Consumer complaint received 2016-06-17
Product: Mortgage — Conventional fixed mortgage
Issue: Loan modification,collection,foreclosure — 
Company: Seterus, Inc. (IL)

I applied for a Modification with Seterus in XXXX XXXX ( over 1.5years ago ) through a HUD counselor. I included with the original application all documents requested. Over the course of 1.5 years I have been made to supply the same documents repeatedly. Every time they are requested I provide them immediately within 24-48 hours to the HUD counselor and to Seterus directly. Every time I call to confirm they receive the docs and then am told I have to wait for a response. After a month of waiting they request more docs that they 've already received numerous times. 
They never review the documents in a timely manner which is why things time out repeatedly. If I provide the docs requested within 24-48 hrs each time and its been 1.5yrs I should get some priority for a more timely review. In addition when you call in the reps answering the calls have no idea what they are talking about. So when the underwriter is requesting one thing the rep tells you something else because they do n't understand what the underwriter is requesting and you have to wait another month to find out that they told you to provide the wrong thing because they did n't really understand what the underwriter wanted. The reps are also extremely rude and because of their inability to answer questions they have even hung up on me AND the HUD counselor on more than one occasion. 
I am borrowing money from friends to help me with these payments because it is taking so long, on a loan that is backed by XXXX and a loan that I know I meet the criteria for a modification yet Seterus keeps dragging this out clearly hoping that they can foreclose on me. What measures are in place to correct these ongoing problems and is any enforcement in place. 
Lastly in the middle of this they increased my monthly payment with no explanation or advance warning. When I called they said that they were implementing an escrow when I have never had an escrow on my account and have always paid my insurance on my own. I have already made my insurance payment for this year so why would they be allowed to add an escrow basically doubling what I have already paid. I am having enough trouble keeping up with my payments and now they have just increased my payment and duplicated a bill that Ive already paid. They never notified me that they were going to place an escrow on my account it just magically showed up on my mortgage statement with no explanation. How can they just add things on whenever they want without my knowledge or approval? I have made all payments and made all insurance payments for over 8 years. 
When my most recent mortgage statement arrived, I found out my last mortgage payment was not applied to my mortgage even though my check was deposited by Seterus and cleared by my bank. Seterus is saying I did n't pay the escrow ( which I have never had before ), even though I made my regular mortgage payment. They did not notify me that they did this other than when I received my next statement it appears as though I did n't make the mortgage payment even though I did. 
Why are you allowing Seterus to get away with this kind of behavior? They have to notify me in advance and there has to be a reason to do this. Otherwise why me? Have they added escrows to all their other customers also and equally? Have they done this because they know I have requested a modification and they want to foreclose? Are they targeting a specific area of customers, type of customer, location of properties or type of property? I wrote a letter to the Vice President of XXXX XXXX XXXX at Seterus on XXXX/XXXX/XXXX asking for his assistance with all the problems and for them to finalize my modification since its been 1.5 years and have yet to hear from him. At the time I did not yet realize that they had not applied my mortgage payment even though they had deposited my check.