Ocwen For the last two years Ocwen has been overcharging us for escrow payments. West Palm Beach Florida
They took over our escrow payments without our consent and have been double us on a monthly basis. They even sent us an escrow payment schedule for 2015 and the amount for each monthly payment is half of what they are actually charging us.
For the last two years or so, Ocwen has been double charging us for escrow/property taxes on a monthly basis. When they bought our mortgage from the last mortgage company they took over our escrow/property tax payments without our consent. I would love to get the money back they've been over charging us - at least $200 a month.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
FloridaNative
Palm Beach Gardens,Florida,
USA
Ocwen is not allowed to keep a larger escrow cushion
#2Consumer Comment
Sat, May 30, 2015
This escrow issue you are posting about is called a 'mortgage servicing violation'. There are regulations for all mortgage servicing companies that outline the maximum amount of cushion that the servicer can have in your escrow account. Those regulations are in RESPA (Real Estate Settlement and Procedures Act). The maximum cushion allowed is 60 days worth of escrow payments. You can look up this information here:
http://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/HUD?src=/program_offices/housing/ramh/res/respafaq
There is a procedure outlined in the link above for contesting the amount of funds in your escrow account. You can also file a complaint with the CFPB. You will probably get a quicker response through the CFPB. Make sure you have all of your records, their letters and requests, payment statements, and any escrow overage/under payment notifications so you can lay out your complaint in an easy to read format.
I will say this, you have no control over who will service your mortgage as the lender has the right to assign or sell off the servicing on all of their mortgages. It is written right into the mortgage you signed. But the rest of your complaint is valid if they are collecting more than the amount allowed by RESPA. It is something the Ocwen has violated in the recent past too - with many other consumers. See the note and link below.
Note: Ocwen has been slapped with a huge fine for servicing violations. You can read about it here: http://www.consumerfinance.gov/newsroom/cfpb-state-authorities-order-ocwen-to-provide-2-billion-in-relief-to-homeowners-for-servicing-wrongs/