Consumer complaint received 2025-10-30 00:00:00
Product: Mortgage — Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process — Escrow, taxes, or insurance
Company: PENNYMAC LOAN SERVICES, LLC.
State: MI

Complaint narrative:
On XX/XX/year> I received an email from Pennymac ( my mortgage company ) stating that they performed a restatement of my escrow account and my monthly escrow payment amount was increasing from {$680.00} to {$1600.00} per month. I called Pennymac at XXXX to find out what happened and while researching on the Pennymac app on my phone I discovered that they deducted two different payments from my escrow account for my annual taxes. One payment was the correct amount of {$5500.00} as per the tax bill received from my township. The second amount of {$5200.00} is unknown to me and I dont know where they got that number or why they deducted it from my account. The representative on the call was not helpful, did not seem to understand my issue and was very argumentative and indicated that she couldnt do anything about it. I spent 18 minutes on the phone and when I couldnt get any assistance, I then submitted a secure message through the Pennymac app on my phone. 
On XX/XX/year>XXXX  I called Pennymac again and spoke to an agent who said he would submit a request to their tax department to research the issue. He could see the 2 tax payment deductions from my account but didn't know why there were 2 deductions. On this day I received a response from the secure message I sent in the app stating that a request was submitted to their tax department to research and rectify the overpayment of my property taxes. 
On XX/XX/year>, After not hearing any resolution back from Pennymac I sent another secure message requesting resolution on the tax payments and also uploaded a copy of my tax bill with the message. I also called my township who confirmed that they only received ONE payment for my account in the correct amount of {$5500.00} and did not receive a second payment. The township advised that Pennymac uses a third party service called XXXX to administer their tax payments and that they only received the one payment for the correct amount. They stated that there was no way for me to contact XXXX and that I would have to work through Pennymac to determine where my money was and get it refunded to my escrow account. 
On XX/XX/year> I received a response to my secure message stating that their records show one of their representatives called me and left a message. I received no call and did not have any voicemail message. 
On XX/XX/year> I sent a response to the secure message response from Pennymac on XX/XX/year>XXXX  advising that I did not receive any phone call or message from them, asked them to verify the phone number they have for me in their records and asked when this issue would be resolved. I received a phone call at XXXX where I was told that they are still researching the issue. I espressed my concern over the increase to my escrow account payment which was causing my monthly payment to increase by {$990.00} per month starting on XX/XX/year>. On this day I also received a response to my secure message regarding the discussion I had with their representative and they stated again that my request was still pending. 
On XX/XX/year> I received a call from a Pennymac representative at XXXX where I was told that they are still researching the issue. I received another call from a different representative at XXXX where they were asking for my property tax parcel ID and legal description. I advised that this information was all on the tax bill that I uploaded to their secure message service on XX/XX/year>. The representative said she would provide this information to the tax department to assist in their research and she wasn't sure why this was taking so long to resolve. 
On XX/XX/year> I sent another secure message stating that it's been over 2 weeks since I've heard anything from Pennymac and asking why it's taking so long for a response. I received no response to this message. 
On XX/XX/year> I called Pennymac again to inquire on the status of getting this error corrected and the additional tax payment deducted in error refunded to my escrow account. I was told that they still need to research this with their tax department. I expressed concern as my monthly payment was due on this day and was told not to make a payment yet while they worked to resolve the issue and that there would be no negative affect on my account as a result. They advised I had a grace period until XX/XX/year> to make the XXXX payment and they expected this would be resolved by then. 
On XX/XX/year> I received a call from a Pennymac agent telling me they are still waiting on the tax department to figure out what happened to the additional tax payment deducted from my escrow account in error. 
On XX/XX/year> I received call from a Pennymac agent telling me they are still waiting on the tax department to figure out what happened to the additional tax payment deducted from my escrow account in error. 
On XX/XX/year> I received call from a Pennymac agent telling me they are still waiting on the tax department to figure out what happened to the additional tax payment deducted from my escrow account in error. No additional update at this time. 
On XX/XX/year> I received call from a Pennymac agent telling me they are still waiting on the tax department to figure out what happened to the additional tax payment deducted from my escrow account in error. No additional update at this time. 
On XX/XX/year> I received call from the Pennymac agent telling me they finally resolved the incorrect tax payment issue and would be issuing a tax payment refund to my escrow account for the {$5200.00}. I asked what happened and where my money was all this time but the representative did not know. I inquired about removing the escrow account from my loan as this has been such an ordeal and I would prefer to pay the taxes and insurance on my own going forward so as not to have this situation occur again. I was told that as soon as the refund posts to my escrow account and there is no longer a negative balance, I can make the request to remove the escrow. The refund was posted to my account that day. The representative also did a recalculation of my escrow account considering the tax refund and my payment returned to the previous amount before all of this. I made the monthly payment on my account. 
On XX/XX/year> I called Pennymac to request the removal of the escrow account from my loan. The agent advised that she had to submit a request to their escrow department and I would receive a response within 14 business days. 
On XX/XX/year> I received a document in the document center ( no notification received of this, just happened to look on XX/XX/year> and discovered this ) that stated that my request to remove my escrow account from the loan was denied due to a negative balance in the escrow account. I looked into this in my account online and discovered that on XX/XX/year> Pennymac made an adjusting entry to the tax refund and removed it from my account putting my escrow back into a negative balance. 
On XX/XX/year> O called Pennymac to find out why they reversed the tax payment refund that was applied to my account. Their agent did not know why, put me on hold and came back to state that there was a tax penalty fee assessed for {$5200.00}. I asked what this was about as the error was completely on their end between Pennymac and XXXX and the agent didnt know. She stated she would look into it and call me back the following day. As a follow up I sent another secure message through their message center asking them to escalate this to a leader who has authority to resolve this issue completely. I received no response so now I am filing this formal complaint.

Company response to consumer: Closed with non-monetary relief