Mortgage Loan Servicer Issues

[deadwing]

My mortgage was sold to a new servicer about 6 months ago and it's been nothing but headaches.  Among the problems to date:

• My name got misspelled during the transfer and I had to submit proof of "change of name" even though my name hasn't changed (along the lines of spelling "Jessica" as "Jesica")
• My homeowner's insurance policy info didn't transfer, which caused a delay in paying the premium for 2022.  Figuring out how to supply this information to them was unnecessarily hard
• My municipal taxes are being paid consistently late
• My autopayment didn't transfer, despite assurances that it would, resulting in my first payment to this servicer being late.  As far as I can tell, this wasn't reported to any credit bureaus.
• It's impossible to get anyone on the phone.  Email support is on a 10 day turn around and half the time at the 10 day mark you get an automatic response saying "additional research" is required and it could be up to 60 days.  So far it's yet to take that long.  Also, once you create a ticket, you cannot edit or respond to it.  You have to open another ticket for that.  

The newest issue is they made a "hazard insurance" payment to a company other than the one my policy is through.  This has resulted in my escrow account being overdrawn.  I've opened a ticket about the issue but I expect it's going to take a long time to resolve and I fear that money is gone forever.

Is there any way to get them to sell my loan without refinancing?  I refinanced last year to 2.125%, so refinancing to a higher rate is not desirable.  I also can't imagine having to deal with this bullshit for the next 14ish years.  

A friend of mine also had her loan sold to this same servicer a couple of months after mine was and she's having similar issues.

[lessel]

I had an issue with our servicer not paying the property taxes and had similar issues with trying to get assistance via phone and email... getting totally different answers when I would call vs. when I would email. And similar email non-response about escalation and research--then the results of that research being incorrect. Major pain. In my case, the mortgage was still held by the originating company and just the servicing had been outsourced. I tried to follow-up with the original loan officer, who had since left the company... but my email to her was auto-forwarded to one of her colleagues who escalated the issue from his side and got it resolved within 24 hours... after I had been fighting with the servicing co for over a month.

Maybe that's an avenue to fix your current situation?

But yeah, I think a refi is the only way to get out of that servicer? And nothing to say the new company wouldn't use the same terrible servicer you're with now. (We've had mortgages by two different banks serviced by the same company... starts with a "D").

Having gone through this recently on only one issue, I know it's such a headache!

[deadwing]

May 24, 2022 7:29:24 GMT -5 lessel said:

I had an issue with our servicer not paying the property taxes and had similar issues with trying to get assistance via phone and email... getting totally different answers when I would call vs. when I would email. And similar email non-response about escalation and research--then the results of that research being incorrect. Major pain. In my case, the mortgage was still held by the originating company and just the servicing had been outsourced. I tried to follow-up with the original loan officer, who had since left the company... but my email to her was auto-forwarded to one of her colleagues who escalated the issue from his side and got it resolved within 24 hours... after I had been fighting with the servicing co for over a month.

Maybe that's an avenue to fix your current situation?

But yeah, I think a refi is the only way to get out of that servicer? And nothing to say the new company wouldn't use the same terrible servicer you're with now. (We've had mortgages by two different banks serviced by the same company... starts with a "D").

Having gone through this recently on only one issue, I know it's such a headache!

I have also had this thought.

My current servicer begins with an "M", so there are at least 2 terrible companies out there.  Ugh.

I hadn't thought of reaching out to the loan originator... it's worth a shot!  Would that be the company I obtained the original mortgage through or the one I refinanced with?  I actually got something in the mail from the original mortgage company recently and thought it was very odd.

[Susie]

You're not going to be able to get them to sell your loan, but can you discontinue escrowing? It sounds like that would reduce your issues by about half. The name thing is a one-time thing, so you fix that, get the auto payment reestablished, close the escrow account and take over your own tax payments and insurance payments, and it may be pretty tolerable after that. I'm not saying it's acceptable, but it might be better than giving up the rate you have.

Depending on your current LTV %, you might need to pay the loan balance down to a certain point before you can stop escrowing.

[k3am]

May 24, 2022 9:42:56 GMT -5 Susie said:

Depending on your current LTV %, you might need to pay the loan balance down to a certain point before you can stop escrowing.

Our terrible servicer (well documented on this board) refused to release the escrow, which we'd opted for to make life easier on ourselves. We were at about a 64% LTV at the time, based on original loan/property amounts and not taking into account any property appreciation. Our loan at origination was also under the threshold for requiring it. 

Our only options were to hope it sold to someone else. We refinanced and made sure that our loan was unlikely to be sold in the future. But in this rate environment, it may not be a viable option for the OP. 

It's a shitty situation. 

[Susie]

That sucks, k3am.

We went through transfer of our mortgage to a new servicer this spring, and the fact that we did not have an escrow account really limited the variables that they could screw up. I was afraid it would be a huge pain, but it wasn't bad.

[k3am]

Susie, yes. We will never escrow again and I highly recommend that anyone who doesn't need to escrow doesn't escrow. It really made a mess.

And OP, I know how frustrating it is to be doing everything you've signed up to do and have your servicer let you down. (And in our case, we were treated like criminals - every call started out being "Mini Mirandized" even though our loan had never once had a missed payment.)

[dr.girlfriend]

It's been awhile since I looked into this but I do know that Wells Fargo services their own mortgages (or at least used to). For my first mortgage and my first refinance I managed to get a Wells Fargo rep to match my rate. For the second refinance they just couldn't match it, though, and my mortgage was sold all around until it finally landed with a company that ended up servicing their own mortgages as well. So, not ideal but at least an option to know that a refi with WF might get you a guaranteed servicer. I know WF has all sorts of issues with some of their financial products and dealings but I didn't have any problems for the five years my mortgages were with them.

[deadwing]

I honestly don't know if removing escrow is an option. My LTV should be under 50%, depending on what the current value of my house is. The market is so crazy I'm not entirely certain right now.

Susie you are right that a lot of the issues are one time things. Honestly, I thought we had finally reached the point of smooth sailing once I straightened out the name thing. But this mystery insurance payment that has my escrow account overdrawn has me really concerned/frustrated/angry.

[ellipses84]

That is so frustrating! It may not help you individually but could you file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau or any other organization or government authority that oversees their industry?

[deadwing]

ellipses84 that's an idea I hadn't thought of! I will look into that.

Minor update: I logged in again this morning and double checked where they display my home owner's insurance info. I swear it reflected my policy yesterday, but today it's definitely showing the mystery one they recently paid. The insurance companies have similar names, so it's possible I just glanced yesterday and assumed it was right. I've reached out to my insurance company and requested they re-send the insurance binder to the loan servicer (which I had to do a few months ago since the insurance info didn't get carried over as part of the transition).

I think removing escrow is probably the way to go. I'll figure out what I need to do to make that happen this weekend.

[ESF]

Complain to your state attorney general, elected representatives, and the CFBP. If you have any specialized mortgage (eg FHA mortgage or some other mortgage through a special state or federal program), complain to the state or federal agency that runs the program.

It won't solve your immediate problem, but these places often investigate based on volume of complaints received and mortage servicing companies are a hot issue right now because consumers can't choose them and it's a problem that cuts across political bases, so there's a modicum of bipartisan interest in dealing with these sorts of problems.

[deadwing]

Thanks again for the advice.

I got a response to the ticket I opened at the time I started this thread. They were charging me because they claimed not to have proof of my homeowner's insurance (despite having paid the premium!). The letter says they have refunded the amount to my escrow account, but it is not yet reflected in the balance. I will be watching for this.

I have also opened another ticket requesting an immediate escrow review. Of course, my escrow was reviewed in May and because of that my payment is scheduled to go up over $300/month in August. There is no reason for this. I also made a $2000 deposit into the escrow account to cover the shortfall because I have a tax payment due in June and I didn't want that to be delayed. So, if anything, my payment should decrease temporarily (or they can refund me the escrow overage). I really don't care either way.

I'm going to look into all of the avenues to make some noise about this issue this weekend.