Who had issues with taxes IF you rolled tax payment into mortgage payment?

I have seen so many people on here having issues with the tax payments that are rolled into mortgage payments essentially leaving it to mortgage company to send in your payments I guess? Should I not do this??? Thanks

Re: Who had issues with taxes IF you rolled tax payment into mortgage payment?

I posted awhile ago. I received a letter from the town stating I never payed my property taxes which I thought I had been paying with my mortgage for the last year Apparently, Countrywide ****** it up at our closing and that was not the case. Countrywide wanted to roll our property taxes into our mortgage payment and I told them forget it, I will pay it on my own. If they dont pay them on time, it winds up costing you more money in the long run and apparently ALL mortgage company's are generally late on paying your taxes. It's a PITA. If you make sure to set aside the right amount of money each month I think you should pay your taxes on your own. It is more for convenience to pay with your mortgage but it's not worth it if the bank is going to screw it up.

Re: Who had issues with taxes IF you rolled tax payment into mortgage payment?

Posted by jellybean1420

I posted awhile ago. I received a letter from the town stating I never payed my property taxes which I thought I had been paying with my mortgage for the last year Apparently, Countrywide ****** it up at our closing and that was not the case. Countrywide wanted to roll our property taxes into our mortgage payment and I told them forget it, I will pay it on my own. If they dont pay them on time, it winds up costing you more money in the long run and apparently ALL mortgage company's are generally late on paying your taxes. It's a PITA. If you make sure to set aside the right amount of money each month I think you should pay your taxes on your own. It is more for convenience to pay with your mortgage but it's not worth it if the bank is going to screw it up.

Re: Who had issues with taxes IF you rolled tax payment into mortgage payment?

Re: Who had issues with taxes IF you rolled tax payment into mortgage payment?

I have never had a problem

Re: Who had issues with taxes IF you rolled tax payment into mortgage payment?

Posted by june262004

I have never had a problem

Re: Who had issues with taxes IF you rolled tax payment into mortgage payment?

Posted by beautyq115

Posted by june262004

I have never had a problem

And you pay in one payment???

Re: Who had issues with taxes IF you rolled tax payment into mortgage payment?

we had a nightmare with our escrow less than a year after we closed. our mortgage got sold three times & finally landed with GMAC. When they audited our escrow account that october they decided we should get a refund of over $3,000. We were thrilled & assumed it was correct. We decided to pay off a credit card that had home improvement stuff on on it with the money. six months later we get another letter that says our taxes were going up & we were $6,000 short on our escrow. It was an effing nightmare just trying to get somebody from GMAC that wasn't talking to me from india to explain how this could possibly be. Apparently they like to have almost two years of your money in escrow for your taxes & insurance & even though they screwed up & refunded us that money they expected us to repay it plus the new increase in our tax.
So for 6 months I paid $3,800 a month just to get caught up. All the while they made it like we did something wrong. We tried to get the taxes out of our mortgage but we were not allowed to make any changes like that until after the 24 month mark. So starting in 08 I'm going to try to get them out. Its a bit of a horror though because they have money in escrow I'll need them to refund & just talking to them on the phone makes my blood boil.
I HATE GMAC!!!!!
Honestly, I would not agree to putting taxes in the mortgage again.

Re: Who had issues with taxes IF you rolled tax payment into mortgage payment?

Re: Who had issues with taxes IF you rolled tax payment into mortgage payment?

After reading everything here about it, I told our mortgage broker from Day 1 that we didn't want to escrow. Confirmed and reconfirmed at least five times with him and another person at the company.

What do you know? Less than 10 days before closing, suddenly the mortgage company had a policy change and now will force us to escrow. Not to mention the extra money - thousands of dollars - that we were to owe at closing.

The b*tch in me that I inherited from my mother came out and I got to the bottom of it when I demanded proof of this so-called "policy change". Guess what? There was no change, it was their requirement all along, according to the mortgage broker manager.

So after fighting with a manager, we got a few thousand taken off the broker fee. We are now stuck with escrowing but if our mortgage gets sold, I'm going to see if I can work my way into getting that changed. Nothing I can do about it now I guess.

Thank God we had left ourselves a large buffer of money in the bank, or that house might have be lost because of that scr*wup.

So if you are looking at products and you are told that you do NOT have to escrow, get it in writing from the mortgage company itself. I got it in writing from multiple people at the broker, but in the end, that really doesn't mean anything.

Message edited 11/29/2007 8:17:21 AM.

Re: Who had issues with taxes IF you rolled tax payment into mortgage payment?

If you decide not to escrow, tell your mortgage broker/lender before closing.

There is a document you will sign at closing stating you waive escrow.

Just be aware that there most likely will be a fee involved to waive escrow - ours was about $700 or so. It's included in the closing costs.

We decided not to escrow because we had heard horror stories from our friend who is a clerk in the town assessors office and we would've had to put a lot in escrow initially at closing.

Re: Who had issues with taxes IF you rolled tax payment into mortgage payment?

If you want to pay the taxes yourself, you need to ask the lender if they will allow it. We went directly with a bank and they do not allow borrowers to pay their own taxes. We were annoyed but sucked it up b/c we are getting a good rate.

Re: Who had issues with taxes IF you rolled tax payment into mortgage payment?

Re: Who had issues with taxes IF you rolled tax payment into mortgage payment?

Message edited 11/29/2007 11:08:27 AM.

Re: Who had issues with taxes IF you rolled tax payment into mortgage payment?

Well, we only closed in May so no issues yet. But you have to keep on top of it. If your taxes go up you have to make sure you payments reflect this, or you will owe all the money you are behind at the end of the year. You also have to make sure your tax bill is paid and the correct amount is paid. Just becauset the bank is holding the moeny doesn't mean mistakes aren't made.

I think we had to escrow, our lender would not allow us to pay on our own.

Re: Who had issues with taxes IF you rolled tax payment into mortgage payment?

We rolled our payments into our mortgage. At the time I listened to my Aunt who said to do it this way, that it was easier, etc.

We recently got a check back from our mortgage company for $1K for taxes that we "overpaid". I guess I need to call my town to see if this is truly the case.

What a headache. I wish I hadn't listened to my Aunt...

Message edited 11/29/2007 11:21:44 AM.

Re: Who had issues with taxes IF you rolled tax payment into mortgage payment?

Re: Who had issues with taxes IF you rolled tax payment into mortgage payment?

Good luck not having to escrow at this point in time. Lenders are really cracking down and it will be very difficult for first time homebuyers to opt out of escrow. Our bank yessed us to death on opting out of escrow and tried to change it on us at the last minute. (They had changed their policy to state that NO first time homebuyers could opt out of escrow. They fear foreclosures b/c tax liens are senior to mortgage liens on the property!)

My parents always escrowed and never had a problem. My dad is a big supporter of escrowing taxes. IF you are VERY responsible with money, bills, etc. and you plan to set aside that amount each month into savings, then I say it's the way to go. You can earn interest on that money rather than have it sit with your bank. You also don't have to worry about the bank asking for more money for you to escrow or the bank not making the payment on time. If you're unsure about your ability to save that money and pay the taxes on time, it may be worth escrowing that money.

Also, like I said, be prepared for several banks to tell you that you cannot opt out of escrow as a first time homebuyer. Most of the policies were changing to that when we bought. We fought tooth and nail, though, and went up the chain of command at our bank until a supervisor told us we didn't have to escrow. If you opt out of escrow, GET IT IN WRITING. I'm glad that we did - it helped tremendously when they tried to tell us we had to escrow just 2 weeks before closing.

ETA - Yes, we were able to opt out of escrow b/c we had already gotten it in writing. Most banks now, however, won't offer first time homebuyers that option. We got lucky.

Message edited 11/29/2007 11:39:03 AM.

Re: Who had issues with taxes IF you rolled tax payment into mortgage payment?

Re: Who had issues with taxes IF you rolled tax payment into mortgage payment?

I think we paid around $500 to waive -- a small price to pay to avoid having to escrow thousands of dollars.

Message edited 11/29/2007 11:54:11 AM.

Re: Who had issues with taxes IF you rolled tax payment into mortgage payment?

I didn't really care if we escrowed or not - our escrow gains interest (which I thought all did?) so id rather know im making the appropriate payment. I also always check my escrow balance to make sure the bank isnt screwing it up.

Re: Who had issues with taxes IF you rolled tax payment into mortgage payment?

We pay out taxes and insurance through our mortgage and have never had a problem. We have countrywide.

Re: Who had issues with taxes IF you rolled tax payment into mortgage payment?

Re: Who had issues with taxes IF you rolled tax payment into mortgage payment?

Re: Who had issues with taxes IF you rolled tax payment into mortgage payment?

Message edited 11/29/2007 8:48:27 PM.