Consumer complaint received 2020-02-23
Product: Mortgage — VA mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process — 
Company: Caliber Home Loans, Inc. (CA)

I am writing because following the transfer of servicing of our VA mortgage loan to Caliber Home Loans, they failed to pay my hazard insurance out of our escrow account even after I provided my insurance information to the originating lender AND to Caliber AND after my insurance broker provided payment information to Caliber. Ultimately, their failure to act timely and gross negligence resulted in cancellation of our insurance, which then meant we paid the insurance policy out of pocket, then they paid it, then they billed us for force-placed insurance in the amount of {$450.00}. I ask that they waive this charge as it was a result of their failure to act timely and negligence in servicing my account.

I find this particularly disgraceful because, as Caliber said in the force-placed notice they sent us that we should be aware that " lender-placed carrier providing coverage... may be staffing OUR customer service telephone lines. '' It seems that my conversations with Caliber may not actually have been with Caliber, but rather with an entity with an interest in ensuring a force-placed policy is issued and paid by the consumer. 

This is the timeline of events. 

XX/XX/XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX ( originating lender ) was sent the renewal bill with notice that payment must be made by XX/XX/XXXX by our insurance company. 

XX/XX/XXXX I spoke to Caliber 's customer service ( or was it the force-placed lender 's employee? ) and provided my insurance information to them. I also left a voicemail and emailed my insurance broker to notify them of the mortgage change. Caliber 's customer service representative assured me that she would call me within 2 days if she didn't have all necessary information to pay the policy bill. This was on a recorded line and I invite the lender to listen to the call to confirm this statement by their agent. No follow up call was received and we believed the issue had been taken care of. 

XX/XX/XXXX My insurance broker was contacted by Caliber to send insurance information, which they did that day after emailing me for and obtaining the loan number and contact telephone at Caliber. The insurance broker provided the requested information, but Caliber did not pay it. 

Shortly after that was the holiday season, then we were out of town because my mother was hospitalized in XX/XX/XXXX and part of XX/XX/XXXX due to an accident and we were needed in Minnesota to care for my father and assist with my mother over approximately a 3 week period. 

XX/XX/XXXX the policy was cancelled for non-payment, back dated to the original due date of XX/XX/XXXX and such cancellation was mailed to us. 

XX/XX/XXXX we learned of the cancellation and obtained a new policy and paid it out of pocket. The insurance company then also sent the new policy ( XXXX ) to Caliber and Caliber immediately sent out a check paying the premium. My insurance agent is mystified as to why XXXX did not pay the first policy ( with XXXX ), but did pay the second ( XXXX ), especially since the XXXX policy didn't require payment as we had already paid it. 

XX/XX/XXXX, Caliber generated and mailed a letter stating they had force-placed insurance and the amount due was {$450.00} for the period XX/XX/XXXX to XX/XX/XXXX. This is a ridiculously high amount for approximately 2 months when the coverage cost for an entire year is only {$1300.00}. In any event, it should have never been assessed at all had they done their job.