I purchased my home in March of 2019. First payment was due May 2019 as usual. A small portion of the property is located in a flood plain and that meant requiring flood insurance. My insurance guy found a reasonable policy for about $1600.
Before the first payment was due, the mortgage sold to another company who had it serviced by someone else. No biggie, all that's normal I'm told.
Everything is fine for a few months, till middle of summer, the new servicer contacts me saying I need flood insurance. Easy fix, I have the policy, scan a copy and send it to them.
Don't hear anything from them for a few weeks till a new letter comes in saying if I don't produce a flood policy, they will purchase one in my place.
I contact them via phone to figure out this puzzle, they tell me my policy is not one they will accept, it needs to be from FEMA direct and not a private policy. I disagree, I've read the rules on it and there is nothing wrong with my policy, I further attempt to explain how insurance works to them; this company has agreed to insure it, here's the insuring agreement, that's how it works, we should be good.
They insist. My insurance guy even contacts them to understand, they won't budge. He tries to find a new policy that will work but so far every policy he can get a quote for me on is more expensive than what the lender will buy.
I say screw it and let them get their policy, cancel mine and get the refund for it.
We are now in about August 2019. They purchase their policy and deduct it from the escrow account. Seems wrong, now I'm a little negative. I'd have preferred it get added on to my monthly payment. They tell me that gets adjusted when they do an escrow analysis every year and will occur next in July. Fine.
March 2020 comes around and they purchase the next year's flood policy and do the same, deduct the cost from escrow. Now I am VERY negative in escrow. My payment hasn't adjusted yet. I'm fully prepared and understand that my refund from my flood policy should go towards this policy but I wasn't expecting a new policy to be deducted before escrow was re-analyzed.
July 2020 comes now and I get the new payment of over $700 more per month starting August 2020! This will break the bank after a few months. The letter stating this came middle of July and the new payment starts August. I attempt to re-finance for a better rate to help, but somehow the best I can get is 1/4% lower than what I currently have. I'll pay more in closing costs than I'll save...
I'm prepared to drop $1500 - $2000 into escrow to help my monthly payment but that "time" has passed now they say and I have to wait till the next escrow analysis in July 2021. I'll be broke by then paying another $700 for a year.
Any advice?? Can I request a new escrow analysis early after dropping in some more money. It seems really unfair that they purchased TWO flood policies before adjusting escrow and my payment.
Submitted August 20, 2020 at 07:50PM by ChiefChief69 https://ift.tt/3aUZmOB
