Consumer complaint received 2016-05-06
Product: Mortgage — FHA mortgage
Issue: Loan servicing, payments, escrow account — 
Company: MLD MORTGAGE INC (NJ)

In XXXX XXXX we began the process of taking out a XXXX loan with MLD Mortgage Inc. The loan was finalized on XXXX XXXX, XXXX, the day we closed on our new house. This loan was for a home purchase of XXXX, XXXX of home repairs ( plus the additional 15 % reserve money ), and 3 months of mortgage payment in escrow ( totaling about XXXX ). 
A few weeks after closing, we began receiving emails from MLD Mortgage about our XXXX mortgage payment being due. After further inquiry and investigation on our part, it seems the Money Store made several errors in processing our loan which is adding up to thousands of dollars of misappropriated money and incorrect fees. Plainly, they seem to have rolled our 3 months of escrow money into the total loan, therefore needlessly driving up the total amount of the loan and leaving us unable to access that money. Further, there are fees they charged us for which they even admitted we should not have had to pay for which we have not received a refund. We tried multiple times to get clarification/reconciliation of the matter with them, but they are now ignoring us. 
In the initial XXXX worksheet, assumptions were entered to calculate the total mortgage amount, which included XXXX mortgage payments escrowed into the loan to be paid. We have never seen another XXXX worksheet from this point forward and it was blank in the closing documents. The final loan amount per this initial worksheet was carried through to the end of the loan and finalized. This is extremely odd since other minor factors changed since that initial worksheet, but they never updated the total loan amount. There is no way that is possible. 
When we started to receive emails and letters about paying our mortgage, our loan officer assured us that we did n't have to make the mortgage payments ( we have emails and text messages to show this ). He told us multiple times that there was escrow money in the loan appropriated to pay the mortgage. He then escalated to his manager to clarify how the loan gets paid from these escrowed appropriations. A few weeks went by until the manager responded and told us that they never set up the mortgage escrow and that we would have to pay our new mortgage out of pocket. Note : the total loan amount from the initial work sheet never changed. This worksheet accounted for XXXX escrowed mortgage payments. 
Our lender will not return phone calls or respond to email requests to clarify all these monetary discrepancies. What information they did give us through past communication has clearly shown that they either knowingly are not being transparent or flat out do not realize the error they have made and unwilling to look into it further. Additional, they have sold the loan to another company which further complicates the issue. 
In summary, 1. MLD Mortgage did not set up our escrow payments appropriately in the loan. 
2. They lumped the escrow payments into the overall loan, thus driving up the total cost of the loan in error. If not corrected, over the span of 30 years, this error will cost thousands of dollars that we should not have to pay. This will have an effect on refinancing the loan once the work is completed, PMI, etc. 
3. We are now paying XXXX mortgages at the same time at a high rate which means thousands of dollars are going to interest/profit per their mistake in addition to thousands of dollars of unexpected out-of-pocket costs. 
4. They are currently not responding to emails or phone calls to resolve this matter. 
5. Multiple past email, text, and phone call communication clearly shows that they represented one thing but delivered another. 
6. After closing, they continued to tell us the loan was processed XXXX way, only to tell us weeks later that it was not processed as communicated. They clearly demonstrated either lack of knowledge or deceit with the processing of this loan