Stupid Lender, Or Are They?

[justbroke]

I just received an ESCROW Statement which shows that the Bank is escrowing my last year's taxes and next year's taxes. What? They are specifically precluded by the Plan from attempting to pay the pre-petition taxes (as they are in Plan). Not only that, my current year, 2009, is also int the plan and not even due yet!

Anyhow, they just added $24,000 to my escrow account and my mortgage payment is going to go up by $1,700 a month. Anyhow, I can see paying the one for this year, but why in the world are they paying it twice? Strange, strange, strange. I don't even want to call them.

From my confirmed plan...
Confirmation of the Plan... shall impose a duty and legal obligation on the holders and/or the servicers of any claims secured by liens, mortgages, and debts of trust on residential real property to...
.
.
(f) Refrain from directly paying or attempting to pay any pre-petition tax obligation that the Debtor has included in the Plan to be paid under the Plan unless a motion is filed to modify the Plan with adequate notice and hearing to the Debtor and the Trustee; and

I don't even have the strength to care at this point. However, if they really bother me over escrow account, we'll just have to do this in Court. I'll just ignore them for now, as they were explicitly told not to do what they just did.

[UpsideDownMI]

Did you already have an escrow account with this mortgage? I am assuming that you did not. Either way is alot of money, don't let them take it! I would definately contact them and dispute the need for an escrow as it is paid thru your plan. If it were me, I would send my payment to them minus the amount in question.

If you didn't already have an escrow account with this mortgage, I believe that they can only create one if they have actually paid your taxes. This has happened to me in the past.

[justbroke]

I am already doing as you write. I'm ignoring the escrow increase. I had no escrow account before and there is "adequate" protection for them through payments (monthly) to the taxing authority. I can't believe they actually charged me an EXTRA $12K. I won't be talking to them though.

Okay, and to top this off... I decided to look at my Tax record after just posting and reading what you wrote...

The Taxing Authority is applying my RETRO tax payments to my CURRENT year! And, the lender is saying they paid 2009 in September, when they clearly didn't. The Tax site shows only payments from the Trustee.

[UpsideDownMI]

Im glad to hear that you checked the taxing authority. I was going to suggest you do that to see if for some chance they did in fact pay them.

It sounds to me that you may have grounds for a "motion for show cause as to why creditor xxxxx should not be held in contempt of court".