Consumer complaint received 2022-09-07
Product: Mortgage — Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process — 
Company: Guild Holdings Company (SC)

Summary : Guild Mortgage unfairly purchased flood insurance on my property, without proper notice. Although I obtained my own insurance that was active 14 days after first being notified by Guild Mortgage of this requirement, my escrow account was still charged a prorated amount of {$880.00} in insurance premiums from a lender purchased insurance policy. 


On XX/XX/XXXX I received my first letter in the mail from Guild Mortgage ( Letter 1 - attached ), indicating that I would need to obtain flood insurance on my property within the next 15 days to avoid additional coverage being added on my property. 
- The top of the first letter I received from Guild Mortgage was dated XX/XX/XXXX, but not received in the mail until 22 days later. 
- The letter also stated that this was the second notice, though no other letter was received prior to this one. 


Also on XX/XX/XXXX, I called Guild Mortgage to inquire about this notice. I informed the customer service rep that this was my first letter I had received and I would be obtaining my own insurance. I asked if they had any explanation as to why this letter took over 3 weeks to be sent and why the first one was never received, the reps only explanation was that their mail department can sometimes be very slow. I asked if these messages could also be sent via email for faster delivery, but was told that was not possible. The rep did not inform me at this time that the lender purchased policy had already been applied to my property as of XX/XX/XXXX. 


I immediately contacted my insurance company and started the process of obtaining my own flood insurance policy. My flood insurance policy was purchased on XX/XX/XXXX and effective XX/XX/XXXX ( 14 days after receiving my first notice ). I sent an email to Guild Mortgage on XX/XX/XXXX with the policy details, asking for the lender purchased policy to be canceled. 


On XX/XX/XXXX, I received a second letter from Guild Mortgage ( XXXX XXXX - attached ), indicating that insurance had been obtained on my behalf. 
- The top of this letter was dated XX/XX/XXXX, but received 18 days later in the mail. 
- The policy included with this letter showed the annual premium was {$2500.00}, which was significantly more expensive than the policy I had already obtained for {$720.00}. 
- This also stated that the policy was effective XX/XX/XXXX, even though it wasn't purchased until XX/XX/XXXX. 
- Although this effective date shouldn't matter since the whole policy was obtained incorrectly, I am curious as to why Guild Mortgage would purchase insurance retroactively. Why pay for almost 4 additional months of coverage in the past, instead of making it effective XX/XX/XXXX moving forward? 


On XX/XX/XXXX, I called Guild Mortgage to inquire about the cancellation of the lender purchased insurance policy. I was told by the customer service rep that the policy had been canceled and I would be entitled to a full refund of the {$2500.00} premium. I asked if that was still true even though my policy wasn't effective until XX/XX/XXXX and the rep again confirmed that I would receive a full refund to my escrow account. 


On XX/XX/XXXX, I received a 3rd letter from Guild Mortgage ( Letter 3 - attached ), this time indicating that the lender purchased policy on my property had been canceled. However, this letter indicated that I would only receive a partial refund of {$1600.00}. 
- This letter indicated it had been prepared on XX/XX/XXXX, and again was received over 2 weeks later in the mail. 
- This letter directly contradicted what I had been told a week earlier by the Guild Mortgage customer service rep. 


On XX/XX/XXXX, I verified in my online account that I did only receive the partial refund to my escrow account. I contacted Guild Mortgage customer service to inquire about this and was told the case would need to be escalated to the insurance department. 


On XX/XX/XXXX, I finally spoke with an insurance agent at Guild Mortgage, who took down all of my information and said he would need to escalate to management. On XX/XX/XXXX he asked for copies of the letters that I did receive, which I sent back through email the same day. 


On XX/XX/XXXX, I emailed the insurance agent again, asking for an update. He responded promptly that the case was still being reviewed. 


On XX/XX/XXXX, I emailed the insurance agent again after no response for over a month. A day later on XX/XX/XXXX, I received an email from a " Vice President - Escrow Administration '' saying that they were reviewing my case and asked me to confirm that I did not receive an initial notice regarding the insurance requirement. I replied the same day, confirming that this was true. 


On XX/XX/XXXX, I emailed both the insurance agent, and the VP who contacted me previously asking for an update. The insurance agent replied saying that there was nothing more he could do, and that the VP would be the one to provide an answer. 


On XX/XX/XXXX, I emailed again for an update, directing the question to the VP, and letting them know that I would be filing a complaint with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau if I did not hear a response. 


After 12 more days of no response and 5 months from my first contact with Guild Mortgage, I am officially submitting this complaint.