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KNOW YOUR RIGHTS
Your mortgage servicer must
comply with federal rules
Your mortgage servicer is the
company that collects your
monthly mortgage payments.
This may not be the same as the
bank or nancial institution you
went to for your mortgage.
Your servicer is required to give you correct
information, without delays.
Billing information in writing
Servicers have to give you a written mortgage
statement each billing cycle showing detailed
information, as it applies to your situation. There are
exceptions:
§ If you have a “coupon book” that shows your
mortgage payments, the coupons take the place
of billing statements.
§ If your lender is categorized as a “small
servicer,” which includes some state housing
nance agencies that make a small number of
low-interest loans to low- and middle-income
borrowers, the lender is not required to give you
a written statement.
Here’s what your statement must show:
§ Current payment amount—What you owe; how
much money is applied to principal, interest, and
escrow; late payment fees and the date you need
to pay the amount to avoid the fee; payment
options, if your mortgage loan has multiple
payment options; and an explanation of whether
the principal balance will increase, decrease, or
stay the same under each option
§ Payment history—How your total payments have
been applied, since your last statement and since
the beginning of the year; transaction activity,
with the amount and date of charges or credits
that affect your current bill; and information on
partial payments (that is, payments you made
that were less than the full amount owed) and
what must be done for the money to be applied
to your loan balance
§ Missed or late payments—If you fall behind more
than 45 days on your payments, the mortgage
servicer sends you a notice of delinquency. This
can be on your statement or a separate notice.
It shows the date you became delinquent, your
account history for the past six months, how
much to pay to bring your account current,
possible risks and costs (such as foreclosure)
if you don’t bring your payments up to date,
information about any foreclosure avoidance
options or loss mitigation programs that you’ve
agreed to (if applicable), information about
housing counseling, and a notice whether the
servicer has started the foreclosure process.
§ Other information—The principal amount you
currently owe on your loan; the interest rate, and
if you have an interest rate that could change, the
next date it is scheduled to change; the penalty
for paying off your loan early, if there is one;
general contact information for your servicer;
the special mailing address, if there is one, for
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written requests for information about your loan
or for reporting an error your servicer has made;
and how to contact a housing counselor for help
Payments credited promptly
Servicers have to apply your full payments to your
account as of the day they come in. If you pay only
part of what you owe, the servicer may hold your
partial payment(s) in a special account.
The servicer must tell you about this on your
statement. When that special account collects
enough money to make a full payment of principal,
interest, and any applicable escrow, the servicer
has to credit that payment to your account.
Quick responses when you ask
about paying off your loan
If you write to ask how much it costs to pay off
your mortgage, the servicer generally has seven
business days after receiving your request to
answer you.
You may be allowed to make extra payments on
your mortgage’s principal that can help you repay
your loan more quickly and with less interest. Check
whether your loan allows extra payments and, if so,
make sure they are applied to the loan’s principal
rather than interest. Even $100 more per month
may reduce the loan term by several years.
Notication about force-placed
insurance
If you fail to keep your home insured, your lender
usually has the right to buy “force-placed insurance”
and charge you for it, to cover the lender’s interest
in your home. Force-placed insurance is usually
more expensive than a policy you buy, and it
generally protects only the lender, not you. The
insurance cost varies, and the servicer is not
permitted to overcharge you.
The servicer must warn you at least 45 days before
it charges you for a force-placed insurance policy.
The notication tells you what kind of insurance you
need. You might use the time to shop for a better
or lower-cost policy, and then send proof to the
servicer that you have insurance.
Process for resolving errors and
information requests
If your servicer doesn’t properly apply a payment,
charges improper fees, fails to pay taxes and
insurance premium or other charges on time, or
fails to refund money in an escrow account within
20 days of you paying off your mortgage in full, you
should send your servicer a written notice of error.
Many servicers have set up specic addresses
for information requests and errors, so that your
request is received by specially trained employees.
This address appears on your monthly periodic
statement or coupon book and on the servicer’s
website. Take care to mail your request to the
correct address. If your servicer has set up an
address to use for written notices of error and
information requests, you must use that address.
Your servicer is not allowed to charge a fee or
require a payment for responding to you.
When you write to your mortgage servicer to
ask for information or to tell them about an error,
the servicer generally has ve days (excluding
weekends and holidays) to acknowledge your letter.
The servicer has extra time to respond to errors or
requests for information in a few situations:
§ Errors related to foreclosure—For errors related
to foreclosure notice, judgment, or sale, the
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servicer generally has to respond before the
date of the foreclosure sale. There’s an exception:
If the servicer receives a complaint within seven
days of the sale, the servicer just has to make a
good-faith effort to respond to it.
§ Request for owner’s information—If you are
asking to know about the owner or assigned
owner of a mortgage loan (for example, if you
are looking for the owner’s identity, address, or
contact information) the servicer must send a
response not later than 10 days after they receive
your request (excluding legal public holidays and
weekends).
§ Errors in payoff balance—If you believe the
servicer has made an error or failed to tell you
the accurate amount to pay off your mortgage
in full, the servicer must send a response no
later than seven days after they receive your
written notice of the error (excluding legal public
holidays and weekends).
Then, the servicer has 30 business days to resolve
the issue—which means they have to respond to
information requests, resolve any alleged errors, or
explain to you why they believe no error was made.
For some errors and information requests, the
servicer can extend the time period an additional
15 days if you are notied in advance and given the
reasons for the extension.
Your credit report has protections from errors. If
you report an error to your servicer related to a
mortgage payment, your servicer is not allowed
to send negative information to a credit reporting
company regarding that payment for 60 days after
receiving your notice of the error.
Prompt customer service
Mortgage servicers have to set up their business so
they can nd correct information about your loan.
They need to be ready to tell you how to submit
complaints and requests for information and must
respond promptly and correctly to your complaints
and requests for information. They must pass along
correct information about your account when
the servicer transfers the servicing of your loan
to another company. If you are having difculties
paying your loan, they must properly evaluate your
application for relief. And, they must keep records
for at least one year after you pay off your loan, or
after the loan is transferred to a new servicer.
About us
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
regulates the offering and provision of
consumer nancial products and services
under the federal consumer nancial laws,
and educates and empowers consumers to
make better informed nancial decisions.
Learn more at consumernance.gov
Connect with us
Submit a complaint
consumernance.gov/complaint
Tell your story
consumernance.gov/your-story
Get answers to money questions
consumernance.gov/askcfpb
Share your thoughts
facebook.com/cfpb
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9/2020
