Consumer complaint received 2024-11-15 00:00:00
Product: Mortgage — Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process — Escrow, taxes, or insurance
Company: Mr. Cooper Group Inc.
State: DC

Complaint narrative:
I am requesting immediate assistance with resolving a long-standing dispute with Nationstar Mortgage dba Mr. Cooper. Mr. Cooper erroneously issued at least XXXX checks for hazard insurance coverage to XXXX different companies that don't provide coverage for my property AFTER I requested for my escrow account to be closed. Despite receiving confirmation of the closure and providing proof that I pay my hazard insurance and taxes, Mr. Cooper erronously issued these checks and instead of following up with these companies ( XXXX XXXX and XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX ), the mortgage service provider added these payments to my account and increased my monthly mortgage payments initially by {$1200.00} which was then later reduced to exceeding my monthly mortgage payments by over {$300.00} ( XXXX to current ) after reapplying XXXX of the XXXX erroneous hazard insurance payments back to my account in XXXX, after it was removed, because XXXX placed a stop payment on the check for reasons unknown. I have provided all my receipts showing I've been paying my hazardous insurance and taxes to Mr. Cooper, however, they refuse to acknowledge the error even though they have no proof the funds were ever applied to my account. How could they when it was sent to the wrong company? Below is a list of demands for Mr. Cooper, along with a timeline of events. I was served a complaint by the company for foreclosure in XX/XX/XXXX. My court date is scheduled for XX/XX/XXXX. From XXXX to XX/XX/XXXX, I spoke with numerous Mr. Cooper representatives on this matter. All of them recognized the error and tried their best to ask for the correction, however, they were powerless to remove the erronous charge and late fees from my account. I even sat on the phone with representatives for hours with XXXX XXXX to help them obtain their refund - which was not my job at all since this was an error on their part. This has ruined me financially because the delinquencies reported to the credit bureaus dropped my score by over XXXX points and led to a domino effect of almost all my credit card limits being dropped to my balance so it looks like I maxed out all of my cards. I am unable to obtain a loan because of the delinquencies reported which was needed to cover repairs for my property and day to day expenses for the property. Below is a list of my requests for XXXX XXXX to make me whole again, followed by a timeline of events. I was unable to upload my statements, and I have all correspondence so let me know if you need additional information. 

Immediately remove the charge of {$4100.00} added to my mortgage account for XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, Washington, XXXX in error when Mr. Cooper issued this unauthorized payment to XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. 
o As I explained several times via phone and in past complaint letters, my account has been in non-escrow status since XX/XX/XXXX. I have provided proof that I pay my hazard insurance and taxes directly since XX/XX/XXXX without any gaps in coverage. 
o Mr. Cooper issued this payment to XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX ( along with another payment sent to XXXX XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX ) by mistake due to internal communication issues. 
o Mr. Cooper reported initially receiving a refund check from XXXX XXXX in XX/XX/XXXX. In XXXX, my account was corrected and the charges for the XXXX hazard insurance payments and late fees for XXXX were removed from my account and I made the XXXX payment of {$2000.00}, which only includes principle and interest. 
o XXXX XX/XX/XXXX, Mr. Cooper reapplied XXXX of the XXXX charges for the erroneous hazard insurance payments, allegedly because XXXX placed a stop payment on the refund check. Instead of Mr. Cooper following up with XXXX to obtain a new check or have the stop payment removed, Mr. Cooper decided to reapply this erroneous charge back to my account. 
o I disputed the additional charge for the erroneous hazard insurance payment and have spoken to several representatives who all agree that I should not be charged for this payment but are powerless to remove the payment. Whenever I attempt to speak to a supervisor, I am placed on hold and the call is dropped. I was successful in speaking to XXXX, however, he was unable to have the charges removed. 
o In XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX, I communicated with XXXX XXXX, Customer Relations XXXX who reviewed my complaint once it was elevated. In her assessment, she deemed that I owed this money despite acknowledging the payments were sent to XXXX hazard insurance companies that do not cover my property AFTER my account was placed in non-escrow status. 
In XX/XX/XXXX, after reacquiring my mortgage from XXXXXXXX XXXX, which Mr. Cooper bought out, Mr. Cooper performed an escrow analysis and determined my escrow payments were not adequate to cover my taxes and hazardous insurance. This was probably due to the inaccurate plans to issue XXXX hazard insurance payments and inaccurate property tax payments ( they used old information and did not verify the amount to be owed ). Mr. Cooper began charging me for the hazardous insurance and tax payments in XX/XX/XXXX. I am also requesting an escrow assessment as I believe I was overcharged a total of {$2500.00} for mortgage payments made in XXXX, XXXX, and XX/XX/XXXX : o I believe I was overcharged a total of {$1200.00} for the XX/XX/XXXX mortgage payment which increased from {$2600.00} to {$3200.00}. 
o I was overcharged by {$630.00} for the month of XXXX when the mortgage increased to {$2600.00}. 
o I was overcharged by {$630.00} for the month of XXXX when the mortgage increased to {$2600.00}. 
I am requesting Mr. Cooper show good faith by removing of all late fees from my account that were added because of the payments not received during the months the amount owed has been disputed. I was willing and able to make the correct payments and Mr. Cooper refused to accept the payment or make the revisions to my escrow account in a timely manner so your system would allow for payments online. Mr. Cooper also refused to accept any partial payments from XXXX XX/XX/XXXX. When I was offered the option to make a partial payment, I was told the payment would be applied to cover some of the disputed charges. Therefore, I can not pay until these fees are removed because all of my payments must be applied to the principle and interest. 
I am requesting a letter to explain to my potential lender, XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, that the mortgage payments were not able to be made due to a clerical error that was no fault of my own and explain that it took several months to correct the error, AND explain that I am in no way responsible for the late payments. 
I am requesting for letters to be sent to all of the credit bureaus to report my payments as made on time once this issue is resolved. I was denied a much needed home equity loan to consolidate debt and make repairs to my rental property. Because Mr. Cooper refused to correct my account so I could pay, I was denied the loan due to this delinquent account. Other creditors have also followed suit in dropping my credit limits and my score has plummeted and placed me in a worse financial position.

If Mr. Cooper fails to take action to correct these errors, I will have no choice but to take legal action against Mr. Cooper. I hope these matters are able to be resolved immediately to avoid any further financial detriment to me and embarrassment for Mr. Cooper since I doubt any judge would allow you to foreclose on my property due to a clerical error. 
Summary of Events : XXXX I contacted Mr. Cooper to have my escrow account canceled. The representative assured me that since I made the request to close the escrow accounts BEFORE the payments were made on XX/XX/XXXX to both my insurance company, NREIG ( XXXX ), and XXXX XXXX ( {$4000.00} ) in error. The payment made to XXXX XXXX was a complete error. The representatives from XXXX XXXX verified never providing any proof of coverage for my property, XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, and the account number provided by Mr. Cooper didnt align with any numbering scheme used for their accounts. The erroneous payment was sent to XXXX in a bundled payment, so Mr. Cooper was unable to place a stop payment on the check. 
XX/XX/XXXX - Despite Mr. Cooper agreeing to close my escrow account and reclassify my account as a non-escrow bearing account in XX/XX/XXXX, not XXXX, but XXXX hazard insurance payments were erroneously sent a week later for my property AFTER my account moved to non escrow status. This occurred because your staff did not communicate to the escrow department to not send the checks. 
XX/XX/XXXX to XX/XX/XXXX - I spoke with representatives to correct the error and assisted with requesting my insurance company to return the checks. 
XX/XX/XXXX, Mr. Cooper received the returned check sent to my actual insurance company, XXXX, and that refund was credited to my escrow account. 
XX/XX/XXXX The Mr. Cooper escrow and insurance team received the refund check for the erroneous payment sent to XXXX XXXX and my account was corrected ( I was never notified just happened to check my account and saw it corrected ). I also filed a complaint with the better business bureau around the same time. 
XX/XX/XXXX a negative escrow balance was applied to my account for XXXX of the XXXX erroneous unauthorized hazard insurance payments Mr. Cooper made in XX/XX/XXXX. When I reached out to Mr. Cooper, a representative explained the company received a refund check from XXXX XXXX. However, once the refund check for the erroneous payment was received XXXX XXXX, a stop payment was placed on the refunded check. Instead of going back to XXXX to obtain the fund, Mr. Cooper reinstated the balance to my account instead, which reinstated a negative escrow balance on my account and raised my mortgage payments by {$500.00} again in XX/XX/XXXX. Its not clear whether XXXX or XXXX is involved Ive been told this story for both. 
XX/XX/XXXX XX/XX/XXXX - Ive spoken to several representatives over the past XXXX months in an attempt to have the issue corrected. The last representative I spoke with on XX/XX/XXXX informed me my issue was being resolved by their XXXX XXXX Department but I have not heard back. All but XXXX representatives who all understand and noted the error but were unempowered to make the simple correction they all know and have noted in my account that needs to be made. There were XXXX representatives who tried to insist that I make the payments anyway despite know the funds were not owed by me, and advised me to wait for a refund. If I would have followed this advise, Id would have paid over {$2000.00} in funds not owed to you by now. 
XX/XX/XXXX - I checked my account online to see if the error was corrected and noticed the system will no longer allow me to make online payments anymore. My account is still being charged for the escrow payment. Mr. Coopers negligence in managing my account correctly has allowed my account to slip into foreclosure in their system. 
XX/XX/XXXX, I resubmitted my complaint to Mr. Cooper via the customer service portal XX/XX/XXXX, I received a letter from Mr. Cooper XXXX XXXX XXXX explaining they consider the matter to be resolved and I owe the total amount of unpaid principle and interest, along with the erroneous charges and late fees applied to my account. The justification for why Mr. Cooper believes I owe for erroneous hazard insurance payment is because Mr. Cooper was verbally informed by XXXX that a refund check was sent directly to me. To date, I have never received a refund check from XXXX or XXXX for the erroneous hazard insurance payments made by Mr. Cooper. My actual hazard insurance company, XXXX, has verified that no refund payments have been made to me and their affiliate company, XXXX, has been asked to reissue the refund directly to Mr. Cooper. 
XX/XX/XXXX I received a letter from Mr. Cooper Customer Relations Specialist explaining they consider the matter to be resolved and I owe the total amount of unpaid principle and interest, along with the erroneous charges and late fees applied to my account, and their intention to no longer communicate with me on this matter.

I have since submitted follow up email responses and additional evidence proving that I never received a refund on XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX but I have not heard back from XXXX XXXX. 
XX/XX/XXXX My credit limit for XXXX of my credit cards was reduced due to Mr. Coopers report to three credit bureaus that I was delinquent on the account and noted the amount owed was disputed and the dispute was closed, which was inaccurate. I have since submitted a dispute to XXXX for the delinquency report, citing the ongoing investigation by XXXX. 
On XX/XX/XXXX, I spoke with XXXX XXXX representative, XXXX, who informed me my account was now in foreclosure. I explained the situation to XXXX and was recommended to reach out again to the Headquarters to request the removal of the charges. I also spoke with XXXX from the Mr. Cooper Homeowners Insurance Department, who explained the check sent to XXXX XXXX was still pending. Again, Mr. Cooper changed the story about which erroneous check was still pending. XXXX attempted to contact XXXX XXXX while I was on the phone to have the refund check reissued, however, the company was closed for the day. Both representatives, XXXX and XXXX, admitted that I was not responsible for the accidental hazardous insurance payments but they both were powerless to remove the charges and XXXX still insisted that I assist them in obtaining the missing payment because. I insisted the company do their own legwork to obtain the refund because I have tried several times to assist Mr. Cooper to no avail. 
Despite acknowledging that this additional payment that was erroneously made on my behalf to a company that does not cover my property, Mr. Cooper is insisting that I pay for this erroneous payment until they receive their refund from XXXX XXXX and wait for the company to pay me back for the overpayments. The company seems to operate a system that runs on autopilot and can not make any backend changes. Since canceling my escrow account in XX/XX/XXXX, all of my hazard insurance payments have been made on time consistently every single month. My insurance company never alerted Mr. Cooper that my hazard insurance payments, which I make on a monthly basis, were not paid and I paid my taxes for the property in XX/XX/XXXX on time! 
This issue has caused me a tremendous amount of stress and is threatening to injure me financially. I am seeking therapy to cope with the anxiety and stress as this is affecting my mental health I was denied a much needed home equity loan for significant renovations needed to rent out my rental property and my mortgage company will not approve the loan until this issue is resolved. Furthermore, because Mr. Cooper initially miscalculated the taxes and escrow I would begin paying in XX/XX/XXXX for the XXXX hazard insurance and tax payments anticipated, I believe I am owed a total of {$1900.00} for overpayments made in Since Mr. Cooper received the funds from my actual hazard insurance company, XXXX, Mr. Cooper owes me a refund of {$1200.00} for the overage payment made in XX/XX/XXXX. My account does not reflect this overage because the negative balance from the erroneous payment made to XXXX XXXX is still showing on my account. 
Any assistance you can provide to prevent this company from illegally foreclosing on my property and compel them to accept my payments would be greatly appreciated. 

Regards, XXXX XXXX XXXX # XXXX For XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, Billing Address : XXXX XXXX XXXX  XXXXXXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation