Consumer complaint received 2017-08-20
Product: Mortgage — Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process — 
Company: NATIONSTAR MORTGAGE LLC (WA)

My mortgage has been sold repeatedly. My current mortgage lender/loan processor is Nationstar Mortgage, loan number XXXX. Nationstar 's customer service number is XXXX. As of XX/XX/XXXX, Nationstar Mortgage changed its name to Mr. Cooper Mortgage. There have been numerous complaints filed against Nationstar Mortgage for errors in accounting and loan processing. I imagine Nationstar changed its name to Mr. Cooper in order to separate itself from the lengthy list of consumer complaints. Please note that I have never missed a mortgage payment with any of my loan servicers, have never been late paying, and have always paid extra each month toward the principal of the loan. I also have an excellent credit rating. Nationstar took over my mortgage loan ( formerly with XXXX ) in XX/XX/XXXX. My first Nationstar Mortgage Statement, datedXX/XX/XXXX, shows an Escrow balance of {$2700.00}, transferred to Nationstar from XXXX. This transferred escrow balance was nearly enough to pay both my homeowner 's insurance and autumn property taxes that were due XX/XX/XXXX ( another {$150.00} was needed, and was easily paid in my XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX mortgage payments to Nationstar. ) There was no shortage in my escrow account. However, I received a new escrow statement from Nationstar dated XX/XX/XXXX, falsely declaring that my escrow account was short {$1200.00}. Since my property taxes did not increase by that amount, and I had never missed a payment, it is not possible that my escrow account was that short. My XXXX XXXX Mortgage statement increased my monthly mortgage payment by {$170.00}. This figure is in error since my property taxes increased by less than {$200.00} for the current payment cycle, or {$16.00} monthly. I have called Nationstar customer support several times to solve this problem, and to request an audit of my account to explain the accounting error. To date, I have not received an explanation as to how the XXXX XXXX, XXXX escrow analysis showed my account was short nearly {$1300.00}. I have lodged complaints to Nationstar, and have corresponded by phone and my email with Nationstar 's ( Mr. Cooper 's ) representative, XXXX XXXX, a Mortgage Customer service team leader : phone XXXX x XXXX, email XXXXXXXXXXXX. I have asked repeatedly for XXXX XXXX to find answers to my questions, and she has failed to do so. During a phone call with XXXX XXXX XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX, she explained that she found my missing money ( attributed ) to insurance premiums I paid but were missing in accounting, and said she would initiate a refund. She allowed me to choose to receive a check in the mail or have the refund applied to my principal balance. I opted to receive a check in the mail. She specified the amount of the refund to be {$1100.00}, and said it would take up to about three weeks to receive the check. I asked XX/XX/XXXX where the missing money was located, and she refused to answer. I asked for my insurance premiums to be removed from escrow collection due to the accounting errors, and XXXX processed this request. Nationstar granted my request in XX/XX/XXXX. Removing the insurance premiums from escrow collection put my account in balance, which seems to indicate there was indeed a problem with the accounting of my insurance premiums. During the phone conversations in XX/XX/XXXX XXXX XXXX stated that Nationstar needed to be reimbursed for insurance premiums paid on my behalf. This statement did not make sense in that Nationstar had already received adequate funds for this purpose in the escrow balance transfer received from XXXXXXXX XXXX in XX/XX/XXXX-XX/XX/XXXX. The refund check promised by XXXX XXXX never arrived. OnXX/XX/XXXX, I contacted her again by phone to find out what happened to the missing refund check. She was surprised that it had not arrived. After doing more research, XXXX XXXX stated that any rebates needed to come from my insurance company. This was impossible in that my insurance accounts were paid in full with no overages. I asked for XXXX XXXX to contact my insurance agents to problem solve, and she agreed to do so. It is important to note that Nationstar transmitted a check in the amount of {$1000.00} to XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX in XX/XX/XXXXto pay for my homeowner 's policy as contracted. The check was not supposed to be sent there, but was supposed to be sent to my insurance agent, XXXX. XXXX had already paid the premium on my behalf, and had sent an invoice directly to Nationstar, but Nationstar ignored the invoice and sent the payment to the wrong location. XXXX XXXX considered Nationstar 's double payment an overage, and refunded the {$1000.00} to me directly. In turn, I had to repay XXXX the {$1000.00} directly. The strangest part about this sequence of events is that the {$1000.00} disbursement Nationstar made to pay for the insurance premiums was never reflected on any of my Nationstar mortgage statements as required. I assume this is why my escrow balance was in error. OnXX/XX/XXXX, I received another refund check from my agent at XXXX. The memo on the check said it was Mortgage Co. funds to XXXXreturn to client.. '' For reasons that Nationstar can not explain, it sent another {$81.00} to XXXX XXXX XXXX which was never invoiced. Neither XXXX nor XXXX have any idea why Nationstar sent the extra {$81.00}. Nationstar never provided an invoice that showed the request for the {$81.00}. I received the refund of {$81.00} from my agent. Strangely, Nationstar 's disbursement of the {$81.00} to XXXX XXXX XXXX does appear on my monthly mortgage statement, in contrast to the insurance premium {$1000.00} that was paid in XX/XX/XXXX and does not appear on any mortgage statement. Again, removing the insurance premiums from escrow brought my monthly payment back down to where it was supposed to be, but to date, there has been no satisfactory explanation as to how the error occurred, where the missing money is, or that an audit will be conducted. On XX/XX/XXXX, I spoke by phone again with XXXX XXXX. She mentioned she had discussed my case with her supervisor, and she said her supervisor decided a refund was unlikely because its against Nationstar policy, and that if Nationstar were to locate any missing funds, they would likely keep the funds to apply them toward property taxes. That statement did not make sense because I have paid all taxes and insurance as required by contract each month, never missing a payment. It seems arbitrary for Nationstar to decide to keep money that is above and beyond my contracted mortgage payment. I said this appeared to be punitive for an account in perfect standing. OnXX/XX/XXXX, I received a written response from Nationstar 's research department. Instead of accounting for the erroneous escrow analysis from XX/XX/XXXX, they performed escrow analysis after the insurance premium had been removed on XXXXXX/XX/XXXX. In effect, the written response ignored my direct request for an audit of the faulty XX/XX/XXXX escrow analysis that dramatically increased my monthly mortgage payments without explanation or correction to my account. I responded via email immediately to XXXX XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX. My response is quoted here : " XXXX, Thank you for sending the research response. I understand the information provided, but it does not answer the central question that I posed to initiate this research. The central question surrounds the XXXXXX/XX/XXXX escrow analysis I received from Nationstar. This research response below does not answer why my escrow account was short {$1200.00} as of that date, and what figures make up that amount. Property tax increases explain only a portion of this shortage. Removing my insurance premium from escrow solved the problem. The XX/XX/XXXX escrow was reworked because of this initial question, and I have not received an answer to the original question. I also do not understand why the {$1000.00} disbursement to may my homeowners insurance last XX/XX/XXXX is not reflected on any of my Nationstar mortgage statements. I need to have an answer to these specific questions, and I dont think I should wait another 2 months to get an answer. The original question about the huge shortage was addressed to XXXX at the end ofXX/XX/XXXX. '' XXXX XXXX avoided my email for a few days, but I sent another email demanding acknowledgement that she received my research request, and to explain how long it will take to receive an answer. On XX/XX/XXXX, XXXX XXXX replied that I should call her if I have questions. That same day, I replied to XXXX XXXX that I wanted everything in writing because calling her does not work, and she tends to be unresponsive. On XX/XX/XXXX, I wrote via email to XXXX XXXX : " Please see to it that the questions from myXX/XX/XXXX email are answered This is a reasonable quest. If you can not do this, then please put me in contact with your supervisor, or someone who is qualified to answer my noted questions from XX/XX/XXXX as requested. '' A few days later, I received a letter from Nationstar dated XX/XX/XXXX, regarding " Research Reference # XXXX. '' The letter states that Nationstar is in receipt of my research request datedXX/XX/XXXX. The letter quotes compliance with the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act, and says a response will be provided within 30 days. That 30 day waiting period ended XX/XX/XXXX, so Nationstar is well past the response deadline. Furthermore, I clearly specified my questions were from my email to XXXX XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX, not XX/XX/XXXX. It appears that Nationstar/Mr. Cooper is purposefully failing to address accounting errors that pertain to my escrow account. Please note that according to XXXX XXXX, all of our various telephone conversations were recorded. I also have all of the emails between XXXX XXXX and myself, along with all of my statements and escrow analyses. My insurance agents at XXXX were copied on all of my written correspondence with XXXX XXXX, and I made a point of writing detailed synopses of the points we discussed by phone afterward, and I emailed these synopses to XXXX XXXX as well as to my insurance agents. The last time I spoke to XXXX XXXX by phone she said she had been defeated by this problem with my account and could not figure it out herself, even though she is escrow certified. She also mentioned she had reached out to the prior mortgage company, XXXX, to request information on my escrow account from them, but nothing ever came of that. XXXX XXXX has apologized to me for providing poor customer service and for failing to respond to my questions, and for not being able to solve these problems, but she has also refused to forward my questions to other qualified representatives at Nationstar to seek answers to my questions. It is now simply avoidance on Nationstar 's part. In summary, Nationstar has not explained why myXX/XX/XXXX escrow analysis showed an escrow shortage of nearly {$1300.00}, and has not made an accounting correction on any of my mortgage statements to reverse this problem, and has not conducted an audit of my account to my knowledge. Nationstar has not explained the irregularities in my escrow account ( shortages, missed disbursement line items on statements, sending payments to insurance without invoices, etc. )