It’s been over a month since I received a rubber escrow refund check from my former mortgage provider, Taylor, Bean, & Whitaker. For those who didn’t catch the story the first time around, my husband and I refinanced and had a $1200 escrow refund due.
At the end of August I received and deposited the check into my bank. A few days later it was returned NSF, causing us to be charged a bunch of overdraft fees that were eventually reversed.
Here’s the update: there is no update.
The Status of Escrow Accounts at Taylor, Bean, & Whitaker
I have called TBW three times now to find out what is happening with my escrow money. Every time I was on hold for around an hour before being told that the money is there. It’s just frozen by the FDIC. According to Taylor, Bean, & Whitaker, I will receive the money, when the FDIC decides to unfreeze the money.
I’ve talked to the FDIC. The FDIC put is blaming TBW in the matter. And they had someone from TBW call me back, basically telling me the same thing TBW told me when I initiated the call.
So basically, nobody at either the FDIC or TBW is giving anyone a straight answer.
The Status of Former TBW Mortgage Holders
Former TBW mortgage owners are in a world of hurt. Some have had to come up with property tax payments out of their own pockets…after having paid a year of tax payments into their escrow accounts.
Some people can’t afford to pay their property taxes and have been assessed late fees. Some are even in danger of having leins put against their property, because they haven’t paid their property taxes.
Some people were part of an Equity Accelerator program that somehow ran through TBW. And payments they made to TBW didn’t make it to Equity Accelerator, so now they’re behind on their payments. Ironic, since the reason that they signed up with EA was so they could get ahead on paying down their principle.
Others still aren’t sure to whom they should make their mortgage payment. On one day they’re told that their mortgages are with Bank of America, and on another day they’re told their mortgages are with CENLAR. And still others have been told that they are part of TBW’s restructuring, under Chapter 11 bankruptcy, meaning that the need to continue making payments to a company whose funds are frozen. Not very encouraging.
Where are the Answers to the Taylor Bean Whitaker Crisis?
In doing a Google search for the status of Taylor, Bean, & Whitaker and the funds they (or the FDIC, depending on who you talk to) are holding, I haven’t come up with much. Neither has anyone else.
Other than local Ocala, FL papers, there hasn’t been much news on the third largest mortgage provider’s bankruptcy, other than the fact that they have indeed declared bankruptcy.
Basically customers are forced to get information from other customers. My last post on Taylor, Bean, and Whitaker has over 160 comments from mortgage customers sharing what they know and what they’ve been told. One reader mentioned that a ruling had been made in the legal case between the FDIC and Taylor, Bean, & Whitaker, but I’ve had trouble coming up with an online source to confirm that.
You’d think that there would be a better way to keep consumers, some of whom have thousands of dollars at stake, better informed about what is happening and what to expect.
I also think it’s sad that here we have a situation that is affecting hundreds, if not thousands, of people: people, who have done everything right, but are paying a high price for the failure of their mortgage company. Yet in the national news, Jon & Kate’s unraveling marriage is of more concern than what happens to people when Taylor Bean & Whitaker doesn’t pay property taxes and insurance.
Search Results:
- CNN: 0 for Taylor Bean Whitaker, 7 pages for Jon & Kate. A search of CNNMoney.com produced 2 results for Taylor Bean Whitaker.
- MSNBC: 29 for TBW, 1,580,000 for Jon & Kate
- Fox News: Difficult to tell, as there doesn’t seem to be a good way to do an exact search. However a search for “Taylor, Bean, and Whitaker” returned two results for the mortgage company on the first page. Other results included Taylor Swift and Green Bean Casserole. A search for Jon and Kate turned up at least three pages of results that were purely about Jon and Kate Gosselin. I stopped looking after three pages.
Does anyone else see something wrong with this picture?
Photo by lrargerich.
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Talk to TBW again this time they say the money is being unfrozen in stages and that my escrow is not in this phase and they dont know when it will be released. This is such crap. Had i done this to them I would have had my house takein from me by know. CRAP CRAP CRAP!!!!!!
My new lender AHMS stinks. First they told me I would be reimbursed for the taxes I paid out of pocket within 14 days, now they are saying 90. I dont want to wait another 3 months, I paid them in Septmember-the amount in my escrow account far exceeds what it should per REPSA guidelines. I just want to stop making phone calls and worrying about this. I should bill TBW for all the hours I have spent on hold and writing letters!
Well that sucks…I was told 14 days by AMHS as well which I believe is tomorrow. I was planning on calling Monday if I hadn’t heard anything I’m assuming I will be told the same thing. This feels like we are being stung along. First 14 days then 90..what’s next!
todd, did you talk to them? I called today and the tax dept had no idea what I was talking about and forwarded me to a call center….this is starting to get annoying
I am in the same boat. Hundreds of phone calls later I am still out $1400 from a bad check that was wrote to me the first week of August. My loan was bought by BofA, I sent the request into them and they are “proessing the papers.” Taylor Beam owes me this money, this is wrong. Please let me know if Taylor Beam sends you guys a check, I am still waiting!
I received my package today from TBW & bankruptcy courts notifying me of the bidding process for TBW properties. I guess this is what has to take place before they have the assets to give me my $3000 escrow funds, that were MINE, not theirs. This country has to make some major changes to stop this type of fradulent rip off of us American tax payers. I have done everything right, TBW has done everything wrong, but somehow I am the one that is missing $3000 of MY money! Has anyone received their funds yet?
My wife called the same number today that she called when they told us 3 weeks. Now they tell us they don’t know where that person got that info to tell us that. I have never even been formally notified that there is a problem or even bankruptcy. I recieved a hot check for insufficient funds. I am going to the sheriffs department in my county to file a case against the person who is named on the signature line. Let’s see how that person would like to cough up my $5800 or face a felony warrant and be extridited back to the Texas Panhandle! Hey it’s worth a shot!
The BMCGroup site posted a doc yesterday in the Docket section (Document 648).
http://bmcgroup.com/restructur.....ientID=218
If I’m reading this correctly, it looks like TBW is supposed to provide the judge with a status report on their reconciliation efforts by Dec. 15, 2009.
I switched mortgage companies right before this disaster and TBW still has my taxes and my last payment (which they took AFTER I already closed with a new mortgage company) in escrow. Do I need to fill out a claim on the BMCGroup or write a written request to TBW? I’ve called TBW several times and they won’t tell me anything.
I have a friend who’s an attorney. He said like it or not, that’s probably our best bet. I just mailed a claim for my bounced escrow refund check last week.
Barrt,
I read in the comments that you sent in a claim for the bounced escrow check. Where did you get the claim and how did you find out about it? I’m in the same boat with a bad escrow check. We refinanced with another company in July and got our bad check in August.
Sarah,
Here is the link to the website that is handling the bankruptcy
http://www.bmcgroup.com/restru.....ientID=218
Top right is file a claim button.
Jean B’s post below explains the section of lawyer speak I didn’t understand.
The website has good info, so I’d poke around on it, but here’s a direct link, straight to the form, which includes directions & mailing instructions:
http://bmcgroup.com/restructuring/TBW_POC.pdf
It looks like they’ll scan your claim & post it on the website for anyone & their dog to see, so be sure to take a magic marker to any account numbers.
I found the information to file a claim from the Bankruptcy Court off of the website. The TBW case number is 3:09-bk-07047-JAK. My claim was filed with Clerk, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Middle District of Florida. I am number 172. We who have bounced checks from TBW do not fall into a Priority category under section 5 of the claim form, so do not check that box. When a company such as TBW files bankruptcy, you have to file a claim form and get in line. This could take 6 months. They have to sell off TBW assets prior to claims being disbursed.
As best I can tell, unless someone is holding a lien on TBW property as collateral (highly unlikely), they would have neither a secured claim (sec. 4) nor a prioritized claim (sec. 5).
That said, do your due diligence & consult an attorney, if needed.
Case number correction 3:09-bk-07047-JAF
we refinanced our home in august right before all this mess and our loan was still sent to BOA AND sold to our current mortgage company!! HU? Bank of America has sent us letter saying we are behind and need to pay and everytime all call I go right to the collect dept. and they ask do you wanna make that payment and be current?? I just have to laugh because they have it noted in my account as I call twice a week for the months now!! I finally got ahold of someone at Taylor Bean Monday to ask why they hadn’t released the fund to my escrow and the funds for my pay off all she could say was my account money was frozen and they had no idea when they would be released but it would HOPEFULLY be before Christmas!! really!! This is ridiculous and there has to be something we can do to get this resolved faster!! Does anyone know what we can do??? I would really like my money before Christmas like before Black Friday hello!! Jerks! Taylor Bean is horrible!!
If there is any comfort in numbers, i am glad i stumbled upon you all. I refinanced my 1st td with TB&W more than 3 years ago to finance my mother’s care in an Alzheimer’s facility and I had no problems with them at all. I am in California and our news is horrible. I continued to pay them until they sort of just disappearred. Somewhere in there, my insurance company messed up and applied all my homeowner’s insurance payments to my brother’s earthquake insurance(don’t ask how) They sent a non-payment notification to TB&W. They also sent a letter of explanation a bit later but i was never informed when. So they TB&W started to collect impounds for insurance i didn’t need, but they did it as a negative impounds account. This insurance thing seems to be a fovorite of theirs. In July, Chase took over my personal bank and messed up all my auto pay payments so the payment top TB&W was late – it wasn’t my fault but Chase does not write letters. So here we are, i am 1800.00 in arrears on a loan i paid each and every month on time.
No one can figure out why, and no one at AHMI seems to be able to do annything. Last Friday, i got so frustrated with the woman, I finally just asked if she were in India, not Texas, everyone i have spoken with at the company is very polite and totally useless. All i have figured out is you have to prove everything from August to now. I have faxxed and faxxed and faxxed but it does me no good. Now i have to fax her proof ofp ayment but my chase web site wont produce onfor that month . ARGH!!! Who do you report this behavior to? It is ridiculous, my credit score has hit the floor, and all i get is more requests of proof. I have spent so many hours with TB& W and now these people! I am losing it
As far as I can tell…this Web site and its comments are the best source of information on the Internet concerning the TBW escrow tragedy.
My fiance is out about $1,000 on a bounced escrow check. She sold her first condo, after only owning it 1 year, and lost $13,000 on it…because of the economy. And this $1,000 bounced check was just the icing on the cake. Can’t help but feel like the American Dream is dead…and we’re only 25 years old.
Will be checking back here for answers…since no one who is actually responsible for this BS is actually willing to be held accountable. They should all be thrown in jail.
Please don’t get too downhearted, I have been through the mill a few times and sometimes you win sometimes you lose. I am not being flippant, i have lost property because of junkies and flakes and banks. The economy is not good but if you can pick yourself up and keep on going, you will be fine.; The American dream isn’t dead, it just got messed up by people who though they could get something for nothing. These stupid lenders got greedy and all of us who did pay got shafted by the people weo should never have been given a loan in the first place.
Hold your breath and plow through it, it is maddening but i have spoken to 4 different people for AHMI today, none of which say the same thing. The last one was at least intellignet and she swears it will take a month for it all to sort out. They haven’t gotten all the records from TS&W so they are operating in the dark too.
It might take an injunction to force TB&W to be forthcoming, they have losts of ’splaining to do.
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