Consumer complaint received 2023-05-22
Product: Mortgage — Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process — 
Company: Onity Group Inc. (OR)

We contacted our mortgage company, PHH Mortgage, to request the cancellation of our Private Mortgage Insurance ( PMI ) as we have had the loan for more than two years and we believe our loan to value ratio is now high enough to warrant PMI cancellation. PHH sent us a letter dated XX/XX/XXXX outlining the requirements for cancelling the PMI and informing us that we must return their enclosed request form along with a check or money order for a BPO/Appraisal fee of {$100.00}. The letter states that these items needed to be returned within 30 days from the date of the letter and it further states that Upon receiving the PMI Cancellation Request form ( enclosed ) and the property valuation fee, the vendor will facilitate an interior or exterior valuation of the property. We must receive the fee to schedule the valuation. We completed the required form and wrote a personal check for {$100.00} per the XX/XX/XXXX letter and mailed them to PHH Mortgage. On XX/XX/XXXX, our check for {$100.00} was cashed by PHH ( according to our bank ), an action that we understood constituted PHH accepting our payment ; we expected that the property valuation would be facilitated at that point, based on the information in our written agreement with PHH dated XX/XX/XXXX. On XX/XX/XXXX, we received an email from PHH indicating that the price for the BPO/Appraisal fee had changed to {$150.00} effective XX/XX/XXXX and stating If you still wish to request PMI removal and have not yet returned the requested form, please send the completed form with a check or money order for {$150.00} made out to PHH Mortgage to :. Since we had ALREADY submitted the form and made payment per the agreed upon price in the XX/XX/XXXX letter, we did NOT send an additional {$150.00} as requested. My husband then contacted PHH via telephone and explained that we had already submitted payment and PHH had accepted that payment. PHH informed us that they required an additional {$45.00} from us in order to facilitate the property valuation ( not an additional {$150.00} as their email stated ) and that there was nothing they could do as the vendor changed the fee. The conversation ended with an escalation manager ( named XXXX ) indicating that she would contact the PMI team to register our dispute and would reach back out to us within a week ( by XX/XX/XXXX ). On XX/XX/XXXX, we received an email from PHHs XXXX Department advising us that they required an additional {$45.00} for the BPO/Appraisal due to the XXXX XXXX fee increase of XX/XX/XXXX with no additional information other than how to file a complaint with the Oregon Division of Financial Regulation , which we did. We believe that PHHs letter to us dated XX/XX/XXXX constitutes a contract ( with which we complied within the required time frame ) and that PHH is in breach of contract. The letter contains no specific language ( nor anything resembling it ) that the price listed for the property valuation is subject to change. This appears to us to be a classic bait and switch situation and we do not believe PHH is acting professionally, ethically, or perhaps even legally in not acting in compliance with the terms of their written contract with us and refusing to facilitate the requested property valuation after accepting our payment for doing so.