WASHINGTON—Consumers continue to report experiencing problems with mortgage servicers, according to the latest CFPB monthly complaint snapshot.
As of Jan. 1, 2017, the Bureau handled approximately 1,080,700 consumer complaints across all products nationwide.
“Consumers continue to report running into issues when making payments on their mortgages or when trying to overcome obstacles to keep themselves in their homes,” said CFPB Director Richard Cordray. “The Bureau will continue to work to ensure that mortgage servicers give consumers the timely and effective assistance they deserve.”
Category Spotlight: Mortgages
With a value of over $10 trillion, the U.S. mortgage market is the largest consumer financial market in the world. Over the past three years, the Bureau has created new protections for consumers such as requiring lenders to determine that consumers can afford to repay their mortgages. The Bureau has also introduced new consumer-friendly forms to help people shop for mortgages and avoid unexpected issues at the closing table, the Bureau said.
As of Jan. 1, 2017, the Bureau handled approximately 260,500 mortgage-related complaints. Some of the findings in the snapshot include:
- Consumers continue to report problems with mortgage servicing: More than 80% of mortgage-related complaints submitted to the Bureau had to do with issues consumers report running into when they were making payments, or when they were unable to pay their mortgage.
- Consumers complain about funds being misapplied: Consumers complained that when they paid for identified shortages in their escrow accounts, the money they paid was not applied accurately and resulted in an increase in their monthly payments. Additionally, consumers complained that electronic monthly mortgage payments made via bill pay services through their financial institutions were not properly credited to their loan accounts.
- Consumers report issues dealing with servicers when trying to resolve loan problems: A frequent mortgage-related complaint from consumers had to do with problems dealing with their servicer when trying to negotiate foreclosure-relief assistance on their loans. Consumers stated that servicers were slow to respond, made repeated requests for already submitted documents, and provided ambiguous denial reasons.
- Companies with the most mortgage-related complaints: The three companies that the Bureau has received the most average monthly complaints about were Wells Fargo, Bank of America, and Ocwen.
The Monthly Complaint Report can be found at: http://files.consumerfinance.gov/f/documents/201701_cfpb_Monthly-Complaint-Report.pdf