Consumer complaint received 2019-04-11
Product: Mortgage — Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process — 
Company: Freedom Mortgage Company (WA)

-- -In XX/XX/XXXX Freedom Mortgage expected me to begin paying an escrow shortage they suddenly ( XX/XX/XXXX ) determined to be approximately {$2000.00}. I was unaware of this escrow shortage until late XXXX. I then learned they had been sending me letters which I thought were simply monthly statements and mistakenly didn't open them so I didn't see the letters about the shortage. 

-- -I had not missed a monthly payment but Freedom began putting all of my payments into my escrow account and then telling me my monthly payment was late and charging me late fees. 

-- -Freedom 's letters about the escrow shortage did not clarify where the shortage came from, nor did it detail the escrow payments and balance back to the loan origination ( XX/XX/XXXX to XXXX ) or, at least back to the loan transfer to Freedom in XX/XX/XXXX. There had not been a shortage problem previously other than a once or twice request for an additional amount less than {$100.00} in earlier years. 

-- -Through about 8-10 phone conversations with customer service representatives I learned very little pertinent information, but one rep told me the shortage was because I had changed insurance companies twice in a short time ( XXXX ) after having to leave my original homeowner 's insurance due to increased costs. The rep said there were three full payments in a 12-month period ( from XX/XX/XXXX to XX/XX/XXXX ) so they were expecting a large increase in escrow disbursements in XXXX. Of course, this meant that only one insurance payment would go forward but they appeared to treat these amounts as if they would continue ; I haven't quite figured that part out. 

-- -The one part of this that I will stipulate is that the two insurance companies I cancelled with sent me refund checks but I did not correlate them with escrow ; only recently have I realized that these amounts should have been returned by me to Freedom ; I just assumed the insurance was sending me leftover funds. I had no notice from Freedom or the insurance companies that I should send the refund checks to Freedom ; or, if they did and I just didn't understand it, that was the beginning of the communication mix-up. 

-- -A few times on the phone I asked to speak to a supervisor but was not allowed to by the reps I spoke with. One time the rep asked about my request and came back on the line to say a supervisor would call me within 48 hours. I never received such a call. A later call with a rep called XXXX was the best service I have received from Freedom. She couldn't help me with records but told me that I absolutely have the right to ask to speak with a supervisor and that it should happen right away until I was satisfied with the response. 

-- - In short, I disputed the numbers given by Freedom and wanted to run them myself and compare them to my records. The snags I ran into were : the variations in escrow paid in to my account from the monthly payments, missing monthly escrow balances, " Other '' column amounts and fees which I could not decipher, and my payments being labelled " unassigned '' and termed " cash receipts '' instead of payments if they were not the exact amount Freedom expected. 

I received a final answer to my requests 2 days ago on XX/XX/XXXX saying that they could not accommodate my explanations line by line for " other '' amounts, escrow balances, etc. On the initial page of the report attached to that letter the heading stated the report covered XX/XX/XXXX through XX/XX/XXXX. But the actual report started in XX/XX/XXXX, not XX/XX/XXXX. And the letter stated the report was from loan origination up to the present. But the loan origination was in XX/XX/XXXX with XXXX, transferring to Freedom in XX/XX/XXXX. So their report ( incomplete from my perspective ) covered XX/XX/XXXX up to the present. 

I was still short the records from XX/XX/XXXX back to XXXX and the report they did send did not include the escrow balances throughout, as they stated in the accompanying letter was not possible. 

Finally, I asked to have the escrow shortage amount of $ XXXX+ spread out over time because I was still very low income at that point ( I have since begun receiving my state pension ). In working with " XXXX '' the shortage was spread out over 34 months but they would not spread out the original 2-4 months that had already passed. I am still receiving bills stating that $ XXXX+ is needed to cover those 3 or 4 months of escrow shortage, even though most of the amount was, as I understood, being handled by the 34-month distribution over time. 

I have not been able to determine the full meaning of Freedom 's records to ascertain if their accounting of escrow balance was correct, and also why they charged me late fees for the monthly payments which they were putting into the escrow shortage. 

I'd requested the 60-day time period in order to prepare to talk with Freedom about all of this, but I have determined from all of my contacts with them that this is not possible. Therefore, I am submitting this complaint to the CFPB.