Posted on: 31st Jan, 2011 09:41 am
We bought our apartment in 2008 and decided to escrow our taxes. We were first time homebuyers and were learning. Since our building was a new build, the taxes were supposed to be estimated. Well, two years later, we found out (after numerous correspondences with our lender the now defunct Amtrust Bank) that they had been paying $1 to our taxes and we were delinquent on our taxes. When our loan was transferred to a new servicer, they charged us two years back taxes.
What recourse, if any, do we have if our lender was incorrectly escrowing our taxes and not even talking to our county assessors to have the proper amounts escrowed? The new company is terrible (NAtionstar Mortgage) and refuses to work with us or help us at all. They just tell us we need to pay what is now over $100 in taxes a month to “catch upâ€. I think that there is some sort of recourse we should have given that we trusted our lender to handle this properly only to find out that someone thought taxes were $1…sorry, not in Cook County.
Any guidance?
What recourse, if any, do we have if our lender was incorrectly escrowing our taxes and not even talking to our county assessors to have the proper amounts escrowed? The new company is terrible (NAtionstar Mortgage) and refuses to work with us or help us at all. They just tell us we need to pay what is now over $100 in taxes a month to “catch upâ€. I think that there is some sort of recourse we should have given that we trusted our lender to handle this properly only to find out that someone thought taxes were $1…sorry, not in Cook County.
Any guidance?
Welcome SK,
It is the responsibility of the lender to pay the taxes in full if you've deposited the money in your escrow account. You should take legal actions against the mortgage company. You should contact a real estate attorney and he will guide you further in this matter.
It is the responsibility of the lender to pay the taxes in full if you've deposited the money in your escrow account. You should take legal actions against the mortgage company. You should contact a real estate attorney and he will guide you further in this matter.
So we have recourse if the lender was paying incorrect amounts and collecting insufficient amounts from me? For instance, its obvious that the property taxes should have been more than $1 a month. Since we had the escrow account, it is the lender's responsibility to pay the correct amount and I can technically assume they are doing this right?
I ask because we now find ourselves in quite a big escrow deficit since they never collected the right amounts (and subsequently have been shut down by the FDIC) so we are being forced to "catch up" by paying all back taxes.
I ask because we now find ourselves in quite a big escrow deficit since they never collected the right amounts (and subsequently have been shut down by the FDIC) so we are being forced to "catch up" by paying all back taxes.