Cenlar Mortgage Reviews

We have had nothing but problems w/CENLAR since the switch from Taylor Bean. I need to find a way out of this company! There are multiple things, such as copying our information incorrectly from TBW and asking us to fax proof of marriage, address/zip change, etc. We sent it over several times and it still has not been changed. I also had problems w/them telling me I was not covered by insurance even after USAA contacted them several times directly to correct the situation.

In addition, for the month of June, they drafted the mortgage payment on June 1st and June 5th. I called on the 7th to make a complaint and they said they would refund my money in 72 hours, but could only mail me a check. No check. I called daily just to find out each time there were no notes in my file/computer that I even requested a refund. At one point they told me to call my bank and report the transaction as unauthorized, I did so and my bank said it would take 90 days.

After the first 10 days of calling daily, I was given empty promises about the money being returned to me. Still no money, this caused other bills to be late, overdrafts and the like. How frustrating. Always got the call center, never the company directly. Last week, I was told the deposit would be returned electronically by June 23rd, that's today, nothing.

On my first call, and every call after that, I was assured automatic drafts would be discontinued and I would be sent a coupon book. Still no coupon book and am concerned they will draft again on July 1st.

I will be making a complaint w/the FTC as indicated below, and will be trying to find a way out of this company.

Once again CENLAR has failed to pay our property taxes resulting in yet another threatening notification from our City Tax Office that they intend to sell our brand new home for an outstanding tax obligation due to CENLAR having failed in their fiduciary responsibility to pay our taxes in a timely manner.

Our attorney will be contacting CENLAR to release us from escrow and afford us the opportunity to pay our taxes on our own, and no longer suffer from CENLAR's malicious negligence that has caused undue stress by having failed to comply with their obligations to pay the taxes on time, and without the need for faxes to be sent by the homeowner reminding them of their duty.

I have contacted the Better Business Bureau, as well as NY city media to look into CENLAR's failures to properly manage the accounts of their clients.

Sincerely,
Michael Merritt

Cenlar is under criminal investigation for fraud with the Federal Trade Commission. I learned this the hard way, after my mortgage was switched to them. They first screwed up my tax payments, sending them to the wrong address. Then, when we flooded, they tried to take the money and put in an escrow account and disburse it to us after we had payed for 65% of the repairs out of pocket. If after 90 days the repairs aren't made, they pocket the money.This seemed suspicious, leading me to google them and find out lots of bad things about them. My lawyer says that he is surprised that they are still in business, having been shady for years.
They also tell people their taxes have gone up and raise their payments, to be proven wrong, etc, etc, etc. The list goes on and on. I am praying another bank will buy out my loan, but it looks like we should all suck it up and refinance with someone else less criminal.

About 4 weeks ago i recieved a letter saying my flood insurance on my house had expired. It also stated that if I didnt prove i had flood insurance, cenlar would take out insurance at my expence. only one BIG problem; i have never had flood insurance. how does my flood insurance expire that I don't even have? I tried to call but got nowhere with the NON ENGLISH SPEAKING rep I talked to. I then called my insurance company to see if they maybe had a clue what was going on. unlike cenlar, they were more than glad to help. when my agent called cenlar the rep stated all of my insurance is with allstate. My agent stated no my insurance is with state farm. my agent then faxed a copy of my policy to cenlar that dated back to the first day of my mortgage proving that i never had flood insurance and i was with state farm. This was not good enough. after many more phone calls by my agent and i ,I finally after 4 weeks recieved a letter stating i did not have to have flood insurance. Well good right??? This weekend, i recieved a letter stating my escrow account from 2009 had a shortage of $3800. My taxes and insurance for 2009 was $3364 total. Where the hell is the money i paid to escrow? I also found out my payment was going up $600. WOW!!! I will try to start this week on getting this issue straight and finding myself a bank to refinance. right now I will pay more to get away from cenlar! With mortgage companies like this, there is no wonder why this economy is like this. CENLAR IS CRAPP!!!

Here's my story..Last year we were notified that Taylor Bean and Whitaker were shut down and all accounts were frozen for a fed investigation and we were TOLD that our mortgage company was now CENLAR a subsidary of Bank of America. On 2/22/10 we recieved a break down of our mortgage and escrow and were informed of an increase in our taxes, change in insurance and thus an increase in our motgage payments. Now in 4/09 we remodified to lower our payments( at a large expense to us). With the new increase we are now to pay more than what we had remodified for in 09. Well, on 3/12 we picked up a message left on the eve of 3/11 to call Cenlar between 6:30pm-11:00pm. On 3/12 at 6:30 we called and were informed we had no insurance due to non-payment. We informed the customer service rep who was of little and no help that we pay in escrow and payments for insurance are made by Cenlar, not us. At that point, we were told that the insurance was cancelled on 3/1 and Cenlar had put hazard insurance on the house(which is a bank ins that covers only the structure for the loan, not us, our belongings or barn) and we needed to contact our insurance agent. Next day was Sat and our agent wasn't in until Monday, so we waited. On 3/15, we went to see our agent who told us that there 4 notices sent from ins co to mortgage co as far back to Nov, stating they were canceling for non-payment. He also informed us that he was unaware of the cancellation until 2 days after the cancellation. He talked with CENLAR who admitted the the mistake and asked him to fix it. Cenlar also told him that they sent ins co a check on 3/1, but ins co sent it back and said that it was too late, policy was cancelled on 2/28. He talked to ins co underwriter and He tried to re-instate us, but we were turned down. He did find us another ins, state run, for 2x the price. He called Cenlar who wanted to send the check for the new ins to him and that is when he told them they needed to contact us and have us come down to sign the binder. That's when we got the message to call CENLAR. Well, after all this, we went round and round with CENLAR and were told they tried to contact ins co but the ins co wouldn't talk to them, only us. No one called us or sent us any notice. Then we were told it was our responsibility to make sure we had ins, even though we pay in escrow. So now it's our fault. I finally today called ins co to get any kind of exception. The first person I talked to said she couldn't help so I asked to be transferred to someone who could. She took my number and said the supervisor would call me back. OK. She actually did call me back but pretty much told me it was the underwriter who makes the decision and I asked if I could speak to him,,but they don't allow that. So i calmly explained that I have no choice but to call my state rep, the insurance commissioner, banking commission and Susan Wornick to try to find someone to help me. I'm just stuck in the middle. I thanked her and hung up. No lie, 10 mins later the ins co reinstated me, no thanks to CENLAR. Now I need to get a check sent from CENLAR to ins co. Next battle. I also now have to get a corrected tax bill so the $1000.00 extra CENLAR is charging me a year can be corrected. I don't get it. Who is working there. They can't seem to get anything right.

Run as fast as you can away from Cenlar - don't ever use them for anything!! I learned after 2 incidents where they screwed up my mortgage payment, that the left hand does not talk to the right hand in that company. Also, you cannot take a word they say as truth - always get things in writing from them. Even if they say they put it in the computer in your record, chances are they didn't or they don't know to look at what was put in there. (ot that it would help to get anything in writing from them, they will still screw up.) When they actually confirmed they stopped drafting our mortgage payment because of a refinancing, they still took out the payment, causing an overdraft. And of course, after being put on hold from somebody in India, I learned it will take 3-4 business days to get reimbursed. If this is the type of inept company you feel like dealing with, go with Cenlar. If not, I would recommend going with anybody BUT them.

ALL OF YOU SHOULD FILE A COMPLAINT WITH THE WWW.FTC.GOV. WITH SO MANY COMPLAINTS THEY WILL START AN INVESTIGATIONM

Check this out...our bank sold our loan to Cenlar. Our home burned, got the insurance check and sent it on to Cenlar since the check was made out to us and Cenlar. Since the loan was much less then the insurance check we're due a refund, right? Well, it's been WAY over a month since sending the check to Cenlar and guess what, the same BULLCRAP we're hearing from them as the rest of these people. One person tells us we were supposed to WRITE a letter requesting our money be returned!!! So I guess they just sit on money that's not theirs? The other person says they're cutting our check and will have it within 48 hrs...have yet to recieve a dime from them. How, in the United States of America can a scam of a bank stay in business if this is how the do business? Where's our congressmen/women, BBB or anyone that's supposed to be monitoring banks - where are they? Why is this bank allowed to continue to rip the U.S. people off of their hard earned money??? We're sleeping on air mattresses in a rented $800 a month house still waiting on our refund so then we can order our new home. What a joke!!!

I have been dealing with CENLAR for months and have had a HORRIBLE experience with them. Their customer service reps are rude and have no clue about the loans and cannot answer questions. That is IF you actually get through to one. Their supervisors are no better and are in fact more rude than the reps, one actually threatened me.

My loan gets paid from two sources, myself and my housing authority. CENLAR is so incompetent that they have yet to apply the money correctly towards my loan. After dealing with them for MONTHS AND MONTHS, I finally thought the issue was resolved. I received IN WRITTING a letter saying that everything was taken care of and the loan was credited properly and all caught up. That was in October 2009.

I call to make my November payment to them and wouldn?t you know it, they say I am three months behind. WOW!! So less that thirty days after them telling me everything was caught up, I am 90 days behind??? They must have time machines.

In addition to that the one person I finally got a hold of admitted to me that his ?cash? department messed up and didn?t apply my money correctly but he refused to credit me the way he?s supposed to. In fact CENLAR sent me a check for $800 because I overpaid, yet was still reporting my as past due??????? Their supervisor tried to tell me, ?We sent that to you so you could send it back.? WHAT??? SERIOUSLY??

They are completely incompetent and I believe they are doing this to people to get extra fees and moneys from them, which is FRAUD. The story above says the BBB has them in good standing, UNTRUE. The BBB has them at a C- and has received 80 complaints against CENLAR. Change your lender unless they cut all ties with CENLAR.

I have been dealing with CENLAR for months and have had a HORRIBLE experience with them. Their customer service reps are rude and have no clue about the loans and cannot answer questions. That is IF you actually get through to one. Their supervisors are no better and are in fact more rude than the reps, one actually threatened me.

My loan gets paid from two sources, myself and my housing authority. CENLAR is so incompetent that they have yet to apply the money correctly towards my loan. After dealing with them for MONTHS AND MONTHS, I finally thought the issue was resolved. I received IN WRITTING a letter saying that everything was taken care of and the loan was credited properly and all caught up. That was in October 2009.

I call to make my November payment to them and wouldn?t you know it, they say I am three months behind. WOW!! So less that thirty days after them telling me everything was caught up, I am 90 days behind??? They must have time machines.

In addition to that the one person I finally got a hold of admitted to me that his ?cash? department messed up and didn?t apply my money correctly but he refused to credit me the way he?s supposed to. In fact CENLAR sent me a check for $800 because I overpaid, yet was still reporting my as past due??????? Their supervisor tried to tell me, ?We sent that to you so you could send it back.? WHAT??? SERIOUSLY??

They are completely incompetent and I believe they are doing this to people to get extra fees and moneys from them, which is FRAUD. The story above says the BBB has them in good standing, UNTRUE. The BBB has them at a C- and has received 80 complaints against CENLAR. Change your lender unless they cut all ties with CENLAR.