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I just received a statement from Citi mortgage that my escrow account is negative $200, as such my mortgage payments were jacked up by $130 to cover.
Here is the a recap.
Closed on home November 20, 2009
Gave a check to be deposited in the escrow account of $1900
- 3 months of taxes @558.70 = $1672.10
- 5 months of insurance @54.42 = 272.10
Because we were one month shy of the 4th quater, the previous owners wrote to the settlement company a check to pay the prorated amount of the 4th quater taxes and water bill, which meant that when the bill came it should have been for $772 (10 days for November and month of December)
1. On the Citi mortgage statement they indicated ONLY $844.24 was deposited into my escrow account
2. The township sent a statement to Citimortgage showing the tax due for 2009 4th quater and of course Citimortgage paid it. (left the settlement agent a lovely message..of course waiting for a call back) By the way, the water bill was NEVER paid, received a late notice in the mail Tuesday
3. Even though my township has not submitted 2010 tax bill (this will not occur until June), Citibank took it upon themselves to ASSUME that my taxes will go up $1000 based on 2008 & 2009 data.
Other than riding up to the settlement agents office and getting arrested, WHAT the HELL is going on. Is this normal? I'm soo pissed right now I don't know who to string up first, it appears it would be the settlement agent.
Yes it is. They usually give you a choice. Pay the $200 now or have it divided out across a year of payments. They'll do this yearly. It also works the same in reverse if there is an overage in the escrow (refund or lower payments across the year).
As to #3 assume the taxes will go up. Why? Every city/county has a budget. So when they go to assess your home it will be assessed lower due to the economy. Then the city/county will raise the tax rate on the home.
just about everyone I know has had this happen. its even worse when they send you a refund for an overage and then a few months later they says it was wrong and jack your monthly payment up.
you cant do much except pay it.
just about everyone I know has had this happen. its even worse when they send you a refund for an overage and then a few months later they says it was wrong and jack your monthly payment up.
you cant do much except pay it.
But my biggest issue is the amount that was deposited into my escrow account and the missing funds that not only I depsosited, but also the sellers deposited for the partial property taxes. I do not like this assumption crap on property taxes. My City Tax office were confused as well as to why and How citibank could assume something like that, that may not occur.
Listen up, if you have your HUD 1 settlement statement on line 1000, the section that is called Reserves Deposited With Lender shows exactly what was put in up front. If Citi says you didn't put that in then tell them to pull the settlement statement because if will clearly show that. Then request a copy of your loan history. Also I would check with the tax locality to see if they have been paid twice by mistake. A lot of times with these new loans taxes could be paid at closing, and out of escrow due to miscommunication. So if you see a taxes or utilities paid on your settlement statement, and you see a taxes paid out of escrow, that means there was a double payment. I hope this helps
Source - *Im a mortgage CSR and i look at escrow statements all day*
Just to recap,
1. I received a letter from Citimortgage indicating that I had a shortage of funds in my escrow account
2. At closing $2900 should have been applied to my escrow account, this included 3 months of taxes, 5 months of insurance
1. When I called CM they claimed only $896 was deposited in my escrow account after closing.
2. They then went on to tell me that not only did I have to pay extra to make up the difference for the shortfall due to that error, but when they calculated my mortgage payments, they did that based on 2008 taxes.
after calling Citimortgage every day and staying on the phone with each rep for over an hour along with my settlement agent, I finally had to EDUCATE them on their error.
Not only did my settlement agent DID not deposit all of my money into my escrow account, but he also did not pay the 4th quater taxes (my portion out of the closing cost funds should have been $744 and the previous owners should have been $744).
Because the settlement agent did not pay the 4th quater taxes, Citimortgage took it out of my escrow account, They then paid the 1st quater taxes out of my escrow account. So now the settlement agent has to cut me a check so I could send it into Citimortgage to apply to my escrow account.
But here's the biggest F'ck up from this company. They claimed that they calculated wrong and they show that they based my mortgage off of 2008 taxes, I had to get the rep to pull out a calculator and divide 6740 by 12, then add that amount along with my principle and interest amount to get the total of the mortgage payments I've been making every month since December.
IDIOTS
Folks, please review your statements thoroughly every month.
Listen up, if you have your HUD 1 settlement statement on line 1000, the section that is called Reserves Deposited With Lender shows exactly what was put in up front. If Citi says you didn't put that in then tell them to pull the settlement statement because if will clearly show that. Then request a copy of your loan history. Also I would check with the tax locality to see if they have been paid twice by mistake. A lot of times with these new loans taxes could be paid at closing, and out of escrow due to miscommunication. So if you see a taxes or utilities paid on your settlement statement, and you see a taxes paid out of escrow, that means there was a double payment. I hope this helps
Source - *Im a mortgage CSR and i look at escrow statements all day*
Thanks Mtaylo...
It was that as well as other issue's. It was just ugly and luckily I kept calling everyone to get this straight.
I paid my shortage! They cashed the check and didn't appy it to the escrow account - even though I sent it in with the shortage pay stub. I got the new payment statment for January and it's the higher amount!!! $132.25 more a month. I have been on the phone with them since Dec. 1st. They tell me to keep calling back it's now the 22nd and they want me to call back on the 25th. They keep giving me the run around! Isn't this extortion? What are they doing with the shortage money I sent them? Never missed a mortgage payment. Always paid my shortage. Taxes and insurance. For the love of god- what am I supposed to do?!!!!!
I paid my shortage! They cashed the check and didn't appy it to the escrow account - even though I sent it in with the shortage pay stub. I got the new payment statment for January and it's the higher amount!!! $132.25 more a month. I have been on the phone with them since Dec. 1st. They tell me to keep calling back it's now the 22nd and they want me to call back on the 25th. They keep giving me the run around! Isn't this extortion? What are they doing with the shortage money I sent them? Never missed a mortgage payment. Always paid my shortage. Taxes and insurance. For the love of god- what am I supposed to do?!!!!!
The easiest way to avoid all this is to not escrow (not an option if you are not putting 20%+ down).
The second way to avoid this is to do your mortgage financing with a local lender that services their own loans.
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