US Bank needs to give me back my escrow money!
Posted Mon 29 Jan 2007 by Brad under Money and Finances
Ahhh—my realtor Amy B and lender Sheryl. Even though I left them behind months ago after purchasing my condo, their ineptitude is still haunting me to this day…
I was a fool when picking out my realtor. For weeks, every single person I told that was looking around to buy a house or a condo had a suggestion. “So-and-so and was my realtor and she’s the best!” “You have to meet my lady.” etc etc.
Well I like to do things on my own…I have the stupid thing where I don’t like to take help from people. I want to find a realtor on my own.
So I ended up with Amy B because she was selling a project that I was looking at over in Grandview. She was a nice enough little blonde thing and I went her.
Here’s how basically every conversation went at each condo we ended up looking at:
Me: “I like the lights over there.”
Amy B: “Me too!”
Me: “But the closet it a little small…”
Amy B: “Yeah, it is….”
Me: “I do like the area.”
Amy B: “It’s a great location!”
Me: “Hmmmm…I don’t see myself here.”
Amy B: “Defintely not.”
Looking back, she kind of reminds me of the way Andy acts toward Michael on The Office.
So how is she still haunting me? At the closing, I went through all of the paperwork and saw that I was supposed to put $150 dollars into my escrow account with US Bank for two months worth of property taxes. The problem is that I’m living in a condo with a ten year tax abatement with no property taxes. (Actually ends up being $88/year for new construction or somethign like that.)
Of course, had I not noticed that I was supposed to be paying $150 up front for no reason, nobody else would have. The title woman and my lender from US Bank (completing the troika of idiotic females who helped my get my place) decided that it should actually be $20/month. I was told to just pay the $150 then and could get the money back later…it would be put into my escrow account.
By this time, I was ready to never see any of these people again so I wrote and check and hightailed it out of there.
Well since then I have been forced to put $75 in my escrow account EVERY MONTH since! I tried calling my lender to stop it and of course she was already gone working at another bank within 2 week after the closing. She gave me the number of another lender at US Bank who of course could care less about me.
Long story short, for the past 6 months I have been making calls back and forth between US Bank and the Franklin County Auditor’s office trying to prove that my property taxes will not be $900/year. Well, the tax people had to wait until November to get the exact rate before they could send paperwork to US Bank. Then it was December. US Bank told me they hadn’t gotten anything from the Auditor. The Auditor said that had sent, etc.
FINALLY, US Bank paid my taxes for the first six months of 2007 and it came to $44! Sweet, I thought! So how does US Bank interpret this?? Well now they estimate my taxes for the year at $550.
How do they come up with this? Who knows??? I called US Bank and the woman said that everything would be sorted out soon, but the good news what that i would be getting a $250 check refund from my escrow account and my monthly escrow will be lowered for $75 to $35.
THIS DOESN’T MAKE SENSE. Why can’t I get my $550 or so extra dollars back and not have to pay ANY escrow payments at all??
I’m told everything will be sorted out by February. We”ll see…
March 14th, 2007 at 4:27 pm
I’m also dealing with USBank’s deceptive (at least I think) escrow practices. Of course, as far as I know this is standard operating procedure and USBank is no better or worse than anyone else.
You are probably stuck paying the $35 until they do another escrow analysis. According to HUD Respa guidelines, they are allowed to have a 2 month cushion at any time. Since your escrow payments should be $7.34/month, that means after your biannual tax payments they are allowed to have a reserve of $14.67 in your escrow account.
For simplicity sake, assume that they are allowed to finish the month that they pay all of your taxes for the year with $14.67, and at that point your monthly payments should be $7.34. You may have to ask (or pay $10) for an additional escrow analysis.
If they issue you an escrow refund you will get it in the next month’s statement. So, for example, if you get an escrow refund on Mar XXX, expect to get your escrow refund check after you pay your April payment and they mail you the next statement.
Sucks but keep the heat on. Check out the HUD Respa page to learn your rights. And stop bitching about a $35 monthly payment…Mine’s $230! (Should be $110 or so though)