Consumer complaint received 2020-01-30
Product: Mortgage — Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process — 
Company: SANTANDER BANK, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION (NJ)

The problem began when I received a letter from the city advising us of charges due associated with our property tax. Since our understanding is that property taxes are paid through our mortgage ( since our monthly payment includes payment towards an escrow fund held by Santander ), I promptly contacted Santander the day I received the letter from the city. Below is a chronology of how the events unfolded. 

It should also be noted that EVERY SINGLE time i phone Santander, prior to speaker to an agent I hear a message advising me that the contact center is busy to encourage me to call later or use the automated service. This message seems to be disingenuous as my call is often answered pretty immediately. 

- XX/XX/XXXX ( phone ) : telephoned Santander to advise of receipt of letter. Customer Service rep said that the last payment that had been made on my account was back in XXXX of 2019 and that no payment showed to be due according to the city 's online system. I told the rep that according to the letter I received this was not the case. I was advised to email the escrow department. 

- XX/XX/XXXX ( email ) : I emailed the escrow dept with a copy of the letter and with the same information as above. Unfortunately, due to their VERY long and complicated email address, I made a typo and the email was never sent to Santander. I already find this outragous as I had already contacted Santander over the phone to advise them of this matter. So to have to put the burden on me to have to email them to provide the same information is ridiculous - specially when the same information is available thorugh the city 's online site. 

- XX/XX/XXXX ( phone and email ) : Because I had received yet another letter from the city saying taxes are due, I phoned Santander again. this is when I found out nothing had been done on the issue I had originally raised as they hadn't received my email. So this time I emailed the right email address ( XXXX ) with the same issue as above - ~XXXX  XXXX ( phone ) : I can't recall if this was XX/XX/XXXX or XXXX or XXXX, but around that date, I called Santander just to follow up again, thinking for SURE this matter had been addressed. it had not, the work was still on their 'pile ' and they had no update to give me. Given the amount of time that had passed, they promised they would escalate the matter. 

- ~XXXX  XXXX- XX/XX/XXXX ( phone ) : I believe it may have been right on XX/XX/XXXX or 2 or so days later, I find out that my taxes had not been paid and a LIEN was placed on my home!!! So I call Santander YET AGAIN and still, no update!! At that point, because I dind't want to risk losing the house I told them NOT TO MAKE THE PAYMENT as I was going to make the payment of my property tax directly. The supervisor I spoke with promised they would note the account with this information. 

At that point I had also done some research directly with the city and found out that Santander had made a previous payment in XXXX against the wrong/legacy property tax account. The block/plot where I live used to be a single family house. That single family house had an old tax account number. That house was knocked down to give way to the new building I now live in. My unit sits on the same block and lot number but has a different account number. 

- XX/XX/XXXX ( email ) : As soon as I received the final figures from the city on how much I owed, I made the payment to the city and emailed Santander with the proof of payment. Based on the information I had received from the city I requested once again that : 1 ) Santander does not duplicate the same payment 2 ) Santander to confirm they have the right tax account informaiton so that they're not paying towards the wrong again 3 ) Santander provides me with proof of payment for the previous payment they had made in XXXX of 2019 so it can be correctly credited to my account 4 ) Santander to refund me of the fees I paid the city due to the late payment Days pass and I still have no response ... 

- XX/XX/XXXX ( phone call FROM santander ) : Santander calls me. Not related to the above issue, but to follow up on a phone survey I had taken when I had provided poor customer satisfaction scores. I explained to the rep why I had provided such low scores. She looks into my case and is not able to provide much information, but all she can tell me is that Santander IGNORED my request NOT to pay the pay the taxes due since I was going to pay them, and made the payment anyway. I re-iterated my extreme frustration and outlined I'm still waiting answers on the remaining points above ( that santander is paying the right account, that i receive proof of previous payment, and refund of fees ) - XX/XX/XXXX ( phone ) : Since I still hadn't heard from Santander I call them AGAIN to follow up. Spoke to yet another supervisor who said my case should be resolved under 2 work processes. One for XX/XX/XXXX and one on XX/XX/XXXX. She advised me to call on XX/XX/XXXX for answers on the first work order. 

- XX/XX/XXXX ( letter ) : I received a letter from Santander dated XX/XX/XXXX (!!!! ) saying that they were not responsible for the Tax that had been due and that had cause for a lien to have been put on my house since this was an Added Tax. They say the terms of my loan did not establish an escrow account to expressly pay for this tax item. Well, assuming this is the case, does it seem reasonable that Santander would take over 1 month to get back to me on this matter??? And that's when they then said they made the payment anyway to 'protect their interest in the property! ' And still ; their letter does not address my other concerns : 1 ) I still want confirmation they understand what the correct tax account is that they should pay against 2 ) proof of the XXXX payment so that the city can transfer the funds wrongfully paid against the old single family home that occupied my lot to my tax account 3 ) 1 ) I still expect to be refunded of the fees because had we been advised of this in a timely manner I would've promptly paid the city and avoided any fees!!! 

- XX/XX/XXXX ( letter ) : received yet another letter from Santander dated XX/XX/XXXX. This time from the person who called me to follow up on the customer satisfaction survey. She just repeated what the previous letter had said without addressing any of my other outstanding points - XX/XX/XXXX ( phone ) : called Santander yet again and spoke to yet another supervisor repeating all the same issues. He said my work that was due to complete on the XXXX was closed and re-opened and now all would be answered on the XXXX. Given over two months had passed since my orignal call I said I needed answers immediately. He promised my case would be escalated to someone who would either call me or email me within 2 HOURS!!! This was around XXXX EST on XX/XX/XXXX. Today is XX/XX/XXXX and I still have received no phone call or emails. 

As an important note : THE CITY HAS NOT SEEN ANY OF THE PAYMENTS SANTANDER SAYS THEY MADE ON XX/XX/XXXX. SO I STILL HAVE NO IDEA WHERE SANTANDER IS MAKING THESE PAYMENTS. 

My city taxes are now due again and I still have no idea if Santander is looking at the right tax account.