Complaint Review: HOMESIDE LENDING/WASHINGTON MUTUAL BANK - SAN ANTONIO Texas

Homeside was introuble for this and a national investigation was started. I too have gone through this, and what they are doing is not legal. Their goal is to force you to default on your loan and take possession. It took me six months and a lawer to clean their mess up. They even went as far as to refuse my payment i had made while disputing this with them. They claimed i was not sending a proper panyment to them so they sent my checks back. Best thing to do is contact an attorney. Aslo can report to HUD at www.hud.gov and get futher advice from there.

I refinanced in 02. My payments have gone up over 120 for the same BS escrow policy. It almost seemed pointless now. How do we change mortgage companies without refinancing?

I have to say that Washington Mutual-Homeside doesn't have a sqeaky clean relationship with the public. So, why should this customer think that they are being treated fairly? Why wouldn't they feel like they are being cheated? I'm a customer of Wamu for our home mortgage. They reported us late when we weren't. Now we wait for our credit report to be fixed. What do they say? "We regret the inconvenience"...If something hisses like a snake, and looks like a snake, it probably is a snake.

homeside totally at fault no question i am avictim of escrow payments they paid 1 of 2 lots where is other lot payment they never notified of shortage or problem this is for five years of loss escrow funds they addmitted mistake by paying off scavenger but adding the fines to monthly payment if i need to apply my escrow to taxes or house insure i wood of! they signed a lender escrow trust re: every one paid 2500+ at closing to pmi insure hud gave there gov approved lender to homeside thats why we thought we were in good hands and we trusted them because they were more qualified for these payments plus they had them prorated to each monthly fee we had tax statements sent directly to them we never knew a thing til we were victims every case is diff others never had prob thats great knock on wood as they say ......

More than likely, your mortgage company (like so many others) is excersizing their R.E.S.P.A right to carry what's called a "cushion" on your mortgage. In other words if your escrow needs are $1,200 a year they can actually carry a cushion of (I don't know the figure but we can use me - Insurance - $1,600/yr + Property Taxes = $3,000/yr = $380-something, right?? - WRONG!! - try $440 as of January of this year - which allows for almost a $600 "cushion"). Now that rates are so low almost every single mortgage company IS excersizing this right. I think this information is outlined on the HUD website. The explanation is that my account won't be at the right financial level by the time the insurance payment (or tax payment) is due so if i make this particular payment it is. AND THEY CAN DO THIS AND THEY DON'T HAVE TO PAY YOU INTEREST FOR SAID "CUSHION". It does stink . . we've been a customer for 3 years . . . but again, it IS all right there stated in "R.E.S.P.A".

Look at your escrow analysis, the piece of paper that came in your new coupon book and explains money that was collected, paid, and remains in escrow. All you have said is that your taxes did not go up. Fair enough. But you did not say that X amount was paid and X amount was collected and X amount is the shortage. Again, if you look at those figures, it will tell you exactly what you need to know as far as what was paid vs. what was collected. Divide what was paid by 12 and that is your new escrow amount. It's that simple and again it happens with EVERY mortgage company. I have been a "customer" with HSL, and I use the term loosely, before I refied with a decent company. I have also held a mortgage for over 20 years with various companies. They ALL do it. Sometimes there is an overage and sometimes there is a shortage. But I check those figures carefully to see what activity was on my account and that they match the bills I receive. You may have been fortunate that your previous companies did not increase your escrows and sucked up the shortage themselves. But, as you are noticing now, once the loan is sold or to be paid in full, you are paying the price of your previous companiy's ignorance to not adjust your payment yearly. One way or another, at the end of your loan or time it was sold, you would have owed the shortage amounts. It's a s****.. Just look at those figures and THEN tell me they do not match up and I will say that you are being screwed. Until then, you are one of millions who go through this every year.

First let me tell you this in responds to the rebuttal. Homeside is not the first to buy my loan. They were the third to buy my loan. I had not problems with the others lenders. When Homeside brought my loan that is when I started having problems. Like I said earlier When Homeside took over my loan I started coming up short on my escrow. The first time I didn't say anything about it. This time there is nn way I could be short because they paid the same amount of city taxes last year as this year. The county taxes has decrease and my insurance has decreased. So there should actually should be a decrease in my payments. There is no increase anywhere in my escrow. As I said before the city taxes were the same as last year. So maybe you can explain the increase!

This is a very common occurrence in mortgages and you most likely are not being ripped off, but rather "improperly escrowed" all the way back to the settlement company where you signed the loan papers. Put it this way...your taxes and insurance equals $1200 per year total. In a perfect world, the mortgage company SHOULD (but not always does) collect $100 per month for your escrow so that at the end of your escrow fiscal year, the total paid out for taxes and insurance should equal $1200. But, if the settlement clerk who drew up your papers and pro-rated your taxes and insurance miscalculated or collected less than enough to keep your payment down or for whatever reason, and did not estimate enough for prepaids you will always be short until the shortage is paid. For example, of this $1200 that should have been collected over 12 months, if only $1000 was collected you would owe $200 at the time of your escrow analysis. Once that was paid in full (and not paid over a period of time) you would be even. but if you pay it over a 12 month period, you will still be short come the and/or insurance bill due date and therefore will owe again. Probably, your escrow analysis is done around the anniversary date of your loan which most likely is not the same month your taxes and insurance are due. So there will ALWAYS be a few months difference between what was collected and what was paid. The only way to be sure that you pay enough is to calculate your total year's amounts to be paid, divide it by the number of months it will be til the last of those tax/insurance bills are paid and pay that amount. Example: $1200 is due over 12 months but since it is now March and your final tax bill (usually the school tax due in August...at least where I live) is due in August, that means you need to have the $1200 in your account in 5 months. $1200 divided by 5 equals $240 per month in escrow. This will ensure that in August, there will be sufficient money to pay the bills. Then the 8 months between now and your next analysis will have collected an OVERAGE and are then due back to you if you choose. OR you can make sure that your monthly escrow is 1/12th of the total amount due for the year and make sure that is what you are paying. The mortgage company may still say you are short because technically at the time the bill is due you are short, but the difference will be collected over the remaiing months. It is up to you, the borrower, to make sure that you pay enough into your escrow. Just because the mortgage company only REQUIRES a certain amount does not mean that will be enough to cover your taxes and insurance. Again, make sure that you pay at least 1/12th of the total bills to not come up short, which very well may be more than what they actually require. Of course, if your taxes and/or insurance do go up during the year that cannot be expected and you will come up short. Look at your escrow analysis and see what was paid against what was collected. You will see that what you paid into escrow was not enough to cover what was paid out and you are responsible for the difference.