I need help understanding my escrow.

[emoflamingo]

We have a second home and we were required to refinance it since it was no longer owner operated. We did that last December/January I believe. The company we refinanced through immediately sold it to another lender, so we've been paying to this third lender for 6 months or so.

We got an escrow shortage slip mid-June telling us our payments were jumping from $500 to $650. So I called, panicking because that's a huge jump in a stretched out budget. They had paid the full property tax for the year and thought it was half so they said that they would re-evaluated it. I had to call back (early July) to check on it because I didn't get the re-evaluation notice and they confirmed it did get re-evaluated and that we still had a $48 shortage vs. the $1,200 one they initially said we did.

When we received our bill for this month (the month the first notice said the huge jump would take effect), it hadn't been changed. So I called and asked about it and they said that they would put in a request to move the payment down to the amount I was told ($505) on August 1st instead of September 1st, but I needed to call today to verify. Which I did. But then they told me the payment was going to be $517 because the shortage was really $200. Every time I asked why it was different 3 days after I verified the shortage was $48 it was jumping again. And he kept referring to my 2014 property taxes. Which we haven't received yet, I got 2013's notice (and payment slip, which is standard for them to send out even with an escrow) in November of 2013 (and it shows on our county appraiser site that the bill for 2013 is paid in full with zero mention of 2014). Then he started bringing up paying ahead for 2015 so our escrow would be prepared for the next payment, which is the only thing I understood, except for the fact that I haven't received tax information for 2014 yet.

(I don't know the definition of a simple question, apparently.)

TLDR: Does a mortgage company get information a full year before the homeowner does regarding their property taxes? Is this lender just messing with me and I'm going to get a check back mid-year with no re-evaluation for another 6 months?

[EmilieMadison]

Since it is already July of 2014, the payments due for property taxes should be for the current year, not for last year.

Call your county tax assessor (or whichever gov't entity handles property taxes) and find out what is currently owed and what has been paid. Then call your lender and ask to speak to a supervisor.

[EmilieMadison]

And sorry, more on escrow:
You ARE prepaying for next years taxes with each mortgage payment when you have escrow rolled into your payment. So next year when your taxes are due, the money will be available. When the next years tax statement (the estimated tax for 2015) is given to your lender/escrow company, they determine if your current payment will be enough for the next year's tax payment. If your taxes will be increasing, your mortgage payment will increase as well. 

[emoflamingo]

Our county appraiser is such a clusterfuck too. Which is probably why everything is saying 2013 on their website. I'd wish they'd just get into the 21st century, but the last time they tried that, they had 8 hour waits to tag your vehicles.

I'll see if I can go by and talk to someone in person, which might actually be quicker.

[emoflamingo]

Jul 25, 2014 15:32:46 GMT -5 EmilieMadison said:

And sorry, more on escrow:
You ARE prepaying for next years taxes with each mortgage payment when you have escrow rolled into your payment. So next year when your taxes are due, the money will be available.

Yeah, that's like the ONLY thing I understood (because worked insurance, you pay ahead, blah blah boring).

I'm still trying to figure out how they miscalculated it because they said nothing had changed between what they show for 2013, 2014 and what I assume is an estimate of 2015. My property insurance doesn't renew until December, so paperwork for that won't come out until October at the earliest.

[bittybomb]

This is why we pay our own taxes and insurance directly. I hated escrow.

[jenny1223]

Jul 25, 2014 15:36:39 GMT -5 emoflamingo said:

Jul 25, 2014 15:32:46 GMT -5 EmilieMadison said:

And sorry, more on escrow:
You ARE prepaying for next years taxes with each mortgage payment when you have escrow rolled into your payment. So next year when your taxes are due, the money will be available.

Yeah, that's like the ONLY thing I understood (because worked insurance, you pay ahead, blah blah boring).

I'm still trying to figure out how they miscalculated it because they said nothing had changed between what they show for 2013, 2014 and what I assume is an estimate of 2015. My property insurance doesn't renew until December, so paperwork for that won't come out until October at the earliest.

Is your insurance paid out of the escrow account too? That may have gone up. Just something else to check into.

[emoflamingo]

Jul 25, 2014 16:07:03 GMT -5 jenny1223 said:

Jul 25, 2014 15:36:39 GMT -5 emoflamingo said:

Yeah, that's like the ONLY thing I understood (because worked insurance, you pay ahead, blah blah boring).

I'm still trying to figure out how they miscalculated it because they said nothing had changed between what they show for 2013, 2014 and what I assume is an estimate of 2015. My property insurance doesn't renew until December, so paperwork for that won't come out until October at the earliest.

Is your insurance paid out of the escrow account too? That may have gone up. Just something else to check into.

It renews in December, I only know because I wrote the policy myself.

[starlily]

I know that I've already received notice of increased assessments for upcoming property taxes from two different counties. Only one has an escrow account and the lender sent me a notice advising of a projected escrow shortage shortly after the updated assessment went out.

I don't know why your lender told you varying amounts, but it seems the norm to me that they'd already have info for 2014 taxes.

[emoflamingo]

I'm basing this solely on the multiple holds I was put on, but I'm not sure he did either.

[mrsjuleshs]

I hated escrow because every year it was so off. 1 year paid too little, next paid too much. When we refinanced I opted out of escrow and just put the money for property taxes in our savings account every month and now have the insurance lumped in with our car insurance payment every month.

[puppyluv]

In our county in IL, we pay the 2013 taxes in 2014. The 2013 bill just came in April and we pay it in May and August. I hate the way they do it.

Also, our payment after the escrow analysis was always higher because we had to pay the previous shortage amount as well as the future increase that we will see monthly to make up the future difference. Maybe it has something to do with that.

[emoflamingo]

Jul 25, 2014 21:01:06 GMT -5 puppyluv said:

In our county in IL, we pay the 2013 taxes in 2014. The 2013 bill just came in April and we pay it in May and August. I hate the way they do it.

Also, our payment after the escrow analysis was always higher because we had to pay the previous shortage amount as well as the future increase that we will see monthly to make up the future difference. Maybe it has something to do with that.

That's what I thought we did too. Then he mentioned 2015 and when I told my aunt about this (because she works in banking), she said they should have no clue what 2015 would be yet.

[puppyluv]

Jul 25, 2014 22:11:27 GMT -5 emoflamingo said:

Jul 25, 2014 21:01:06 GMT -5 puppyluv said:

In our county in IL, we pay the 2013 taxes in 2014. The 2013 bill just came in April and we pay it in May and August. I hate the way they do it.

Also, our payment after the escrow analysis was always higher because we had to pay the previous shortage amount as well as the future increase that we will see monthly to make up the future difference. Maybe it has something to do with that.

That's what I thought we did too. Then he mentioned 2015 and when I told my aunt about this (because she works in banking), she said they should have no clue what 2015 would be yet.

If it was sold to a large national lender is it possible that he deals with differant states? Maybe he didnt realize that you paid in arrears so he misspoke when saying 2015 when he should have said 2014. They could reasonably estimate you taxes increasing a small amount for the next cycle based on the current increase.

[circa1978]

Our escrow has been totally fucked since our homeowners insurance rates went way up one year and we didn't notice and they didn't run a reanalysis. It has been two years and it is just sort of, kind of starting to make rational sense again.

[emoflamingo]

Jul 25, 2014 23:11:54 GMT -5 puppyluv said:

Jul 25, 2014 22:11:27 GMT -5 emoflamingo said:

That's what I thought we did too. Then he mentioned 2015 and when I told my aunt about this (because she works in banking), she said they should have no clue what 2015 would be yet.

If it was sold to a large national lender is it possible that he deals with differant states? Maybe he didnt realize that you paid in arrears so he misspoke when saying 2015 when he should have said 2014. They could reasonably estimate you taxes increasing a small amount for the next cycle based on the current increase.

I haven't been able to speak to the same person twice every time I've called so I think they are just call center employees who try to answer questions. I am going to have to try to understand this when I get my new paperwork.