CitiMortgage, Inc
Escrow Taxes Paid Toward Wrong Parcel After 2006 Home Purchase

I bought my first home in 2006, and my original mortgage company promptly sold the loan to CitiMortgage. CitiMortgage made my first property tax payments at the end of 2006.

In early spring they sent me a refund check, explaining little beyond saying my escrow had a surplus. As a newcomer to all this, I thought nothing of it until late September 2007, when a letter from American Tax Funding said it held a lien on my property because it had bought a delinquent tax certificate for my 2006 taxes. This surprised me, since nobody had sent me any notice before then.

I went to CitiMortgage, which promised that the lien would be handled and the taxes paid. Some weeks later I got a different story, that my taxes were in fact current. I gave them more details, including the parcel number and the contact information for American Tax Funding.

The next time, they said the parcel number I had provided did not match the legal description of my property. Once more I had to send further details. I mailed them a copy of county clerk records showing that my parcel number was right and theirs was wrong. I also faxed them the newest tax bill, which carried the same parcel number I had given them.

It turned out they had been paying my escrow money toward a house across the street and three doors down from mine. Only then did I understand why I had been refunded a surplus in the spring.

While I was asking them to fix the error and warning that they were about to make it again, they paid my taxes to the wrong parcel a second time. Before the city and county refunded that money, they paid the correct parcel too, which left my escrow with a negative balance.

By December the lien was still not resolved and they kept making a mess of my escrow. Their analysis projected a shortage, so they increased my payment by $40, which I contested because of their continuing mistakes.

I was then sent another refund, for $70.14, in spite of the projected shortage. I cashed it by mistake and found out a week later that they had placed a stop payment on it. In that time they decided part of my taxes remained unpaid and made extra payments, creating another shortage for May.

Another analysis followed, and they raised my payment by another $30. That makes $70 more in two months, with no sign that the lien is being dealt with.

Altogether, over $1000 has gone to taxes, which, if I am not mistaken, is far above the bill I received in late October. I have not finished checking that part, as I found it only last night. An overpayment would certainly explain the $609 shortage projected in my latest escrow analysis.

Through all my years with loans and many other bills, I have never met a company so incompetent at something as simple as paying a property's tax once a year.

For 8 months now I have repeatedly asked CitiMortgage to address all my tax problems, with no end in sight. Each time I go to them for a fix, matters seem to get worse. Phone calls and e-mails never get me answers. Nobody can tell me anything except that a research request will be submitted, and even then the company seldom reports back to me with results.

Company: CitiMortgage, Inc
Country: USA
State: Maryland
City: Gaithersburg
Phone: 8002837918
Site: citimortgage.com

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