Consumer complaint received 2024-08-05 00:00:00
Product: Mortgage — FHA mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process — Escrow, taxes, or insurance
Company: LAKEVIEW LOAN SERVICING, LLC
State: WV

Complaint narrative:
My house had a XXXX address change recently. Then in XX/XX/XXXX my mortgage went up from $ XXXX to $ XXXX due to an apparent shortage in escrow. I started to look into the issue and found that it was an escrow shortage on my account. So I called the company on XX/XX/XXXX four times, and in the four separate conversations found out the following : The reason for the increase is that they charged {$4500.00} in county taxes to my account for a property that I do not own. ( {$2200.00} on XX/XX/XXXX AND {$2200.00} on XX/XX/XXXX ) This put my escrow account balance far under the amount I actually owed as I actually owed {$560.00} ( XXXX county taxes ) and {$500.00} ( XXXX county taxes ). The company said that the balance shortage was correct however and asked me to pay it without looking into it themselves. As it was not the correct county taxes - I did not pay at this time. I then contacted my actual county to get my real county tax receipts as well as my XXXX address change ( paperwork ). To submit an escrow review, as requested by the loan company. I also found, on my own that the company had the entire wrong parcel number. So I also grabbed my actual Parcel number from the county and gave it to the bank so that the bank would have it to fix the problem.

I submitted a request online ( as requested by the bank ) and waited the time they told me it would take to fix this problem. After, the problem persisted and I called back on XX/XX/XXXX to check on the status of the problem. During that call, the company said there was nothing they could do to help and all I could do was pay the new mortgage amount while we waited for things to get settled. I found out on this same call that the county that they paid taxes to, wasn't even my county. The property they paid taxes on was a different address in a different county. I live in a county two over. 

I continued to wait and received a NEW escrow analysis XX/XX/XXXX ( they did not alert me of this at the time ) this was still on the wrong property and parcel number. I did call them on XX/XX/XXXX after receiving mail that my loan would default if I didn't pay the ( still wrong ) amount in full. So I called back, paid XXXXXXXX XXXX  payment and was told I could file for a loan assistance program through the same bank and it would stall the proceedings with my account, this was untrue and did not stall the proceedings. 

I received more mail that my loan was in default still, so I called the bank back later in the month to check in on the proceedings XX/XX/XXXX. They said the only way to pause or stop this from happening was to pay the entire {$2800.00} that was due and the {$1400.00} that would be due XX/XX/XXXX. On this call, I explained the problem again and was told to resubmit my county taxes, again and the escrow department would solve it in the next 4-5 days. They told me in order to get the escrow account back to correct that I had to contact the county 's tax department and request a refund from the county for a property I didn't own, in a county I did not live in.

After that call I called the other county ( the one they sent the taxes to, and had told ME to contact. ) The county said that, not only were that property 's taxes handled by a different company and already paid, that they only received 1 of the 2 checks from the loan company. AND even if they had both checks, that the company should be the ones hunting down the checks, not me as they wouldn't be able to do anything. 

The county representative said they'd look into it and get back to me, as of today ( XX/XX/XXXX ), they have not. 

I contacted the bank again ( XX/XX/XXXX ). I walked another representative through the problem. She said that the bank had reached out XX/XX/XXXX to the county I lived in to verify the parcel number of the property but the county said it was being determined and has not returned their call. But the bank had NOT reached out to the county that they had sent the two checks totaling {$4500.00} too which is the source of the banks clerical error. I then asked the representative about a provisional credit for my escrow account to help out while we waited to get this sorted out, which they denied. I asked for my loan to be paused while they sorted out their error, which they denied, I asked for any other option to alleviate the stress of a mortgage I can not afford month after month while they take their sweet time fixing, to which they said to go through them for mortgage assistance.

I called the county and left a message for a call back then began this complaint. 

I have paid {$5600.00} in mortgage payments since XX/XX/XXXX. I should have paid {$2400.00}. These payments have, no joke, ruined my financial stability due to a clerical issue on the banks end they refuse to fix or alleviate to this point. 

At this point I am being told by the bank to go bug someone else while the bank sits and does nothing. If I made a single wrong payment it would effect me for years - the bank however, refuses to help, refuses to cooperate in a meaningful way, refuses to alleviate the stress this has caused on my family and has taken up entire days with hunting down information they should be handling. It has now been 41 days dealing with these issues.

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