Consumer complaint received 2026-03-26 00:00:00
Product: Mortgage — Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process — Trying to communicate with the company to fix an issue while managing or servicing your loan
Company: COMMUNITY FINANCIAL SYSTEM, INC.
State: VT

Complaint narrative:
I am submitting a complaint regarding the servicing of my mortgage loan by Community Bank, N.A., specifically relating to an escrow adjustment, credit reporting during an active dispute, and the bank 's failure to provide clear, accurate, and actionable information required to bring my account current. Prior to this matter, I maintained a perfect payment history on this loan and had never been delinquent. My family and I have banked with Community Bank for decades, and I expected reasonable treatment, clear communication, and appropriate duty of care. Key timeline : - XX/XX/XXXX : Escrow-driven payment increase and initial attempts to understand and dispute the change - XX/XX/XXXX : Formal Notice of Error submitted - XX/XX/XXXX : Bank response XXXX ( not received until XX/XX/XXXX ) - Week of XX/XX/XXXX : Materially incorrect payoff amount provided - XX/XX/XXXX : Correct amount finally provided and paid The issue began in XX/XX/XXXX, when my monthly payment increased significantly due to an escrow recalculation, rising from approximately {$1500.00} to {$2800.00}. The nature of the increase itself made it extraordinarily difficult to understand without outside assistance. The underlying cause, a tenfold increase in property taxes resulting from a change in ownership structure and the loss of associated income-based deductions, was never explained to me by the bank. I came to understand it only after extensive independent research and direct conversations with town and state tax representatives. Until that point, the dramatic increase appeared to be a clear error, consistent with missing homestead credits. At no point did the bank provide an explanation that allowed me to understand what had actually driven the payment change. This further reinforced my belief that the account was subject to a legitimate error requiring correction, and that the dispute was valid. There are also unresolved issues regarding missing homestead credits that should reduce the underlying tax bills. I have been actively working with the XXXX and XXXX to correct these items, a process that overlapped with the holiday period and introduced unavoidable administrative delays. From XX/XX/XXXX onward, I made sustained, good-faith efforts to understand and resolve the adjustment. However, I encountered repeated servicing and communication failures that materially impaired my ability to do so, including : - Being repeatedly routed between departments without a single accountable point of contact. Over the course of this matter, I was directed to contact no fewer than XXXX different representatives, including XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX, XXXX, and XXXX, across multiple departments, none of whom had continuity of knowledge about the account. - Inconsistent and conflicting information regarding submitted documents - Inability to obtain confirmation of document receipt - Incorrect internal contact information preventing callbacks- Delays in receiving formal correspondence- Being told that emails may not be responded to as a matter of policy an unacceptable position in a matter involving delinquency status and active credit reporting In addition, I was unable to obtain a clear and reliable statement of the amount required to bring the account current. When I contacted the bank to request the amount required to cure the account, I was not provided with a consistent or accurate answer. I was directed to loan activity statements that do not identify the outstanding amount required to bring the loan current, and which representatives themselves acknowledged are difficult to interpret. Further, I was provided with inconsistent and materially incorrect figures by different representatives. As recently as the week of XX/XX/XXXX, I was told an amount exceeding {$11000.00} was owed, when the correct amount was just over {$7000.00}. Throughout this period, I continued making payments in line with the original monthly obligation, including principal, interest, and the prior escrow amount, reflecting my ongoing good-faith effort to remain current while seeking clarity. I was also advised to rely on online banking to view my loan, but the loan is not visible or accessible in my account at all. It is not a case of limited functionality, the loan is simply not displayed in any form, leaving me without any online method to verify balances or amounts due. As a result, despite actively attempting to resolve the situation since XX/XX/XXXX, I was unable to determine a reliable and accurate amount required to bring the loan current. At the same time, the escrow shortage was being recovered over 12 months, significantly increasing the required monthly payment. Requests for a more manageable recovery structure were declined. This created a situation where the required monthly payment increased sharply at the same time that servicing and communication failures were preventing me from obtaining clear and reliable information about the account. The combination of a materially increased payment and the inability to determine accurate amounts owed made it significantly more difficult to bring the account current despite my good-faith efforts. During this period, adverse credit reporting was furnished. The bank has stated this reflects contractual payment status, but this does not reflect that I was actively challenging the account from XX/XX/XXXX onward and was unable to resolve it due to servicing failures. The bank has also taken the position that the account was not " in dispute '' until I submitted a formal Notice of XXXX. However, I had been actively challenging the escrow adjustment and requesting clarification since XX/XX/XXXX. At no point was I informed that a formal Notice of XXXX was required for my concerns to be treated as a dispute or for credit reporting to be affected. Had I been informed, I would have submitted XXXX immediately. Instead, I believed I was engaging in good faith through normal servicing channels. This resulted in a situation where I was actively attempting to resolve the account for months, but was treated as though no dispute existed while adverse credit reporting continued. This has caused measurable harm. My credit score has declined during this period, and I have been denied a phone plan that I would otherwise expect to qualify for. On XX/XX/XXXX, I was finally provided with a clear and reliable amount required to bring the account current. Upon receiving this figure, I immediately paid the outstanding balance. This confirms that my prior inability to resolve the account was not due to unwillingness to pay, but due to the bank 's failure over an extended period to provide accurate and actionable information. I filed a formal Notice of XXXX outlining these issues. The bank 's response focused on escrow calculations and contractual obligations but did not substantively address the servicing failures described above. At all times, I was actively engaged and attempting to resolve the account. The inability to do so was driven by the servicer 's failure to provide consistent and accurate information, not by any unwillingness to pay. Additional context : I have consistently acted in good faith and have not refused to pay amounts legitimately owed. The difficulty arose from a significant escrow adjustment combined with the inability to obtain clear, consistent, and usable information from the servicer. My concern is not limited to escrow calculation accuracy, but to whether the account was serviced in a manner that allowed a borrower to reasonably understand and resolve their obligations during an active dispute. The fact that I ultimately required assistance from town and state tax representatives, rather than my mortgage servicer, to understand the basis of my own payment increase is itself a reflection of that failure.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation