX/XXXX. 

Again, records show that our regular payments remained the same from XX/XX/XXXX through XX/XX/XXXX ( please see attached ). If they had bought the insurance coverage around XX/XX/XXXX, dont you think our payments would have increased after XXXX? Why wait after 9 months to increase our payments? Because the insurance was not bought then, and they could not legitimately and legally charge us during XX/XX/XXXX through XX/XX/XXXX. Similarly, they can not go back 9 months and charge us for service that was not provided. Therefore, we need these 9 months charges of over {$5000.00} refunded to XXXX  to reduce our payments. 
Thank you very much for your cooperation, investigation, time, and understanding. 

Sincerely, XXXX XXXX