Homeq Servicing, through their incompetance, caused my home to go into foreclosure and charged me thousands of dollars in legal fees. I refinanced with them in 2003 and my payment didn't include any escrow for taxes or insurance. I bought and payed for an insurance policy every year but fell behind on the property taxes.in early 2005 Homeq began escrowing for taxes. My payment went from $1900 a month to $2400 a month (this included the escrow for 2005 taxes only) I owed aprox $9000 for 2003 and 2004 taxes which they paid and were going to add that to my payment, I was told by a customer service rep that it would probably be an additional $500 a month until the shortage was paid off but it would take a few months to process.
In aprox July I filed for bankruptcy so Homeq said they could no longer speak with me or send me statements. I continued to pay $2400 a month as I was never notified of any change in payment.in March my bankruptcy was discharged and Homeq would finally speak to me. It turned out my payment had gone up to aprox $3400 a month without my knowledge and my account was short. I sent them what was owed and had a zero balance. I was told on the phone that in May my payment would go up to $4400 a month to cover the escrow shortage and also my interest rate was going from 8 1/2% to 11 1/2%. They said I had a $14,000 escrow shortage. I disputed this as the shortage was originally $9000 and I had already paid several thousand towards that. They said they would do an escrow review. While this was going on, my bankruptcy was UNdischarged due to a clerks error and Homeq could no longer speak with me.
In addition to this I had been a victim of Hurricane Wilma and while most lenders and creditors were trying to work with the hurricane victims Homeq would not. I was lucky I only had slight damage to my house but I had a high insurance deductable and had to pay for the repairs myself. THe main problem I had was that my workplace had severe damage and I lost about a month of work with no compensation.
At this point I hired an attorney to represent me. I was disputing the amount that I owed and Homeq was now saying I had a $17000 escrow shortage. I had done a private second mortgage for $50,000 to do repairs to the house and to pay the escrow shortage and past due payments. Homeq was notified that this money was sitting in an attorneys escrow account and could not be disbursed until Homeq told us what needed to be paid. My attorney was assured that no foreclosure would be filed as I had the means to pay everything. Homeq filed a motion to release the property from the bankruptcy so they could foreclose. My attorney again contacted them and they gave a lot of excuses as to why they couldn't figure out what was owed but said they would let us know soon, and not to worry they would not foreclose. I was getting worried as several months had gone by and I was behind on my payments. I wanted to send in a payment of what I estimated was owed but my attorney and I were both told that if I sent the wrong amount it would be returned. My attorney also contacted Homeq's foreclosure attorney and let him know that I had the money to bring the loan current. They attorney for the title company that did the 2nd mortgage also made several attempts to get figures from Homeq but had no luck.
On Sept 11 Homeq finally faxed me a statement of what was owed... Unfortunatly they filed the foreclosure on Sept 1st... 11 days prior to telling me what I owed. I was charged $1900 in attorneys fees and $1100 in bankruptcy charges by Homeq.
I reinstated the mortgage a few days later but I feel this is totally unfair. I had the money and never should have been foreclosed on. If Homeq had kept accurate records there never would have been a dispute as to the amount owed. It is ridiculous that I had to hire an attorney just to get a straight answer out of them.
After many attempts to fax them proof of insurance it was determined that I had an escrow shortage of about $2000 still owing on this account. My Nov payment was to be $3800 as they weren't able to make the adjustment on time but on Dec my payment would go down to about $2700 (I still don't receive any statements or correspondence from Homeq because of the bankruptcy) My interest is now 12.25% but at least I can handle a $2700 pmt.
I called Homeq in late Nov (1 month after I straightened everything out). I just wanted to make sure that they hadn't messed up my account again and sure enough its messed up. I now have a $12,000 escrow shortage according to the customer service rep and they say I owe and additional $800 in attorney fees and $700 in bancruptcy charges.
I think Homeq is doing everything in their power to make sure I loose my house. I make decent money but I am a single mother trying to raise 2 kids, one of which is in college. When they raised my payment by almost $2000 a month they put me in a possition that I couldn't handle. Luckily I had equity in the house so I was able to get a second mtg this time. If they raise my payment to cover erroneous escrow charges again I will loose my home.
Nerissa
Sunrise, Florida
U.S.A.
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