Consumer complaint received 2024-09-16 00:00:00
Product: Mortgage — Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process — Escrow, taxes, or insurance
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY
State: MD

Complaint narrative:
Wells Fargo have been the mortgagee on the property XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX  since XX/XX/XXXX. I XXXX XXXX am the mortgagor and the mortgage account number is XXXX. 

Problems started after the withdrawal of my insurer ( XXXX XXXX ) from the landlord insurance marketplace. Consequently on or around XX/XX/XXXX I was forced to move the home insurance policy to XXXX XXXX  XXXX. The policy was effective from XX/XX/XXXX. 

On XX/XX/XXXX Wells Fargo sent me a letter threatening to purchase Lender Placed Insurance because they did not have evidence that the expired XXXX XXXX  XXXX  had been replaced. The letter was titledtitled " Second and Final Notice '' but there had been no prior correspondence from Wells Fargo about this matter. 

I forwarded a copy of the Declarations page of the XXXX XXXX  to Wells Fargo and on XX/XX/XXXX they acknowledged that " no further action is required at this time ''. 

I then noticed that Wells Fargo had set up an escrow account for this mortgage so I called their insurance division and was told that as the property was a condo and I needed to send in a copy of the Master policy covering the community. I obtained this and sent it in on XX/XX/XXXX in correspondence which also covered the neighboring house XXXX XXXX XXXX  which I also own. Wells Fargo is also the mortgagee ( account number XXXX ) on that property. 

On XX/XX/XXXX Wells Fargo purchased lender placed insurance for the property. Upon enquiry Wells Fargo explained that the master policy haderroneously not been applied to XXXX ( XXXX XXXX ) and instead had only been applied to account XXXX ( XXXX XXXX ). I was told to send the master policy again and this time citeonly account XXXX. I did this on XX/XX/XXXX. 

Wells Fargo purchased alender placedpolicy at a cost of {$690.00}. It only provides {$3000.00} more coverage than the XXXX XXXX  already covering the house. After I challenged Wells Fargo as to why they had bought this policy they came up with a new excuse saying that my XXXX XXXX  was an XXXX policy and it had to be XXXX. I believe this is a pretextual reason to cover for the error they made in applying the XXXX XXXX I forwarded to the wrong account and then proceeding to purchase lender placed insurance. 
My insurance broker reviewed theLender placedpolicy and advised that the {$43000.00} of cover it provided was insufficient to cover the property in any event. Given that we were now being told by Wells Fargo that the property had to be covered by an XXXX policy even though it was a condo, he advised me to buy an XXXX policy for an increased amount of coverage. This was done effective XX/XX/XXXX. 
Wells Fargo have accepted this policy and cancelled the lender placed insurance but have increased my monthly mortgage payment from {$590.00} to {$750.00} and are charging me {$260.00} for the lender placed insurance. I do not agree liability for the lender placed insurance, I believe it was purchased because Wells Fargo misapplied the XXXX XXXX they were sent covering the house to the wrong account and the reasons given for purchasing the lender placed insurance are pretextual. 
I am seeking the abatement of the {$260.00} charge for the lender policy, the closure of the escrow account set up and for my mortgage payment to revert to {$590.00}

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 monetary relief