Homeowner Loses Home To Foreclosure After Mortgage Servicer Employs "Force-Placed Escrow" Squeeze; Firm Refuses Comment, Despite Customer OK

In Dallas, Texas, Fox 4 News reports:

• FOX 4 has been covering the mortgage mess for years. We’ve told you about angry homeowners having problems with loan modifications, endless calls to lenders with no answers, unregulated mortgage servicers, and now force-placed escrow accounts. Texas homeowners have the option of paying their own property taxes but some who selected that route are finding themselves in a tangled mess that is difficult to undo.

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• Bertha Andrews said she has never gotten behind on her mortgage payments. Last summer when we first met Andrews, the widow was struggling to save her home while caring for her 95-year-old mother. Andrews had a tax deferral from Dallas County because she is over 65, which means her taxes wouldn’t have to be paid until her house is sold. But her mortgage lender, Ocwen Financial Services, paid the back taxes of around $3,500 and tacked it on to her mortgage payment due.
  “I didn’t understand it,” said Andrews. “I didn’t understand it.”

• Andrews couldn’t fight anymore. She goes down as a foreclosure casualty in 2011, now living in an apartment complex for seniors. Andrews walked away from her home after paying eight years on her mortgage. “The final straw was when I had sent in all my receipts and they didn't respond to them,” said Andrews.

• Ocwen didn’t respond to FOX 4 either, even after Andrews gave the company permission to talk to us about her mortgage. Ocwen auctioned off her house on Feb. 1.

For the story, see Forced Escrow Accounts Frustrate Homeowners.