I have held my current mortgages with Popular Mortgage Servicing for just over a year now. I closed in November on this house, and this company has held both my 80% and 20% loans. The loans have the same interest rate and terms, except for the escrow being collected on the 80% loan. My loan numbers happen to be sequential with the 80% coming first.
After reading so many of these horror stories, I feel fortunate that my luck has held out thus far, but I do believe that there are many deceiptful and unlawful practices and standard procedures at this company.
1) I use regular mail to send my payments in. I ALWAYS send them 15 days prior to the due date, and have not had one be late. Until this last month, I always wrote both payments on separate checks and mailed them in separate envelops. They have always been placed in a mailbox at a local post office. I have NEVER had both checks process at my bank on the same day. There has ALWAYS been a 1 to 5 day delay between the 80% loan check processing and the 20% loan check processing. — This last payment I sent in over 20 days early because of the holiday mail traffic. I decided that I would write both checks, but that I would include both checks and both payment slips in a single envelop. Once again, the 20% loan payment processed 2 days later than the 80% loan payment. HAS ANYONE ELSE OBSERVED THIS BEHAVIOR?
2) My escrow has incurred way too many 'adjustments' to be kosher practices.
2a) 10 days after closing on my house, Popular Mortgage Servicing sent a $1068 payment directly to my home owners insurance company. At closing, the title company calculated escrow and sent payment for immediate bills. This payment had been been made. I found out about this payment after recieving a refund check from my home owners insurance company a couple weeks after the second payment was made, and then researching what had happened. STRIKE 1 - ESCROW UNDERVALUED BY $1068.
2b) 3~4 months later, I recieved a letter stating my escrow was overstated, and that my monthly payment would be adjusted to compensate. The adjustment was about $250 monthly. I also recieved an escrow projection statement about the same time. STRIKE 2 - ESCROW UNDERVALUED BY $250 x #MONTHS.
2c) Less than a month later, I recieved an escrow refund check for $807. STRIKE 3 - ESCROW UNDERVALUED BY $807.
2d) In November I recieved another escrow analysis and separate letter stating my escrow was undervalued. This time they increased my payment by $15. STRIKE 4 - ADJUSTMENT BUT MINIMAL
2e) In the previously 2d stated escrow analysis, it showed my property taxes at approximately $700, and that it was scheduled to be paid in December (1 month away). — When I closed on the house, the property taxes and escrow payment were calculated by the title company to be approximately $5500. (New construction, so this was a estimate based on sales price.) STRIKE 5 - ESCROW IS INSUFFICIENT TO COVER PROPERTY TAXES, AND $700 WILL BE PAID FROM ESCROW.
2f) I recieved my invoice for payment due 1/1/08... Payment was made for my property taxes in the amount of $5500... NOT the $700 they stated less than a month prior. STRIKE 6 - $%@^$%@$%
I am currently anticipating 2-3 more letters re-analyzing my escrow, notifying of an increase to my monthly payment, and stating that I have X amount of time to make up the $4800 difference in what they paid versus what they advised they were going to pay.
They are about to 'demand' anywhere from $500~1500 additional per month to catch this up and adjust my monthly payment going forward. This amount will crush anyone not expecting it. If a payment is missed or late, that causes legal action such as foreclosure... Even if principle and interest is made, but escrow is missed.
Fortunately, I deal with finances and juggling books in my day job, and I recognized with the first mistake that the money was not 'free' and would be needed later on. I have been planning to make payment for my property taxes directly to the city/state for the difference between what they pay and what is owed. I fear there are many not as fortunate.
I am thoroughly disgusted that there have been so many 'adjustments' to my account that benefit the company and not me. I believe that these 'adjustments' are intentional practices to deflate escrow balances, catch naive customers, and increase their monthly escrow payments artificially... Thereby allowing them better odds with families missing higher payments.
If they had NEVER made an adjustment, my escrow value would have been about right.instead, if I had used this 'free' money from 3 different 'adjustments' for other things, I would be short about $5000 now.
3) Is there a way to keep a mortgage from being 'sold' or 'managed' by different companies without your approval?
Please post responses if you have observed or seen any similar behaviors. Thanks for reading!
Clint
Fort Worth, Texas
U.S.A.
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