We currently have a 30 year fixed VA mortgage that was sold to Citimortgage as my husband is an army veteran. We purchased our home in June so this mortgage is less than a year old. We are first time homeowners and very proud.in April we received our monthly statement as we do every month from Citimortgage. On this statement it stated that our monthly payments would increase by $50 every month starting June. We are a simple family on a tight budget like most modest American families. We buy the necessities and always pay what we owe. We telephoned Citimortgage's customer service department to figure out why they were raising our monthly payments. They told us this is based on a projected tax increase for our local area and that we needed to contact our local tax collectors office for details. We immediately called the local tax collectors office and asked many questions. The tax collectors office laughed and told us mortgage companies "pass the buck" to them all the time. The woman was extremely nice and stated our taxes would never increase in the middle of year. She stated that taxes are never the same each year (which is understandable) but then stated the amount the mortgage company was trying to charge us based on a projection was absurd. The taxes for this rural area have never raised that much in a single year EVER! This so called "projected" increase equals $600 more per year. We do not have new construction, we have not passed any new levies, and as a matter of fact the property values in this area have decreased! We then contacted Citimortgage again to explain this must be a mistake as we just got off the phone with the tax collector office. They told us this is not a mistake and we had to pay the extra $50 or our payment would be considered late. We would incur late fees, bad marks on our credit report, and possible foreclosure. Well this just set my husband off. He asked "How can you charge for something you have no hard facts to back it up? I project my taxes will go down because lord knows property values have. Does this mean I can decrease my payment to you because I PROJECT a decrease in taxable value"? He than explained that IF we owed it we would gladly pay it but we don't. How can you charge someone something that they technically don't owe? We don't send an extra $50 to the electric company every month because we project the cost of energy will rise in 5 months. This is ridicules. We contact the VA to try and get some help on what to do. Well that was a waste of time because the VA does not have any authority or regulations on the escrow accounts mortgage companies service. So here we go again"... The VA (government) guarantees and bails out the BIG BANKS if a consumer defaults, but has no ability to help the consumer when these BIG BANKS strong-arm the consumer and the kicker is that it's mandatory for you to have an escrow account when you receive a VA loan. They make you have an escrow account as part of their guidelines but can not help you when something is wrong. We have never been late on our payments and firmly believe if we owe it we will pay it but we don't owe it according to the local tax collectors office. Citimortgage then said " well it's only $50 a month and if you over pay we will just refund the $". O that makes me feel better" Only $50? That's almost a tank of gas these days and it does add up! This would create a hardship not only on us but I am sure thousands of people already struggling across the US and this is ALL based on a PROJECTION that has absolutely no bases or facts to back it up. Citimortgage then told us "You can fax a letter requesting a re-evaluation but it probable would not change because this is based on a projection and not hard numbers". Again I ask everyone "HOW CAN YOU LEGALY CHARGE SOMEONE SOMETHING THEY DON'T OWE"? This is the problem with these banks. They make up their own rules and guidelines and WE all suffer. This just is not right. I would so like to sue the pants off them but like I said we are a modest family without a whole lot of expendable income.
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