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SweetCin
My green-eyed boy
Member since 5/05 13499 total posts
Name:
Cin
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Escrow huge increase HELP PLEASE
We decided to escrow our taxes when we bought our house last Sept. We've been paying e/ month, no problems.
We get home from vacation yesterday & get a paper from B of A saying we need to pay a $4k shortage either in one lump sum or an extra $600 a month for the next year. WTH?! We can't afford that kind of an increase. I'm just not sure why it happened b/c our taxes did not increase, they actually went down b/c of STAR.
Also if we did pay the 4k all at once, our mortgage payment would still go up 300. a month?!
I'm confused & totally afraid b/c we can't afford that kind of an increase. HELP.
ETA: I spoke w/ DH, he said they told us our escrow would be adjusted in time..our mortgage payment has been 300. less than we had originally thought (stupid us should have put that $ aside). They are asking for 4k plus $$ to help alleviate a shortage for next year (cushion). Still, not sure how we're going to come up w/ this & our bills/debt.
Message edited 7/20/2008 11:47:00 AM.
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Posted 7/20/08 9:32 AM  |
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beautyq115
New Year!
Member since 5/05 13729 total posts
Name:
Me
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Re: Escrow huge increase HELP PLEASE
Did the sellers have enhanced STAR with either a Senior Citizens discount and or a Veterans Discount???
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| Posted 7/20/08 9:35 AM |
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SweetTooth
I'm a tired mommy!
Member since 12/05 20105 total posts
Name:
Lauren
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Re: Escrow huge increase HELP PLEASE
This happened to us, we took the taxes out of escrow and now we pay them ourselves. Can you do this?
I know our taxes went up because we lost STAR for this year - we closed after the filing date.
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| Posted 7/20/08 9:36 AM |
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SweetCin
My green-eyed boy
Member since 5/05 13499 total posts
Name:
Cin
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Re: Escrow huge increase HELP PLEASE
Posted by beautyq115
Did the sellers have enhanced STAR with either a Senior Citizens discount and or a Veterans Discount???
No, not sure what happened...we're going to talk w/ Bof A tomorrow, but I'm so nauseous about this 
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| Posted 7/20/08 9:46 AM |
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beautyq115
New Year!
Member since 5/05 13729 total posts
Name:
Me
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Re: Escrow huge increase HELP PLEASE
Posted by SweetCin
Posted by beautyq115
Did the sellers have enhanced STAR with either a Senior Citizens discount and or a Veterans Discount???
No, not sure what happened...we're going to talk w/ Bof A tomorrow, but I'm so nauseous about this
I know someone who this happened to...and I fear this will happen to us this year since the sellers of this house had both Veterans and Senior Citizens...just waiting for that letter to arrive
Good Luck..I hope it's a mistake. How can they expect people to come up with this money especially these days!
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| Posted 7/20/08 9:50 AM |
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skew
LIF Adult
Member since 5/05 6794 total posts
Name:
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Re: Escrow huge increase HELP PLEASE
something doesn't make sense. why would there be a shortage if there was a decrease in your taxes and if the shortage is $4k, why would you have to pay $600 a month (= $7,200)? before contacting the mortgage company, call the town and confirm your tax bill and when it was paid.
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| Posted 7/20/08 10:26 AM |
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Mommy2Boys
My Boys!!!!
Member since 6/06 14437 total posts
Name:
C
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Re: Escrow huge increase HELP PLEASE
That happened to us. We got a letter that our escrow was in shortage in Jan. not for the April tax payment, but the one that was due in Oct. They said we owed about $4k also. I took my taxes out of escrow and pay them on my own now. Funny thing is when I took my taxes out of escrow, the mortgage company sent me a check for $1,500 overage  I just dont trust how they come up with their numbers.
ETA: Your taxes may have gone up and you dont know about it yet. In the 1st year in our home our taxes went from $9,500 to $12k. I applied for STAR which will take affect this fall and also grieved my taxes but haven't heard anything yet.
Message edited 7/20/2008 10:29:48 AM.
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| Posted 7/20/08 10:28 AM |
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KLSbear
LIF Adult
Member since 1/06 1908 total posts
Name:
Karen
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Re: Escrow huge increase HELP PLEASE
Escrow generally covers your homeowner's insurance too so check to see how that may have changed. When our STAR savings kicked in, we saved $900 on our taxes. Unfortunately the school tax increase that year brought our taxes up by $885, giving us a net gain of a whopping $15. That year was the highest but every year it's gone up at least about $300 and often more.
If you homeowners is included check to see if you can increase your deductible. We raised ours to $5000 and saved $248 a year. You really don't want to make small claims under $5000 anyway because they'll drop you like a hot potato so you're better off self-insuring for small stuff.
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| Posted 7/20/08 10:31 AM |
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Mom-2-Liam
LIF Adult
Member since 10/06 917 total posts
Name:
Mary
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Re: Escrow huge increase HELP PLEASE
I don't know what to tell you, except escrow can be good (ie: don't have to remember to put aside tax and insurance money during the year) yet it can be such a nuisance too like with what you're going through!
My friend got $5000 BACK from her mortgage co saying they paid too much. She was smart enough to know that wasn't the case and saved it (put it into an ING account - high interest) a few months later, sure enough the bank said "oh you're $4500 short" and so she was able to pay it back no problem. Of course that doesn't always happen like that - and she was able to get a few bucks interest (not much but it's better than nothing) on it too. So if you are ever sent a check saying your overpaid - don't use it. Just depoist it where you won't touch it because you don't know if they're goign to realize the mistake and ask for it back!
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| Posted 7/20/08 1:23 PM |
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dandr10199
Grace is growing up too fast!
Member since 10/05 11561 total posts
Name:
Dina
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Re: Escrow huge increase HELP PLEASE
Posted by Mom-2-Liam
I don't know what to tell you, except escrow can be good (ie: don't have to remember to put aside tax and insurance money during the year) yet it can be such a nuisance too like with what you're going through!
My friend got $5000 BACK from her mortgage co saying they paid too much. She was smart enough to know that wasn't the case and saved it (put it into an ING account - high interest) a few months later, sure enough the bank said "oh you're $4500 short" and so she was able to pay it back no problem. Of course that doesn't always happen like that - and she was able to get a few bucks interest (not much but it's better than nothing) on it too. So if you are ever sent a check saying your overpaid - don't use it. Just depoist it where you won't touch it because you don't know if they're goign to realize the mistake and ask for it back!
This is why we elected to NOT put our $$$$ in escrow. We put the $$$$ in a interest baring account and pay it ourselves. If the taxes go up or down, we know before the mortgage company. Once, Countrywide tried pulling this with us and we send them the letter from our closing stating that taxes were NOT in escrow and the apologized, said it was a mix up.
To the OP...Can you talk to B of A and see if you can pay the taxes yourself?
Please make sure that B of A has their facts straight. Have them send you a bill that the country/ school sent to them or call up the title company that did your title insurance and ask for a contin report (this report shows what taxes are due, behind and paid up). Then, work out a payment plan for the shortage?
I am a title closer and if you need help or have questions FM me. If you have the statements from your closing, have your lawyer write a letter then I am sure that B of A will back off and work with you.
Message edited 7/20/2008 1:34:36 PM.
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| Posted 7/20/08 1:28 PM |
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sometimesmommy
Always in my heart.....
Member since 11/06 6686 total posts
Name:
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Re: Escrow huge increase HELP PLEASE
We had this happen. It was due to buying from a senior citizen and they had to calculate our taxes without the senior discount. Its been a PIA ever sense--always goign up.
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| Posted 7/20/08 7:17 PM |
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LemonHead
Sour Girl
Member since 3/08 5271 total posts
Name:
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Re: Escrow huge increase HELP PLEASE
The same thing happened to us- I just took my homeowners out of escrow- it wasn't supposed to be there anyway. I didn't have a problem until my mortgage was sold to another company.
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| Posted 7/21/08 12:54 PM |
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ave1024
I Took The Wrong Road
Member since 12/07 6153 total posts
Name:
That Led To The Wrong Tendencies
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Re: Escrow huge increase HELP PLEASE
Posted by SweetCin
ETA: I spoke w/ DH, he said they told us our escrow would be adjusted in time..our mortgage payment has been 300. less than we had originally thought (stupid us should have put that $ aside).
This is probably the main cause of the issue. How did your wind up being $300 short from the start?
If your escrow is going up by that much, they weren't billing you for the correct amount from the start.
That big of a difference I probably would have noticed if it were me. (But it sounds like you knew something was up from the start yourself).
There really isn't much you can do about this except to pay it. Your escrow will probably have a shortgage every year because taxes go up.
Oh and with Bank Of America, once you have escrow set up, you can't remove it. I tried to do this myself (I have BOA) and they told me you can't take off escrow after you start it unless you refinance.
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| Posted 7/21/08 1:18 PM |
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annienyc
LIF Adult
Member since 10/06 1347 total posts
Name:
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Re: Escrow huge increase HELP PLEASE
We had something similar happen to us last year which affected us to the tune of $400 a month!
First our home owners insurance went from like $800 to $1200 (didn't add a thing, just increased) and then our taxes went up annually like they will for the rest of our lives.
The increase resulted in a $200 per month increase, but because we escrow Sun Trust requested $400 a month to cover the increase and the escrow savings.
We bought our house in September so I will see next month if our home owners goes up again - i will have to get some new quotes...
It is terrible, I know...we are so poor these days and then when something breaks we're really screwed, right!?!?
So sorry!
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| Posted 7/21/08 3:24 PM |
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