Consumer complaint received 2023-10-18
Product: Mortgage — FHA mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process — Escrow, taxes, or insurance
Company: GUARANTEED RATE INC. (WA)

We have an FHA loan and when we purchased the home XXXX of XXXX it was understood that all property taxes would be a part of the escrow account and included in the mortgage payment. The property taxes were never collected with my monthly payments which started in XXXX of XXXX. I became aware of this in XXXX of XXXX after I got a delinquent notice from the county for Property Taxes. I reached out to the servicing company, Guaranteed Rate Inc., however they were already in process of transferring my loan. I got my loan officer involved as he worked for the lender and it took weeks to get a response. Finally the new servicer paid the delinquent taxes and did an escrow analysis. I never got a call from servicer to discuss, only an online notification that taxes were paid and my payment was changing. The property taxes were paid and the escrow account to became negative. I understand that this amount needs to be replenished, but the timeframe and amounts of my payments is exorbitantly high and we can not make these payments. 

Payments were {$3400.00} when we began paying the mortgage. I was unaware that the escrow was not being funded at all since this is the responsibility of the servicer and a requirement of FHA.. We assumed after closing we were fortunate enough to have a payment less than what was projected. This amount was manageable for us as a payment. 

Once we realized what was happening and the taxes were paid, our payment went up to {$3900.00} for 2 months. Then payment then went up again to {$4300.00} and is supposed to remain this way for 12 months. 

We are accustomed to paying the {$3400.00} amount and that was a manageable amount. After paying this for many months as instructed, transitioning to {$3900.00} was difficult. To increase from that to the current {$4400.00} is NOT sustainable or manageable at all. This is creating an extreme financial hardship and we are in danger of losing our home as we have to choose between the mortgage and every other bill we have. 

The increase in payment overall is over 20 %. This is not at all acceptable. It was a servicer error that property taxes were not collected as required by FHA. This is not our error and to put this entire burden on us, the borrower, by increasing our payment is absolutely unfair lending practices. 

We are not willing to go through the options of loan modification or deferral, forbearance etc., because again, this is not because our financial situation has changed. This is 100 % the error of the servicer. A more reasonable solution needs to be found whereas the escrow can be replenished in an extended repayment period or the servicer/ party responsible for this error needs to cover the discrepancy out of their own funds. We nearly could not make the XXXX and XXXX payments and are now behind on our other bills including a HELOC on our rental property ( different house ), credit cards, utility bills. We are going into debt quickly and face having to choose between the mortgage and everything else. 

On top of this, the loan was transferred AGAIN XX/XX/XXXX. I reached out to the prior servicer Guaranteed Rate Home Servicing ( GRHS ) and to the new servicer XXXXXXXX XXXX. GRHS responded that there was never an issue with escrow which is completely false as the prior representatives I talked to went over the history with me. GRHS also said its not there problem because loan has been transferred ( ... convenient ). The new servicer XXXX is looking into this and have requested a rush escrow analysis to be done. I appreciate that, but the prior 2 servicing companies need to be held accountable.