Consumer complaint received 2021-06-11
Product: Mortgage — Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process — 
Company: ARVEST BANK GROUP, INC. (TN)

I received a copy of a notice of my flood insurance lapsing from my mortgage company, Arvest Central Mortgage Company, in early XX/XX/XXXX. I know my policy is being escrowed by Arvest because it shows they are escrowing it, so I call my insurance brokers and have them forward a copy of the policy. It is the same policy we've had since we bought the house in XX/XX/XXXX and I don't think anything more of it. It's a great policy that covers my house and has $ XXXX in contents coverage. I receive a second notice on XXXX, so I call Arvest and talk to someone in their insurance department, and they tell me to send a copy of the policy. I call my brokers and ask them to send it again. I call back on XX/XX/XXXX to verify that they brokers sent everything, and they say they have. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, we had severe flooding in our neighborhood. Several lives were lost, almost all of the houses in my neighborhood were severely damaged, and lots of property was lost. I call XXXX, my insurance provider, and they said they do not see a policy for me. I call my insurance brokers, and leave them a message to call me back, and start trying to salvage our house. 

The next day, XX/XX/XXXX, my insurance brokers call me back and tell me that Arvest did not have my flood policy in place and had let it lapse even though my brokers had sent them everything, but they were working with Arvest to get something worked out. On XX/XX/XXXX, the brokers call me to tell me Arvest is going to force-place insurance to cover damages, and that they would get my policy put back in place. On XX/XX/XXXX, my brokers call and let me know that the insurance should be in place, and give me a name and number to call. I call, and it is for XXXX, the force-placed insurance. On XXXX, XXXX calls to let me know they have to wait to finish getting the paperwork from Arvest to start the claim, but that they will only cover the house, and that my contents are not covered, so I start calling everyone to figure out how to get things covered and to get payments coming in so we can start doing anything. I also engaged XXXX, and put down a deposit for {$5000.00} for them to start working on the mitigation. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, no one has called me back, but I log into Arvest and see there are pending debits in my escrows for XXXX and for XXXX. On XX/XX/XXXX, I see that the XXXX payment has posted and that it shows them as my flood insurance providers, so I call them. They tell me that they have not received payment yet, and that because the policy had lapsed I can not make a claim because I wasn't covered during that time. The representative states that she sees where Arvest reached out to them in XXXX to get the lienholder information changed, but paperwork and payment was not provided so the policy lapsed. She states that if Arvest can show they sent the necessary documentation and show that it was XXXX 's fault for the lapse, they will retroactively do my policy and cover our losses, so I reach out to Arvest. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, someone from Arvest finally calls me. I explain to them what happened, that there was a flood, and that I need to know what's going on. She states that she sees a policy in place with XXXX, and I ask her to send me a copy of the insurance. I get a copy of the flood certificate showing I am in a flood zone, but not what I needed. I don't receive any other information, so I call again on XX/XX/XXXX and speak to someone explaining what happened. I explain that I need to have my contents covered, and that I have been charged for escrows for the forced-placed flood insurance, and I shouldn't be because it was not my fault the insurance lapsed. She stated that Arvest " might '' have the additional escrows waived, and that they " might '' be able to help me with my contents, but I do not feel like she understood what I was saying. 

Finally, on XX/XX/XXXX, I managed to get a conference call with Arvest and several representatives from my bank that sold the mortgage to them. They state that they did not pay the insurance because they could not get the lienholder information changed, so they did not get the bill. They stated that they tried several times to get the information changed, but were unsuccessful. They even sent me a copy of a letter dated XX/XX/XXXX requesting lienholder clauses changes. They said they would look into it further, and that was the last I heard from them. I sent an error resolution and qualified written request to them shortly after that. They refunded me part of the escrows for the force-placed insurance, but still are charging me $ XXXX for the force-placed insurance, but I have not received anything for contents. 

To top it all off, I have not received the first payment to fix the house yet either. I have been paying the mortgage for a property that I can't even live in. We hired a public adjuster because we knew that if we didn't, we wouldn't get sufficient funds back to cover the damage. I was notified yesterday by our adjuster that XXXX sent two checks to Arvest on XX/XX/XXXX for a total of {$91000.00}. Part of this was for our shed, and the other was for partial repairs on our house. We haven't seen any of that yet. I reached out today and they stated they have not received the checks, and that we have to submit the contractor 's bills to have the house repairs paid. We have not had any contractors out yet because we have not received any money. We can not hire contractors without money. It has been 75 days, and we have not had any relief at all. 

This all boils down to Arvest had seven months to correct the lienholder information, but they never did. They could have contacted me at any point during that time to correct it before the policy lapsed. They never did. They dropped the ball, and they are adding additional costs to my loan to cover their mistake. I can not not pay it. It is unfair, it is unjust, and it is downright predatory.