Consumer complaint received 2024-02-11 00:00:00
Product: Mortgage — Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process — Escrow, taxes, or insurance
Company: TRUIST FINANCIAL CORPORATION
State: MD

Complaint narrative:
XXXX XX/XX/XXXX To Whom it May Concern : My name is XXXX XXXX and I live at XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. I have lived in this house since XX/XX/XXXX. My initial mortgage lending company was XXXX XXXX, but the loan was sold to Truist Bank just two weeks after the initial purchase and they have held the mortgage ever since. I have also had XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX through a partnership with XXXX throughout the entirety of my ownership of this home. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, due to circumstances beyond my knowledge or control, I found out my home was uninsured for a period of time ( XXXX ). Due to this, I was forced to get insurance with another company immediately. In this process, I was informed that Truist would have to place a Forced Place ( Hazard ) Insurance Policy on my account for the time in which I was uninsured. I was also told that this would come out of my escrow account ( as my insurance payment usually had ), but because the lapse on insurance was not my responsibility, I should not be responsible for the additional hazard pay. Please see the below timeline for details on the incident. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, the renewal of my XXXX XXXX insurance policy was supposed to begin. In years past, this transition happened smoothly without any required actions from myself. 

On XX/XX/XXXX I received a letter in the mail from XXXX XXXX claiming that my premium had not been paid and that if not paid by the XXXX, that they would cancel my policy. Being that this was the first I had heard of the issue, I contacted both parties. First, I called XXXX XXXX to confirm that this letter was real. They informed me that it was truly the case and that they had been reaching out to XXXX for payment without any return. I informed them that XXXX hadnt held the mortgage for two years and that they had been successfully billing Truist during that same amount of time. 

The XXXX XXXX rep then asked me to call Truist and have them send them the money. I then called Truist and the rep stated that there was a miscommunication between companies and that it would be handled now that they were aware of it. I still asked if there was anything I could do to avoid the policy being canceled and the rep asked me to go on XXXX to upload my most recent policy forms. 

The Truist rep during this phone call even stated that I shouldnt worry because I did not thing wrong and it would be taken care of. I was told I could follow along with the status through this website, which in just a few days stated reviewed. 

I received no further communication from either party until I received a letter in the mail from Truist on XX/XX/XXXX, stating that XXXX XXXX did indeed cancel my policy. Being that this was after-hours, I was unable to communicate with a rep from either party that same day, but I was able to reach XXXX who guided me through starting a new policy elsewhere. 

The next day I was able to get on the phone with reps from both parties and neither could tell me where the miscommunication took place, so I merged the phone calls and had them speak directly to one another. Their conclusion was that XXXX XXXX never billed the correct address for Truist as they were trying to send the bills to XXXX XXXX  instead. Following the discussion in which they determined the issue, they stated that it was my responsibility to inform XXXX XXXX of the Mortgage Lender change so they could bill the correct company and therefore I was at fault. 


The first issue is that the Lender change took place all the way back in XXXX of XXXX and Truist themselves handled the transition of the policy. There were no further changes since this date as far as the lender, and therefore, no changes in billing should have occurred. Secondly, we know that they were both informed of the change because XXXX XXXX has been paid monthly out of my escrow account through Truist for two years now without an issue. So again, no change should have occurred. The third issue is that I was not contacted by either party until XXXX of this year, meanwhile escrow has been collected from me since then and has not been paid out. 

Due to these reasons, I need this issue to be resolved immediately. The letter I received on XX/XX/XXXX stated that the Forced Place ( Hazard ) Insurance would cost {$1900.00}, and I will need that to be taken care of by the parties at fault. 

Sincerely, XXXX XXXX

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