posted on Oct, 24 2011 @ 08:18 PM
This is the first time I've seen the mortgage default get generated by an escrow issue. The banks have done a lot of under-handed things. This
one's a little different than most though.
I believe there is something deeper going on with all of the foreclosures. It doesn't make sense that the banks wouldn't try a little harder with
people that are just going through a difficult period. They've already got plenty of foreclosures they're sitting on that they can't put on the
market. Yet, I hear stories of the banks refusing to work with people on a myriad of problems.
This legitimately sounds like an administrative error (probably done deliberately by the originator of the mortgage). In US Banks defense, escrow
shortages are legitimately money they have to come up with so I understand why they went to the homeowner. The monthly payment difference the
homeowner cited would be about the 3K that the bank said the escrow was short.
Had the homeowner been able to make the larger payments... in about a year they would have probably gotten a refund check for a portion of it. My
guess, part of this was to take care of a previous shortage and part would be to cushion against a future shortage. The way the escrow analysis is
done, it's not at all unusual to get a demand for payment for a shortfall or to have your payments increase accordingly and turn around a get a check
from the bank a year later.
For anyone who thinks that by having a fixed rate your payment will never go up... you are always subject to increases for escrow, which covers your
property taxes and property insurance. When your taxes and insurance are taken care of by escrow, it's real easy to forget to review the annual
statement from your assessor and contest it if the value is wrong. Don't forget, you can and should still compare rates on your homeowners insurance
once in a while. Doing these things can actually lower your house payment.