Mortgage servicing—particularly as it relates to payments—remains one of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) most complained-about issues, according to the CFPB’s January monthly complaint.
The servicers that received the most complaints in January were Wells Fargo, Bank of America, and Ocwen. More than 80 percent of received complaints had to do with payment issues.
“Today’s snapshot shows that consumers continue to report running into issues when making payments on their mortgages or when trying to overcome obstacles to keep themselves in their homes,” CFPB Director Richard Cordray said. “The Bureau will continue to work to ensure that mortgage servicers give consumers the timely and effective assistance they deserve.”
The misapplication of funds is also a highly disputed issue. According to the CFPB’s report, “Consumers complained that when they paid for identified shortages in their escrow accounts, the money they paid was not applied accurately and resulted in an increase in their monthly payments.”
Many consumers also complained that e-payments were not properly credited to their loan accounts and reported issues when seeking foreclosure relief
“A frequent mortgage-related complaint from consumers had to do with problems dealing with their servicer when trying to negotiate foreclosure-relief assistance on their loans,” the CFPB report detailed. “Consumers stated that servicers were slow to respond, made repeated requests for already submitted documents, and provided ambiguous denial reasons.”
Problems with loan applications, agreements, insurance, loan processing, and credit offers also made the list of most-complained about topics.
In response to the high number of mortgage-related complaints, the CFPB has created a number of consumer protections on mortgage products in recent years, including new forms and new form requirements. To date, the CFPB has handled more than 260,000 mortgage-related complaints.
The Law Office of Beth Mann, P.C. 