Consumer complaint received 2024-09-17 00:00:00
Product: Mortgage — Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process — Escrow, taxes, or insurance
Company: SELECT PORTFOLIO SERVICING, INC.
State: CA

Complaint narrative:
I closed on my property XXXX XXXX XXXX and all payments and everything was good with the loan through XXXX XXXX. The property taxes were calculated correctly and the correct amount of money was in the escrow account to pay for all of the secured property taxes that were due that coming year, XXXX, with my original lender, XXXX XXXX. 

The servicing was transferred to SPS Servicing and the correct information was transferred from XXXX XXXX  to SPS Servicing. Upon servicing the loan, SPS Servicing calculated the incorrect amount due for property taxes each month- they were going off of the old property tax amount that the previous owner must have been paying. 

My loan officer and I called SPS Servicing in XXXX to bring up that they had the incorrect property tax amount. We spoke to a manager who said their mortgage/escrow department would review it. WE called back on XX/XX/XXXX and spoke to the manager XXXX. 
We called on XX/XX/XXXX and spoke to XXXX, the manager. We called on XXXX XXXX as well. My loan officer, XXXX XXXX, also called on numerous occasions. 

We asked if they were going to pay the entire property tax bill. Not just the previous owners assessed amount. We couldnt get an answers from them. The managers didnt seem to know and there was no way for us or them to directly contact their escrow department. Finally after months of this, I asked to get my money out of Escrow so I could pay the entire property tax amount on time. They wouldnt get back to us or release the funds. They only paid the property tax amount that they incorrectly calculating and I was charged a late fee on the first payment. I again asked to get the money out of escrow on XX/XX/XXXX and spoke to someone and they finally provided us an email address. This was the first time anyone would give us any contact information. XXXX  months after trying to get information on this. 

On XX/XX/XXXX I sent an email asking for them to either give me money back that they had for all of the property taxes or pay the entire property tax amount. They didnt respond. 

On XX/XX/XXXX I called again and spoke to XXXX. She didnt know what was going on and had no idea about any of this. No one had any answers as to what was going on. 

I asked to cancel my escrow account so that I could pay the entire property tax bill as I dont have the extra funds if they werent able to inform me if they were going to pay the entire tax amount. They then froze all of the funds, including the entire escrows funds for 60-90 days because I asked to cancel the escrow to pay the correct amount for the property taxes. They were supposed to have it resolved by 30 days and it took almost 90 days for them to issue the check back to me of my escrow funds. Finally a check was sent to me of my escrow amount but by the time the funds were available and I was able to pay the last property tax bill, it was also late and therefore I incurred another penalty. The total penalties was XXXX for not having the correct amount of property taxes paid on time for those XXXX periods. 

It is only right that SPS servicing pay the late penalties, plus any additional penalties as they created this entire situation and my loan and all payments were correct when they received the loan. That amount is presently {$2800.00}. 

I filed an initial claim that SPS wasnt getting back to me. On XX/XX/XXXX they got back to me. They sent email stating that they dont pay the supplemental tax so my claim was denied. We all know that payments in CA any lender, they calculate 1.25 % and there is enough money in the escrow to cover the tax. SPS was not allowing me to take money out of the account to pay the taxes and they were not getting to us about what was going on. 

**Regarding the attached document, The Annual Account Disclosure Statement, it references the correct amount that I had with my previous lender. Further it shows that at this time I was due back money according to them. They write in this letter : Your total refund is {$18000.00}, which is determined by subtracting your required beginning escrow account balance from your actual beginning escrow account balance. {$19000.00} - $ XXXX = {$18000.00}. They were not letting me get this or any other money back to pay my property tax bills.

Company public response: Company believes it acted appropriately as authorized by contract or law
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation