Consumer complaint received 2025-02-23 00:00:00
Product: Mortgage — Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process — Escrow, taxes, or insurance
Company: LAKEVIEW LOAN SERVICING, LLC
State: CA

Complaint narrative:
Last year in between XX/XX/XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXXXX/XX/XXXX we had a lapse in insurance due to an expired credit card. We immediately restarted our insurance in XXXX and in the period there were no adverse events nor did we make any claims. However, our mortgage company insisted that they needed to backdate insurance. We called insurance companies and were informed that backdating insurance is illegal and not possible. However, our mortgage company insisted that they needed to purchase backdated insurance and purchased insurance for a total of XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX for a period in the past. 

After this, we promptly uploaded insurance documentation but the mortgage used this excuse to open an escrow account in our name. On XX/XX/XXXX2024 we received an escrow analysis that let us know that there was a shortage on our account of {$1000.00}. The company sent us this in response : " Your required minimum balance for the next XXXX months is {$230.00}, which equals a reserve of XXXX month escrow deposit. Federal law allows us to include a minimum balance cash reserve to help cover any increases in your property costs. In order to reach this low point, your required escrow balance after your XXXX payment should be {$590.00}, while your actual escrow balance is estimated to be - {$450.00}. The difference, {$1000.00}, represents an escrow shortage and will be spread over the next XXXX payments unless your shortage is paid in full. '' In addition, the company increase our monthly mortgage payment from XXXX XXXX  XXXX to pay XXXX towards this shortage and XXXX towards insurance over XXXX  months. 

We called on XX/XX/XXXX2024 and inquired about the shortage of XXXX with the concern that the escrow account was not paying insurance and that the insurance had been already paid. We uploaded said documents to prove insurance on XX/XX/XXXX already. The agent on the phone assured us that no escrow account had been opened or will be opened and should resolve if we paid the XXXX for the backdated insurance. They also assured us that once we paid the XXXX it would trigger another analysis and we should be in the clear and our mortgage payment wouldn't be affected. We therefore made the payment of XXXX on the phone on the same day to be applied to the insurance deficit. 

When our XXXX payment debited we noticed that the company had indeed increased our mortgage payment. When we called back we found out that the XXXX we paid on XX/XX/XXXX had not been applied to the deficit. We talked to multiple agents over the phone who let us know that we needed to fill out paperwork to close the escrow account and that should not be a problem since the XXXX had been paid. We also spoke with other agents who outright rejected our request and told us that we had no choice but to pay the insurance money to the company even though we were paying the insurance ourselves. We submitted the paperwork on XX/XX/XXXX to close the account. The XXXX was not applied to the escrow account until XX/XX/XXXX. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, we received a letter dated XX/XX/XXXX2025 letting us know there was an escrow shortage and our account can not be closed. We called back again and were asked to pay an additional XXXX to cover the shortage to have any hope of closing this account. We paid the said money and today ( XX/XX/XXXX ) our escrow balance shows XXXX but the company has added on another line item for insurance to be paid in XXXX of 2025 for insurance for a total of {$1400.00}. This is in spite of the fact that we pay insurance out of pocket. 

At this point, we are losing an extra XXXX a month towards escrow with the company knowing that they will not be using this money for anything. The company has made no honest attempt to assist us with this. We have been calling and getting the run around with different agents giving us different information to keep this saga going so they can collect this payment from us. The company has an average review of XXXX stars on the better business bureau website and this issue has been happening with lots of other people. We have never defaulted on payments, never had any late payments on our property taxes or mortgage.

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