Complaint Review: Equity One, Recently Renamed, Popular Mortgage Servicing, Inc - Cherry Hill New Jersey
- Equity One, Recently Renamed, Popular Mortgage Servicing, Inc 121 Woodcrest RD Cherry Hill, New Jersey U.S.A.
- Phone: 800-273-3973
- Web:
- Category: Mortgage Companies
Equity One, Recently Renamed, Popular Mortgage Servicing, Warning: Some lenders are late in paying homeowners' property taxes from escrow accounts and they are passing the late fees on to the homeowners instead of absorbing the costs of their own mistakes !!! Cherry Hill New Jersey
*Consumer Suggestion: A Tad Too Late
*Author of original report: Update ...
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This is new, and to be fair, the company needs a grace period to respond in writing. Using the phone and fax machine over the years has gotten me know where and cost me a fortune in fees/penalties.
I have just put together a "qualified written request" under Section 6 of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA).
Equity One, recently renamed, Popular Mortgage Servicing, claims that the 3-years of accumulated late fees and penalties from them being delinquent, regarding the paying of my school taxes on time, is completely my fault, because I did not forward the original tax bills to them on time. They also claim, they do not have access to that kind of tax information, even though they eagerly accessed that same information to set up my escrow account for a home mortgage, back in 2003.
Over the years I repeatedly called and faxed my tax bills to them as they requested.
I have received property tax lien notices, (i.e., sheriff sale notices), alerting me to the fact that they still have not paid my school taxes as far back as 2004. This is when I first became aware of the fact that they were mismanaging my escrow account for 3-years now.
I have an itemized statement of my escrow account showing account activity that does not agree with the Real Estate Tax office, or the School District.
Beginning December 1 of this year, they will be raising my mortgage payments $159.76 a month. This is to get back all the late fees and penalties they incurred from their own negligence.
Just recently they paid my school taxes for 2004, if paid on time it would have only been $2,138.76, but with penalties and late fees, they pulled $2920.43 out of my escrow account. They wasted $781.67 of my hard earned money on that single delinquent tax bill, there are 2-more years of tax bills with additional late fees and penalties.
If these tax bills would have been paid on time, as Equity One contracted to do, my escrow account would still be viable and healthy today.
I phoned Equity One on November 2, and they are adamant about this being all my fault. It appears that my escrow account has been, and continues to be, mismanaged by Equity One.
An increase of $159.76 per month will bring on financial hardship at the end of this month.
________
Hopefully, by them doing the right thing, I will have a good rebuttal, on their behalf.
This is the letter I just sent to them:
This is a "qualified written request" under Section 6 of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA).
In good faith, I paid a fee to have you, my lender, take care of paying my property taxes on time, which cost me approximately 2 to 3 percent of my purchase price.
I am requesting that you waive all late fees/penalties from my escrow account, and refund these fees/penalties back to me. Most reputable lenders do not routinely pay tax bills late, especially when the homeowner is current with his/her mortgage payments, then the escrow payments should be current also.
Over the years I repeatedly called you and faxed my tax bills to you, just as you requested. I have done everything on my part to resolve this 3-year old tax issue, reasonably and fairly. If these tax bills would have been paid on time, my escrow account would still be viable and healthy today.
A lending institution must pay the taxes in full if the escrow account balance is enough to cover the payment due. If there is enough money in the account and the lender fails to pay the taxes when due, it is liable to the customer for all penalties or fees incurred because of the failure to pay.
HUD interprets Section 6 (g) of RESPA to require lenders to pay borrowers' tax bills on time so long as the homeowners were current in their mortgage payments. If the lender pays the tax bill late and the homeowner is current in making the mortgage payment, HUD would consider the lender responsible for any penalty or late charge.
HUD has started a broad review of the practices of the largest loan servicers in the country. By my sending a copy of my complaint to HUD, will help them identify the worst offenders so that they may take appropriate action against companies that are doing the greatest harm. This will help HUD better monitor lenders for compliance with this law.
I understand that under Section 6 of RESPA you are required to acknowledge my request within 20 business days and must try to resolve the issue within 60 business days.
Brian
Lititz, Pennsylvania
U.S.A.
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#2 Consumer Suggestion
A Tad Too Late
AUTHOR: TinCan - (United States of America)
SUBMITTED: Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Brian,
This response is, I'm sure, too late to help you with this problem, but better late than never. Popular has been shut down for almost a year now, and any hope of obtaining a refund at this point is a false one. However, you don't deserve a refund anyway. As in most of these cases, the consumer bears a majority of the responsibility for this.
Yes, you did contract with Popular to have your tax bills paid from escrow. Yes, your payments may have been up to date. Yes, the funds were in escrow. However, that does not excuse you from taking an active role in the management of your escrow funds and the payment of your taxes.
Each year, you no doubtedly received a copy of your escrow statement showing what was paid and not paid. Did you not read those statements and see that your taxes were not being paid? Why did you let this problem fester for 3 years? Had you brought this matter to Popular's attention in a timely manner, this entire situation could have been avoided. Furthermore, didn't you receive notice from the tax office that the taxes were not being paid? You must have, Brian, because you live in an owner-billed area.
See, Brian, most tax jurisdictions are happy to let mortgage companies obtain copies of the tax bills by whatever means they see fit, and some will even mail the bill directly to the company. However, in an owner-billed area, the tax office will only send the bill to the property owner's address. To add to the confusion, the payment can only be remitted with the original payment stub. Faxed copies will not suffice. This is why Popular mailed you a letter every year requesting you forward the tax bill to their office. Obviously, you chose to do it your way, by fax, instead of following directions. This is why your escrow account was charged for the tax penalty, as well it should have been.
Popular paid a hefty fee to have a tax service company run extensive reports on outstanding taxes and, in fact, dedicated an entire department to making sure taxes were paid on time. Why would they have let your taxes lapse on purpose. They did not. The plain fact of the matter is that you did not take the proper steps as a responsible homeowner and suffered the consequences.
Now, before you go on about how Popular is shut down, their tax servicing had nothing to do with it. Popular dealt with a lot of low-income, high-risk homeowners and purchased existing loans that nobody wanted. Was this a great financial decision? No, they were not, but these were decisions made by their parent company, Banco Popular, in Puerto Rico, and have no reflection on the actual servicing performed by Popular.
Good luck in the future and, next time, take a more active role. You'll never regret it.

#1 Author of original report
Update ...
AUTHOR: Brian - (U.S.A.)
SUBMITTED: Saturday, November 04, 2006
Premature update
I have been a bit nave, especially to the rules of the outside world.
As a result of this, I am teething, and I find that I am growing the appropriate teeth for the occasion.
I would like to express to the outside world, these findings. I would like to share with all of you, that I mailed the above letters certified mail with return receipt to the mortgage company, and most importantly, to the governing body of
Director, Office of RESPA and Interstate Land Sales
US Department of Housing and Urban Development
Room 9154
451 7th Street, SW
Washington, DC 20410
And, although somewhat prematurely, based on their lead times, I filed complaints to the below agencies, through the internet. You would want to use the same agencies, regarding the state of residence of the perpetrator, and your home state as well. For example, I filed good faith complaints with the following agencies
Washington State Department of Financial Institutions
Attorney Generals office of NJ
Better Business Bureau of NJ
Attorney Generals office of Pa
Good luck to everyone, regarding your pursuits towards the legal redemption of the truth.
Sincerely,
Brian


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