CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — In Texas, veterans with 100% disability are exempt from paying property taxes.
One family contacted The Troubleshooters, saying a mortgage company paid these taxes, which resulted in an escrow shortage and doubling of the mortgage.
They say this error is causing serious problems.
"The remaining balance that Nueces County refunded us was $5486.00 which we turned around and gave right back to Carrington Mortgage to put into our escrow and put our mortgage back to what it should have been," Jacob Parks said
The Troubleshooters sat down with Jacob and his wife Kristina at the kitchen table of their Southside home and try, yet again, to make sense of their mortgage-escrow problem with Carrington Mortgage, their mortgage company.
They've lived in their home since 2021.
Jacob served our country for eight years in the United States Marine Corps. He was injured while serving in Iraq, which is how he became 100% disabled.
"So when we refunded that money, Carrington Mortgage never changed April, May, June or July of 2022 mortgage payments," he said.
He's on the phone with a man who would only identify himself as Aaron with Carrington's Escalation Department.
In the Troubleshooters effort to help the Parks find resolution to their dilemma, various local real estate and consumer professionals were contacted. All agreed that it's complicated.
"As it stands right now, Carrington Mortgage has been refunded $5486.00, plus, they've gotten extra payments from us that way exceed what y'all paid in property taxes," the Parks said.
In March, the Parks submitted their complaint to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
That complaint said in part, "We have recordings of conversations with Carrington where they recognize where the funds were paid to the wrong account and not the escrow and admit it. And because of their complete incompetence, we may lose our home."
"We have letters of intent to foreclose because of the amount they say we owed. So we had to clean out our savings account and pay that so that we could keep our home based on their mistake," Parks said.
The Bureau has sent the Parks complaint to Carrington, and will notify them when Carrington responds.
The Troubleshooters asked Aaron "is there any way that you can mark this case as urgent or priority because they've been going thru this now for a while?"
Aaron encouraged the Parks to send a letter detailing their situation to Carrington's Research Department and they'll look into it.
The Parks said,"That's what Carrington tells them every time they call."
