Consumer complaint received 2020-03-10
Product: Mortgage — VA mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process — 
Company: Mr. Cooper Group Inc. (CA)

I was instructed by representatives of Congressman XXXX XXXX to file this complaint due to unnecessary and incompetent handling of insurance money disbursement for the rebuild of our home. I must say that this experience has been far worse than the loss of our home and all belongings! As a borrower who has not missed or been late on a mortgage payment prior to and since the fire, I find it appalling that insurance funds can not be released without jumping through hoops while being treated like a scam artist. Below is a " brief '' summary of what has transpired over the last four months. I am sure you can request all notes associated with my calls to the company that they have. 

My wife and I are retired and lost our home on XX/XX/XXXX to the CARR fire in XXXX California. We were and continue to be insured for the mortgage through XXXX. The loan was held by XXXX but was sold to Mr. Cooper the first week of XX/XX/XXXX. Unfortunately, we were in the process of scheduling an inspection per mortgage company instruction to release insurance funds when the sale occurred. 

This led to a delay of activity while documentation was transferred between financial institutions. On XX/XX/XXXX, the loan information was transferred so I contacted Insurance Claim Check and explained the situation. I was told I needed to wait additional time while the loss department received the data for the account. I continued to follow on the account including speaking to them on a weekly basis trying to get an inspection and insurance funds released to my general contractor. 

During XXXX and XXXX I have spent {$120000.00} of my savings to keep the re-build moving forward due to these issues. That money is now gone and my contractor has not been able to move forward without funding and our target date to move in on XX/XX/XXXX has evaporated The new completion date is estimated at XX/XX/XXXX. 

On XX/XX/XXXX I finally received a check for {$84000.00}. This check was delivered with a letter stating no more insurance funds would be released until the home was completed! How the XXXX are you supposed to rebuild a home when the insurance proceeds are delayed over and over and/or held. Today, XX/XX/XXXX, I have mailed an additional check in the amount of {$97000.00} for deposit in the escrow account held by Mr Cooper and Insurance Claim Check. This will leave an escrow balance of approximately {$200000.00}. 

Who knows when I will receive additional funds at this point. My contractor, Insurance Company, Congressman XXXX and staff are all in agreement with me that they have never seen anything like this and it is totally unacceptable. All we want is the insurance money to complete the rebuild of our loss! 

By the way, the inspector who finally showed up in XXXX reported the house was only 37 % complete which is completely wrong. It is at least 65 % complete. In addition, the County Tax Assessor has valued the property at over {$300000.00} up from {$40000.00} after the fire. So here we sit paying higher taxes on a property we can't complete.