Consumer complaint received 2021-04-28
Product: Mortgage — Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process — 
Company: Shellpoint Partners, LLC (FL)

I am a XXXX homeowner with a 30 year fixed mortgage with no escrow, set up with auto-payment by EFT to ensure that payments are never late and I will always have my home. I have maintained full hazard insurance on my property with no gaps in coverage for the life of my mortgage. 

1. Placement of LPI in Error - Shellpoint assumed servicing of my loan from Ditech in XX/XX/XXXX. In the last two months of my XXXX home insurance policy, XXXX wrongly claimed that my insurance expired ( ref. letters dated XX/XX/XXXX & XX/XX/XXXX ) and that they plan to buy lender-paced insurance ( LPI ) if evidence of coverage is not provided. Though I personally submitted insurance Declarations via their web portal and my agent also confirmed full coverage, Shellpoints letter ( of XX/XX/XXXX ) claimed to have not received proof and that it has become necessary to place LPI on my property. Two weeks later ( XX/XX/XXXX ) XXXX acknowledged my insurance coverage, cancelled the LPI and stated that if there had been no lapse in coverage, I will not be billed or the amount previously paid will be returned to my account in full. This never occurred. 

2. Inflated Cost Debited I became aware this LPI error had not been corrected when a Shellpoint letter ( dated XX/XX/XXXX ) claimed that my XXXX payment was past due, which can not happen with my auto-EFT. My bank confirmed timely payment so I immediately called Shellpoint ( on XX/XX/XXXX ) to contest and was informed that an escrow had been added that increased my payment from the {$1500.00} it had always been. I later found on their website a Payment History which showed they had debited my account for {$770.00}, the cost for 76 days of LPI. Though I maintain that I owe nothing for their duplicative LPI coverage, I also must dispute the amount of their escrow debit. Based upon the dates of Shellpoint letters regarding their plan to buy insurance, the LPI XXXX if it was ever purchased ), most likely could have been in effect only 17 days at a cost of {$170.00} ( for XX/XX/XXXX to XX/XX/XXXX ). 

3. Retaliated When Disputed Only FOUR days after my XX/XX/XXXX call to dispute my payment being deemed late, Shellpoint sent their first threat of Foreclosure ( dated XX/XX/XXXX ), including a package requesting voluminous personal financial information. Note that as of the end of XXXX, the dollar amount of our dispute should have been less than {$200.00} and it should have been a trivial matter to correct, waive or compromise. Unaware of their foreclosure mailing, the very day I called back ( XX/XX/XXXX ) after the holidays to again contest the LPI & Escrow, Shellpoint retaliated by applying a series of accounting changes that caused each of my XXXX timely payments to be intentionally delayed as Unapplied or be misapplied, and then designated as Late. 

4. Accelerated Escalation To Default This accounting scheme Shellpoint applied in XXXX enabled them to assess five Late Charges ( of {$76.00} each ) in four months, three charges for disputed LPI Escrow ( of {$64.00} each ), and delays crediting my on-time P & I payments ( forXX/XX/XXXX-XX/XX/XXXX ) as Unapplied Partial Payments they deemed as Late. After that initial foreclosure threat sent just 2 weeks after their first notice of a ( designated ) late payment, Shellpoint again threatened foreclosure on XX/XX/XXXX. While I was challenging the LPI & Escrow problems in good faith with customer service, Shellpoints misapplication of my XXXX P & I payments caused my monthly payment to balloon from its regular {$1500.00} to their claimed {$3200.00} for XXXX and {$3200.00} for XX/XX/XXXX. And after a 16 year history of on-time P & I payments to date, Shellpoint declared my loan in Default on XX/XX/XXXX and again on XX/XX/XXXX, now demanding {$1800.00} by XX/XX/XXXX to cure the default they engineered. 

5. Discrimination Against The XXXX Shellpoint provides no designated representatives nor effective training for their associates to effectively assist the XXXX, as my requests for even minor accommodations were routinely denied. I spoke with 10+ front-line reps from various departments in multiple attempts to understand and remedy the escrow problem that became evident at years end. I advised each of my XXXX ( XXXX XXXX and XXXX XXXXssues ) which limit my XXXX  and ability to XXXX  in XXXX. I consistently requested a XXXX XXXX or someone empowered to help me to either correct / resolve or to formally dispute the aforementioned issues. I was consistently passed from department to department or outright misinformed, including twice that the LPI/escrow error was found and corrected in the computer with my account soon to be credited. One representative advised that I ask the delivery folks who bring me groceries to help me write a letter and mail it to Shellpoint to formally preserve my rights. This is NOT an acceptable level of support for Shellpoints XXXX borrowers, who deserve full and equal access to essential services such as error correction and dispute resolution. The companys associates I dealt with seemed uninformed, poorly trained or apparently would say anything to delay resolution, while behind the scenes Shellpoint concurrently executed a highly accelerated scheme to punish me financially, damage my credit, and rapidly declare default to eventually take my home. 

I now perceive that Shellpoints willingness to assist the XXXX or correct their errors is severely lacking. The sole result evident from my attempts to obtain assistance was the wasting of precious weeks - while concurrently they act to rapidly force me deeper into their fees trap to impose onerous fees they adopted after taking over from Ditech, by which they may assess fees of {$20000.00} if they litigate against a borrower plus {$35000.00} to compensate their attorney ( versus Ditechs fees of {$350.00} and {$30.00}, respectively XXXX. I am now scrambling to enlist allies to assist me to protect my rights & interests and to thwart their intents. My mortgage had a consistent history of on-time payments from XXXX through mid-XX/XX/XXXX when Shellpoint unilaterally re-cast this loan from performing to delinquent, even issuing foreclosure threats just TWO weeks afterward. I view this corporate behavior as blatantly predatory and inherently discriminatory to this XXXX borrower.