Stearns Lending LLC

Revdex.com Complaint ID: [redacted] Complaint: The Borrower is requesting reimbursement of $20.95 for an escrow account shortage that occurred due to an increase in his annual insurance premium on 1/8/16. Response: The Borrowers annual hazard insurance policy premium at the time of loan closing was...

$728.00. The hazard insurance policy was issued by an insurance company of the borrower’s choosing. On December 9, 2015, the insurance premium information was updated to reflect an increase in the annual premium to $781.00, a difference of $53.00. The escrow schedule for the State of Florida is to be completed within the month of December with the effective date for changes on February 1st. On 1/11/2016, a phone call was made to the borrower to explain the escrow shortage. The borrower stated that he did not receive any notification of the increase from his insurance company. Once the escrow analysis is completed, an Annual Escrow Disclosure Statement will be delivered to the borrower via regular mail. The borrower has been contacted by phone with an explanation of these events and of this process.

We are responding to the complaint filed against Stearns Lending by [redacted] with your organization regarding the refund of the VA funding fee paid at closing. It appears that Ms. [redacted]’s refund request was originally sent to our sub-servicer, LoanCare to process.  However, our...

sub-servicer does not handle VA funding fee refunds and the request may have been re-directed to another department prior to being reviewed and approved by the appropriate Stearns Lending department. A check, payable to the borrower was issued on January 25, 2017 in the amount of $5,246.00.  We apologize for the delay in processing

We are responding to the complaint filed against Stearns Lending by [redacted] (“The Borrower”) with your organization.  The Borrower states that although she has reaffirmed her mortgage with Stearns Lending through her Bankruptcy, she has not received any statements. We have consulted...

with [redacted], the sub-servicer of the Borrower’s loan to assist we this response. The Borrower’s reaffirmation agreement was filed on December 7, 2016 and she was discharged from the bankruptcy on February 3, 2017.  The delay in closing her case and being able to return her loan to regular servicing is due to the Trustee having declared the Borrower’s bankruptcy an asset case.  The docket does not indicate what assets the Trustee is investigating for possible liquidation. [redacted] is unable to close its bankruptcy workstation in connection to the Borrower’s loan until 1) The Trustee files his final report, showing he does not have interest in our real property, and 2) the court closes/terminates the bankruptcy case.  This is normal bankruptcy procedure.  Upon termination of the bankruptcy, the bankruptcy workstation will be closed, and if the loan remains current, it will be moved to regular servicing where monthly statements, credit reporting, etc. can resume. Payments being shown as “irregular” has no bearing on the Borrower’s account.  This is a notation which could mean many things.  As the loan is in current bankruptcy status, payments are manually applied, thus the “irregular notation” in this case.  All payment have been received and loan is current. [redacted]’s records show no record of dropped calls; however, we regret that the Borrower was unable to be provided with the above explanation.

We are responding to the complaint [redacted] filed against Stearns Lending (Stearns) with your agency.  Ms. [redacted] states that her loan was sold to [redacted] Mortgage in November 2015, she made her November payment to Stearns on October 29, 2015; however it was never sent to [redacted]...

Mortgage.  She spent countless hours on the phone talking to multiple people in order to resolve this matter.We reached out to LoanCare, the original servicer of Ms. [redacted]’ loan to research this matter and assist us in the response.  They provided us with the following information:The servicing of Ms. [redacted]’ loan transferred from LoanCare to [redacted] Mortgage on October 16, 2015.   LoanCare records show that Ms. [redacted] contacted them on January 5, 2016 regarding her November 2015 payment and was advised to send in proof of payment for their research, as they showed no record of receiving the payment.On January 12, 2016 Ms. [redacted] contacted LoanCare regarding her November 2015 Payment.  Ms. [redacted] had sent an email to LoanCare with proof of payment; however, without the ticket # that is assigned through the email box, LoanCare could not locate Ms. [redacted]’ email. Ms. [redacted] contacted LoanCare care again on January 13, 2016 providing them with an email ticket number.  Ms. [redacted] provided a bank statement with the email; however, it did not show if the check cleared.  The statement only showed that the bank sent them the funds.  LoanCare asked the borrower to follow up on January 22, 2016.LoanCare acknowledges speaking with Ms. [redacted] several times from January 22, 2016 through January 27, 206, as their research was ongoing and unsuccessful in locating the payment.On January 27, 2016, a conference call took place with Ms. [redacted], her bank and LoanCare.  Ms. [redacted]’ bank confirmed that the check was still outstanding and LoanCare did not receive the funds.  As a result, the bank stopped the check and the money placed back into Ms. [redacted]’ account.  This was confirmed by Ms. [redacted] on February 2, 2016. We apologize for any frustration in the process Ms. [redacted] may have experienced.  We trust that the aforementioned addresses the complaint.

We are responding to the complaint filed against Stearns Lending, LLC (“Stearns”) by Mr. [redacted] with your organization.  Mr. [redacted]’ mortgage loan application was ultimately denied and he is requesting a refund of the $250.00 buyers/home inspection fee he paid.  Mr. [redacted] states that...

Stearns should have known his employment status from the beginning.  We consulted with Branch Manager, in preparation of this response. According to the Branch Manager, based on the initial customer interview and the information Mr. [redacted] provided, he qualified for a loan subject to verification of income and assets.  The preliminary income documentation Mr. [redacted] provided showed an annual salary of $44,372.64.  The Branch Manager personally questioned Mr. [redacted] several times about this and Mr. [redacted] was adamant that his yearly salary was $44,372.64.  When Stearns received more detailed financials a couple weeks later, it was discovered that Mr. [redacted] was a new employee and on a customary probationary period which only guaranteed 32 hours per week and 64 hours per pay period.   Furthermore, an appraisal was performed on the property and the value came in $7,000.00 less than the contract purchase price. Mr. [redacted] was not charged for the appraisal, which was a requirement of the loan. The cost was absorbed by Stearns.  However, a buyer’s home inspection is not required by Stearns and is at the discretion of the buyer.  Therefore, we must respectfully decline Mr. [redacted]’ request for refund of the inspection fee.

We are responding to [redacted]’s second complaint against Stearns Lending with your agency regarding the double payment of her taxes. As stated in our original response, it is not the servicer’s responsibility to monitor the refinance process.   A refund has been requested with the County.  Once the funds are received by Stearns Lending’s sub-servicer, LoanCare, they will promptly remit the funds to Ms. [redacted].

Upon receipt of the customer’s dispute, our servicing department was notified and the account analyzed by an escrow analysis processor. The tax lines were updated and the customer’s refund was sent via overnight mail on July 21, 2015.

We are responding to the most recent complaint filed by [redacted] against Stearns Lending (“Stearns”) with your company with regard to adjusting her payment since she paid her hazard insurance in full for the year. According to [redacted], Stearns’ sub-servicer, Ms. [redacted] request to adjust her escrow payment because she had paid her hazard premium in full, was received on December 16, 2016.  Their records indicate that the next premium is scheduled to be disbursed in June 2017 for approximately $579.74 to [redacted] Property Insurance Policy #[redacted].  The escrow department reviewed the account for an updated escrow analysis; however, the processor closed the escrow adjustment task, because there were no significant changes to complete an analysis. In regards to Ms. [redacted]s comment about the Virginia Beach office closed on January 9, 2016, their office had two hour delay due to inclement weather. Ms. [redacted]’s loan was service released to Lakeview Loan Servicing effective, January 3, 2017, therefore; Stearns is no longer authorized to make any adjustments to her loan.

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.
This is the second time I've made this complaint. Previously, the company "patted me on the head" and basically said to be patient, they'd take care of the problem. Well, months have gone by and the problem has NOT been resolved. Shortly after refinancing my mortgage in June of 2016 I was forced to declare bankruptcy. I REAFFIRMED my mortgage and all seemed to be fine. However, I stopped receiving statements, which is normal during the pendency of the filing. After the process was COMPLETE, I expected my statements to resume. They did not (which is when I originally filed my complaint). I was told by Stearns that they were just following procedure because my situation was an "asset case" and they couldn't do anything until the trustee wrote his final report stating that the house was not being considered as an asset. Well, that is exactly what happened, and I mailed (via CERTIFIED, RETURN RECEIPT) the documentation that proved that directly to Stearns' processor, [redacted]. I have the post office green receipt to prove it was received. Yet, here I am in NOVEMBER of 2017, STILL NOT GETTING copies of my statements. Contact with "customer service" (That is quite the amusing title for these people) is WHOLLY unsatisfactory. They talk in circles, treat me with disdain, or refer me to department after department.I require someone in authority "get the attention" of the "Customer Service" representatives at [redacted]. I want my statements to immediately resume, and be sent to me at my address of record (the same address as the property in question). Finally, I would like some kind of public acknowledgement that Stearns Lending has not fulfilled their obligation in this regard. (What I'd really like is for their ENTIRE customer service department to be replaced, but we all know that isn't going to happen).Regards,
[redacted]

This is in response to the complaint [redacted] (“The Borrower”) filed against Stearns Lending (“Stearns”) with your organization with regard to fees charged in connection to her auto draft.  We have consulted with [redacted], the sub-servicer of the Borrower’s loan to assist with this...

response. [redacted]’s records indicate that the Borrower’s auto-draft payment was scheduled to draft every month on the 1st.  Due to a servicing transfer from Stearns to Lakeview, the draft was moved to the 6th of the month, as a behind the scenes process.   There was a service release stop on the account due to the transfer that caused the payment, the Borrower attempted to schedule (as a one-time payment) on the website for January 3, 2017 to fail.  In addition, the auto draft did not continue because the Borrower deleted the auto draft on January 3, 2017. The Borrower was able to successfully schedule a payment with an agent over the telephone on January 9, 2017.  The Borrower indicates that we would have charged her a fee for auto drafting on the 6th of the month; however, auto draft is free of charge and no additional fees would have incurred. We apologize for any inconvenience the Borrower may have experienced with her difficulty getting through to the customer service line.

In response to the borrower's issue, I have worked with our servicing department and can confirm that all taxes were paid on 3/31/15. Per the borrower's request, attached is proof of payment.
Hopefully this current statement will be of reassurance to the borrower and reflect her own...

records to date. I will continue to work with our servicing department to ensure that the borrower's taxes will be paid from escrow in a timely manner going forward. If there is anything further that I can assist with, please feel free to contact me.

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.As mentioned priorly, I was promised a loan. I advised from the begining I was newly employed and was on probabionary period yet the branch manager was adamant that he can help with a loan no matter what.  Also told him I was freshly declined a loan from another lender so why try to assist? The appraisal was offered by Stearns as part of the process. But prior to the inspection they knew that I was not going to get a loan because of all the extension requested they should have stopped the process and tell me not to proceed with an inspection or further more. Once again this company placed me and my family in hole and now I have to find a way out. The little amount Im requesting of $250 should not be a problem for this lending company. I am seeking a refund or will add dissatisfactory comments for this company on the WWW so future buyers won’t go through what I went through.. Nothing further
Regards,
[redacted]

We are responding to the complaint filed against Stearns Lending by [redacted] with your company.  Ms. [redacted] is requesting a refund of her property taxes that were paid twice and states that “it is not standard procedure to pay out any amounts when the loan is being or in middle of a...

refinance.”   We have consulted with LoanCare, the sub-servicer of Ms. [redacted]’s loan to assist with this response.  Ms. [redacted]’s taxes were due November 2016 and LoanCare disbursed a payment in the amount of $1,241.28 to the County on November 9, 2016.  LoanCare received a payoff request for Ms. [redacted]’s Loan on November 11, 2016 and the loan was paid on November 17, 2016. LoanCare received a call from Ms. [redacted] on November 28, 2016 advising that the title company involved in the refinance of her loan, paid her property taxes and requested a refund.  She was advised to send in an email request and LoanCare received the request on November 30, 2016.  On December 15, 2016, the double payment was confirmed with the County and the County advised LoanCare that a refund would be sent to them in approximately 6 weeks.  Upon receipt of a refund, LoanCare will send the funds to Ms. [redacted].  The double payment is not a LoanCare error and since they cannot be certain that the refund will be sent to them directly, they will not advance the funds to Ms. [redacted].    We respectfully disagree with Ms. [redacted] regarding her comment about standard procedure as it is not the servicer’s responsibility to monitor the Borrower’s refinance process.

On August 31, 2015, the borrower logged on to our servicing department’s website and adjusted their auto draft feature. No payment was received in September. A billing statement advising of the delinquency was mailed out on September 16, 2015, and a delinquent notice was sent on September 17, 2015....

Our servicing department attempted to contact the borrower several times by telephone between September 15th, 2015 and October 13, 2015 but received no response.
On October 14, 2015, the borrower called our servicing department and stated she just discovered she was delinquent, and that she attempted to make a change to auto-draft in August. She acknowledged seeing the disclaimer regarding making changes 5 days prior to payment, but further stated she assumed that auto-draft would continue for that month and the changes would take effect the next month. She also indicated that she does not keep watch on account to see if payment drafts.
The borrowers have requested a correction of the credit reporting. However, credit was reported
accurately and the borrowers were advised of delinquency prior to the negative credit being
reported to the bureaus.

Date Sent: 1/3/2018 4:27:28 PMWe are responding to the second complaint that [redacted] (“The Borrower”) has filed against Stearns Lending, LLC (“Stearns”) with your organization.  The Borrower is frustrated that she is not receiving mortgage payment statements even though she has reaffirmed he mortgage with Stearns through her bankruptcy.We have again consulted with [redacted], Stearns sub-servicer to assist with the response.In our last response, we acknowledged that the Borrower’s reaffirmation agreement was filed on December 7, 2016 and she was discharged from Bankruptcy on February 3, 2017.  However, the delay in closing her case and being able to return her loan to regular servicing was due to the trustee having declared the Borrower’s bankruptcy an asset case.  The docket did not indicate what assets the Trustee was investigating for possible liquidation.  As such, [redacted] was unable to close its bankruptcy workstation in connection to the Borrower’s loan until: 1) The Trustee filed his final report, showing the Courts does not have interest in the real property that is the collateral for our loan to the Borrower, and 2) the court closes/terminates the bankruptcy case and resumes regular servicing (including sending monthly statements) of the Borrower’s loan.The courts terminated the bankruptcy on December 5, 2017, [redacted] closed their workstation on 12/7/17, and a monthly payment statement was issued on December 18, 2017.  We have attached the District of Utah’s website showing the termination date of the Borrower’s Chapter 7 case and a copy of the statement.While we regret the Borrower’s dissatisfaction; by returning the loan to regular servicing, [redacted] would have violated the Chapter 7, Bankruptcy stay until the aforementioned was completed.Tell us why here...

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.
[- When we called Stearns in January, we were told that we were marked us at Tax Exempt and that as soon as that issue was resolved(acknowledging that we were not Tax Exempt), our Tax would be paid off by Stearns. - At multiple times, the Customer Service Associates told us that they escalated the issue and that the check would be over-nighted to the county. Clearly this was misinformation.- We have been advocating ourselves since we first contacted Stearns in January and our issue still not resolved due to extremely poor customer service and a breach of their fiduciary responsibilities.  -  Stearns does not mention how they are able to say that the Bill was a Supplemental Tax bill.- We requested some documentation which may help resolve this issue. The ticket number is   [redacted]. We never received any information.]
Regards,
[redacted]

Stearns Lending (the Company) is committed to customer satisfaction and regrets the
frustration that you experienced when attempting to resolve this issue. Stearns always
strives to provide an unprecedented level of service and attentiveness to our customers.
In your letter, you stated that you...

were due an escrow overage as the amount withheld for
your tax assessment was excessive.
A complete review of your file has been conducted and found the following:
1. On June 6, 2014, you contacted the Company and stated that you had
received a new tax bill. You were instructed to fax the same to the Company
and provided the number;
2. On August 11, 2014, you provided a letter via email from the taxing authority
with an estimated tax amount for 2014 (copy attached);
3. On August 27, 2014, you again contacted the Company regarding your taxes.
You were advised that the letter provided did not have the actual 2014 tax
amount, only an estimate and that the taxes could not be updated until the
actual amounts were available. This was in error as estimates can in fact be
used if the county provides a letter with the estimated amount or the tax bill,
otherwise the previous year's tax amount will be used. The representatives'
supervisors have been forwarded this issue so that it may be used for coaching
purposes;
4. The York County taxing authority has been contacted and verified that tax
amounts for 2014 will not be available until October 1, 2014 therefore the
estimated taxes were updated and the account reanalyzed. Effective with the
September 2014 payment, your new payment is $874.95; and,
5. You are correct that there was an escrow overage. The amount of $1,194.41
was refunded to you, via check, on September 9, 2014.

On August 3, 2015, our Special Loans Department received an e-mail request from the borrower to recast his loan. On August 4, 2015, the Special Loans Department forwarded wire instructions to the borrower. On 08/25/15, a wire in the amount of $100,300 was received, which included a $300 recast fee....


On September 22, 2015, our Special Loans Department received a call from the borrower regarding the status of the refund. A representative advised the borrower that it was a timely procedure and make take up to 60 days to perfect. As a recast alters the original terms of the note, the loan needs to be re-amortized and a contractual agreement between the borrower and the lender needs to be prepared and executed by both parties.
On October, 5, 2015 the prepared agreement was sent to the borrower for signature and notary via [redacted] overnight mail. On October 26, 2015 the executed/notarized documents were received from the borrower, and forwarded to the Investor Accounting Department for final approval. The documents were executed by our Special Loan Department on October 27, 2015, effective December 1, 2015 with a new payment of $964.65. A copy of the agreement and new amortization schedule were sent to the borrower on November 3, 2015.

We are responding to the complaint filed against Sterns Lending by [redacted] with your agency, regarding his dispute of the monthly PMI amount on his loan. We have reached out to LoanCare, the sub-servicer of Mr. [redacted]’s loan to assist us with this response. At the origination of Mr. [redacted]’s...

loan, he was provided with an amortization schedule which indicated the PMI rate would decrease, beginning with the thirteenth payment on his loan.  However, according to LoanCare’s records and Radian's (Mortgage Insurance provider) Commitment & Certificate of Insurance, the PMI rate would decrease after 11 years.  This is the information that was shared with Mr. [redacted]. It appears that the information input for the amortization schedule was incorrect; nonetheless, due to the discrepancy, LoanCare has adjusted the PMI payment, effective May 1, 2016 to match the amortization schedule provided to Mr. [redacted] at loan origination.  $363.55 (5 months PMI payment difference) has also been refunded to Mr. [redacted] by applying the amount to the principal of his loan on April 21, 2016.  We apologize for any inconvenience Mr. [redacted] may have experienced with regard to this matter.

[redacted]
Good afternoon, I submitted a complaint to your organization (ID shown above)and received a reply from Stearns Lending (a huge thing since they’d refused to communicate with me at all previously).Your format required a reject/accept, which I rejected until I could take the information given to my attorney.I requested a few days to do so since he was out of town attending a family funeral. I have now heard from my attorney concerning the information provided by Stearns.Based on the reply they provided, and the information/clarification given by my attorney, I am now prepared to close my complaint as resolved (at least temporarily). Your online form does not provide a means to do that.It simply says something about “no further action needed at this time”.So I wasn’t sure how that do this.Please accept this submission as part of that file and act accordingly. Thank you. /s[redacted] D [redacted]