Consumer complaint received 2023-03-20
Product: Mortgage — Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process — 
Company: SERVICEMAC, LLC (NY)

{$10000.00} was withdrawn from our escrow account on XX/XX/XXXX to pay school tax by Servicemac. Despite the fact that we paid this money into our escrow on time and it was removed from the account by servicemac, they failed to send this money to the tax office. I was informed of servicemac 's failure to deliver the tax funds by the tax office via mail on XX/XX/XXXX and on the same day contacted both the tax office and servicemac. This communication was made via phone and email. 

The tax office confirmed that the money withdraw from our escrow account was never paid to them by servicemac and this resulted in a late payment penalty. 

On XX/XX/XXXX I received notice via email from servicemac that they acknowledged that the tax payment was never sent to the tax office despite the fact that this money was withdrawn from our escrow. Please see the email copied in full from servicemac below. 

" Good afternoon XXXX, Thank you for your email. Good news! Progress is being made regarding the payment of the delinquent taxes. 

We are in receipt of the tax letter you attached and have uploaded it to your account. Please know we have verified with the taxing authority that they have not received payment for the taxes from XXXX. We also confirmed the delinquent base amount is {$10000.00}, and a penalty in the amount of {$1000.00}, making the total payoff amount of {$11000.00}. Please know the penalty of {$1000.00}, is being paid by ServiceMac. 

Please be advised the tax payment is being sent to the Receiver of Taxes in the form of a check via XXXX. The XXXX tracking number is XXXX XXXX XXXX. Please know the taxes have been updated on the account and an escrow analysis will be completed to update the payment. 

I sincerely apologize for the inconvenience and frustration this matter has caused. 

Please know we appreciate your business and value you as a customer. I hope you have a great weekend! 

Warm Regards, XXXX '' On XX/XX/XXXX servicemac withdrew an additional {$10000.00} from our escrow account claiming that this was to pay the XXXX taxes even though they had already withdrawn {$10000.00} for XXXX taxes on XX/XX/XXXX and never sent it to the tax office. Furthermore, servicemac canceled the XXXX shipment and did not send the check to the tax office as they indicated they would do in the above email. At this point, Servicemac has withdrawn {$20000.00} from our escrow and all of this money is missing. They have not paid any money to the tax office. The amount that was suppose to be paid in XXXX is {$10000.00}. Again they withdrew this amount twice from our escrow and did not send any of this money to the tax office. At this point the money has been taken by servicemac and is missing. 

We have made all mortgage and escrow payments in full and on time. The money was fully available in the escrow account funded by us to pay the taxes. Servicemac took the money out of the account and now {$20000.00} of our money is unaccounted for and our taxes have still not been paid.

Servicemac has been grossly incompetent or fraudulent in the management of our escrow. 

We paid the money to them on time and despite the fact that they removed the money from our account, never paid the taxes. Having the escrow managed by servicemac is a liability as their carelessness has resulted in the delayed payment of taxes and resulting late fees. Furthermore, despite notifying them of this issue they have failed to rectify it in a timely fashion and now have taken double the amount of tax due from the escrow and still have not paid the taxes. In addition, they have repeatedly lied and even went so far as to give me a Fed ex tracking number which was suppose to be a shipment with the check to pay the taxes and then canceled the shipment without notice.