Consumer complaint received 2025-02-05 00:00:00
Product: Mortgage — Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process — Escrow, taxes, or insurance
Company: Ocwen Financial Corporation
State: KY

Complaint narrative:
I received my annual escrow analysis statement in XX/XX/XXXX, which reported an alarmingly large escrow account shortage of {$3600.00}. After reviewing my XXXX and XXXX escrow analysis statements, my XXXX and XXXX property tax notices from XXXX XXXX sheriff 's office, and my XXXX and XXXX Form XXXX, I discovered that the shortage resulted from a severe error in the way XXXX Mortgage calculated my projected escrow payment needs for XXXX and XXXX. ALL of my attempts to contact XXXX Mortgage Customer Service over the past XXXX weeks to discuss and resolve this issue have been unsuccessful. 

The details of the calculation errors that led to the shortage are as follows. All supporting tax/escrow documents containing all dates and amounts are attached to this complaint. 

My property tax bill for XXXX was {$1500.00}. XXXX Mortgage paid this amount out of my escrow account on XX/XX/XXXX. XXXX XXXX then sent an additional XXXX secondary board of education tax bill of {$62.00}. XXXX Mortgage paid this amount out of my escrow account on XX/XX/XXXX. My XXXX escrow analysis statement should have showed {$1500.00} as my projected escrow payment for XXXX, because this was my total tax paid in XXXX. Instead, it showed that my projected escrow payment for all of XXXX would be only {$62.00}. XXXX Mortgage 's system/calculation software used only the additional secondary board XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX from XX/XX/XXXX as my total projected escrow for XXXX. This is obviously far less than the {$1500.00} actually paid in taxes in XXXX, and this is where the escrow shortage began. The payment of {$62.00} also wasn't made until XXXX, and therefore should not have been considered part of XXXX 's taxes. 

The shortage was worsened due to the same calculation mistake in XXXX. My property tax bill for XXXX was {$1600.00}. XXXX Mortgage paid this amount out of my escrow account on XX/XX/XXXX. This was when the account fell into the negative due to the calculation error from the previous year. XXXX XXXX then sent yet another additional XXXX XXXX government tax bill of {$11.00}. XXXX Mortgage paid this amount out of my now negative escrow account on XX/XX/XXXX. My XXXX escrow analysis should have showed {$1600.00} as my projected escrow payment for XXXX, which is the TOTAL of all THREE tax payments made in XXXX ( {$62.00} on XX/XX/XXXX + {$1600.00} on XX/XX/XXXX + {$11.00} on XX/XX/XXXX ). Instead, my XXXX escrow analysis showed that my projected escrow payment for all of XXXX would be only {$11.00}. XXXX Mortgage 's system/calculation software used only the additional XXXX XXXX government tax payment from XX/XX/XXXX as my total projected escrow for XXXX. This is MUCH less than the {$1600.00} actually paid in taxes in XXXX, XXXX the shortage that already began from the same calculation mistake made the previous year. It appears XXXX Mortgage 's system/software doesn't know how to account for multiple tax bills sent/paid in the same year. This is very disturbing, and I can't be the only customer impacted by this. 

Due to these software/calculation errors, I have essentially been paying almost nothing into my escrow account for the past XXXX years. As a result, I'm now being unfairly expected to pay back a {$3600.00} escrow shortage, plus the current year 's escrow, in just XXXX year. This will cause my 2025 monthly mortgage payment to increase by {$410.00} a month for a full year, which I CAN NOT AFFORD and SHOULD NOT be expected to pay. I SHOULD NOT be expected to make up for XXXX years ' worth of XXXX Mortgage 's calculation mistakes and/or software bugs, plus the current year 's escrow payment, in just XXXX year. This is unacceptable service from a mortgage company, and it has greatly damaged my trust in XXXX Mortgage. XXXX Mortgage also should have caught these errors at some point, but instead it let them persist for XXXX years until I, the customer, finally realized something was wrong had to dig into my escrow statements and tax documents and figure out what was going on. Quite frankly, that's my mortgage company 's job, not mine. 

I also don't understand why there aren't system alerts in place for when a customer 's escrow account starts falling below {$0.00} and then keeps plummeting. My escrow account started tanking around XX/XX/XXXX and was simply allowed to keep dropping and dropping, and at no point did anything in XXXX Mortgage 's system throw a red flag and say there might be a problem. XXXX Mortgage not only needs to fix the calculation error that caused this issue, but needs to put alerts in place to identify issues and discrepancies as they occur. 

Prior to submitting this compliant, I did my due diligence and attempted to contact XXXX Mortgage Customer Service multiple times over XXXX weeks to discuss and try to resolve this issue. XXXX Customer Service failed at every attempt. 

Details of my attempts to contact XXXX Mortgage are as follows : XX/XX/XXXX, XXXX PM ET : XXXX Customer Service and spoke with XXXX ( the after-call survey said XXXX ) XXXX She listened to my issue and seemed to be following what I was saying, but at no point did she acknowledge that this was an error XXXX Mortgage needed to investigate and simply asked how I would like to pay back the shortage. I told her I would NOT discuss payment until XXXX Mortgage identified and corrected the issue that caused the shortage. She ended up escalating my issue to an escalation XXXX. After waiting on hold, I was told all escalation managers were busy due to high call volume and was asked if I would like to schedule a callback. I said yes, and was told I would receive a call back within XXXX business day. This did not happen. The only call back I got was someone from a different division of the company wanting to discuss the low rating I gave XXXX Mortgage on the post-call satisfaction survey ( so clearly the company values meaningless metrics over actual problem resolution ). 

XX/XX/XXXX, XXXX PM ET : After I did NOT receive the promised call back within XXXX business day, I called XXXX Mortgage Customer Service a second time. I explained to an agent named XXXX that I was supposed to receive a call back from an escalation XXXX but did not, so he put me straight through to escalation. After once again waiting on hold like I did the previous evening, he came back and said all escalation managers were busy due to high call volume, and asked if I would like to schedule a call back. I said NO, that's what I was told last night and the callback didn't happen. He then somehow immediately found a way to connect me to an escalation XXXX. I spoke with XXXX. I explained the issue all over again to her ( there seemed to be no record of my previous call with XXXX or XXXX my request for a call back ). XXXX said that my escrow statements would be sent for analysis and that I would receive a call back after XXXX business days. She gave me a phone number/extension and an email address for directly contacting her. 

XX/XX/XXXX, XXXX PM ET : After I still did not receive a call back after XXXX business days, I called the direct number/extension XXXX gave me and got an automated voicemail. I left a message asking for an update as soon as possible. 

XX/XX/XXXX, XXXX XXXX XXXX : After no call back and no response to my voicemail after XXXX full business days, I sent an email to the address XXXX gave me. I asked for a response by end of business day Monday, XX/XX/XXXX. 

XX/XX/XXXX, XXXX PM ET : After no call back XXXX full business days after my first XX/XX/XXXX call with XXXX, no response to my XX/XX/XXXX voicemail, and no response to my XXXX email, I sent a second email stating that if I did not receive a response by end of business day Tuesday XX/XX/XXXX, I would submit a complaint with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. 

XX/XX/XXXX, after end of business day : After no response to any of the above, I submitted this complaint. 

Again, this is completely unacceptable service from a mortgage company. XXXX Mortgage has put me in a financially difficult situation due to its system 's inability to do basic escrow calculations, has wasted my time and frustrated me with its non-existent Customer Service, and has severely damaged my trust in them as a customer with a XXXX mortgage in excellent standing.

Company response to consumer: Closed with non-monetary relief