My lender spent my escrow on taxes for the wrong parcel.

[Robert Kriedermann]

A few years a go I purchased 2 duplexes from a single seller with cash that are about a quarter mile from each other on the same street.

Over a year ago I refinanced just one of the properties. The payment was $857.70 per month which included escrow for taxes and insurance. In Sept 2019 I received a letter from the lender that I had an escrow shortage of $3629.60 and I can either pay it now or they will increase my monthly payment to $1160.16 to cover the difference. I looked at my escrow information online and they paid not only the correct tax bill but also the tax bill for the other property on the same street that i do not have a loan on.

I called in October 2019 to sort it out but I got the run around. I kept calling every couple weeks but never was able to get the same person on the phone more than once. They have no method of reaching a person directly and I don't get anywhere when asking for a person by name and company ID number. Eventually I reached a supervisor who said they would look into it and would call me back with updates. They called twice more and each time they had a new date sometime in the future for when it was scheduled to be resolved by. Then they stopped calling. Every time I call I get someone new. Recently I checked and now they have paid the wrong tax bill a second time so instead of having a zero escrow balance after their first mistake, I have a -$2000 escrow balance.

What can I do? I don't want to pay an extra $300 per month so i can fill the escrow so they can use it to make another mistake with but I also don't want to stop paying because that will put me in default. I have been trying to get this fixed for almost 4 months and have made no progress at all. The bottom line is that they used my escrow money to pay something we had no agreement about and now they want more to do it again. I talked to a new supervisor today and they told me they would call back by the end of the week with an update. I've heard that before... The loan company is Specialized Loan Servicing. Does anyone have any advice?