Consumer complaint received 2024-12-07 00:00:00
Product: Mortgage — VA mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process — Escrow, taxes, or insurance
Company: Freedom Mortgage Company
State: WI

Complaint narrative:
In early XX/XX/XXXX received a letter from Freedom Mortgage indicating that an escrow refund check had been issued from my account, but not yet cashed. This was concerning to me as my escrow account should not be ahead at this time of year. 


I recalled that upon first purchasing my mortgage from XXXX, Freedom Mortgage did not properly implement my four-installment property tax payment plan. This plan is an election allowed by XXXX XXXX which sees the property tax from the previous year paid in four equal installments in XXXX, XXXX, XXXX and XXXX. The election to use this payment plan is present in my Initial Escrow Disclosure Agreement, and communicated to Freedom in document provided by XXXX ( see attached ). 


Freedom is not heed these documents when paying my property tax, doing so in a single lump sum and thus overdrawing my escrow account at the end of XXXX. However, when I contacted them concerning this issue, they were quick to resolve the problem to my satisfaction. This left me with the impression they were properly managing the account. 


That was not the case. 


Upon closer inspection I have found severe errors with the Escrow Analysis performed by Freedom Mortgage in XXXX and XXXX of XXXX. 


In XXXX of XXXX  Freedom Mortgage issued an excess XXXX property tax payment to XXXX XXXX XXXX This was in addition to the erroneous lump sum amount they paid in XXXX in XXXX, evidently when they corrected my tax payment election they made it go into effect in XXXX not XXXX. Freedom contacted XXXX XXXX to request a refund, which was granted. 


Upon receiving the refund in XXXX of XXXX Freedom Mortgage conducted an Escrow analysis from the dates of XX/XX/XXXX to XX/XX/XXXX. As a result, they did not include the XXXX and XXXX payments in their calculations and planned my Escrow to pay half of the actual task burden. This led Freedom to simultaneously predict an account shortage while lowering the amount I was required to pay. As a result of this XXXX estimate Freedom determined that I needed a new minimum balance of {$750.00}. 


In XXXX of XXXX I met that minimum balance prompting Freedom to again perform an escrow analysis. This time the analysis indicated I was to pay a single {$3300.00} property tax payment in XXXX of XXXX. This was half the actual sum, paid in a single installment, six months after the first payment would be due in XXXX. 


As a result of this baffling analysis Freedom further reduced my monthly escrow payment and issued a reimbursement check to me for {$410.00} to address what they identified as an excess balance in my account. When this check was not cashed Freedom sent a second letter asking me to confirm its receipt, causing me to look deeper into the situation. 


I contacted Freedom Mortgage on XXXX and made them aware of their misadministration. I asked for the following actions to occur : 1 ) Cancel the reimbursement check and apply its funds to my escrow account. 

2 ) Restore my escrow payment to the balance found in their XX/XX/XXXX analysis ( XXXX monthly ), as this would cover upcoming predicted withdrawals in XXXX, if only they would tolerate a temporary negative balance in XXXX of that year. 

3 ) Give me a consistent point of contact regarding my escrow account, as the issues were ongoing. 


I also voluntarily increased my XX/XX/XXXX escrow payment to {$650.00}, for a total payment of {$2800.00}. Freedom was requiring a total payment of {$2500.00}, with {$370.00} going to escrow. 



Since contacting their customer service Freedom has not responded to me directly despite their automatic reply indicating they would do so within 7 business days. However, I am reasonably certain they did read my letter as they did take the following actions : 1 ) Cancel the reimbursement check and apply its funds to my escrow account. 

2 ) Perform escrow reanalysis and set my monthly payment starting in XX/XX/XXXXXXXX  to {$780.00} a month, for a total payment of {$2900.00}. 


This situation has lead me to believe that Freedom Mortgage has mismanaged my account due to incompetence, then failed to make a good faith effort to resolve the situation. I, as a lay person, should not be the backstop for their accounting and projection errors. It is ridiculous to see my escrow swing from a {$410.00} dollar reimbursement to requiring an additional {$410.00} a month without any surprise expenses. This sees extra money leaving my pocket to compensate for Freedom 's mismanagement. 


Attached to this complaint is supporting documentation, including a letter I provided to Freedom Mortgage explaining the error in detail.

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation