it's always something

[mamajoan]

Just to make life ever so much more entertaining, on Saturday I got a notice from my mortgage company saying that due to an escrow shortage (translation: the amount of taxes being charged to me as part of my mortgage payment isn't enough to pay the tax bill) they are increasing my monthly mortgage payments by $300, effective the first of next month. April Fool's! Only not a joke! AUGH.

Now, this should all become moot since this letter dates from before we discovered, as I wrote about here at some length, that I'm being charged for all the taxes on the entire building rather than just my half. Assuming that that gets straightened out, it seems pretty likely that whatever numbers this new piece of paper is trying to spew at me will be tossed out the window and replaced with some new, hopefully much more favorable to me, numbers. So I should really just put this piece of paper aside and not worry about it. So I'm doing exactly that, right? Well, sort of. Except that the mere notion of having to increase my monthly payments by $300 seems to have sent me into some sort of shock, where the looking-at-finances-logically part of my brain is now in a state of catatonia and won't respond to any application of actual reality.

Or, to put it somewhat less verbosely, that shit fucked me the hell up.

Anyway, so I called them today, mostly hoping they'd say "there there, don't worry about it, we're on it." Only what they actually said was that they called the county tax people on Feb 15th and haven't gotten a call back yet. I asked how long it'll take before they say "gee, maybe we should call again," and the guy wouldn't give me an answer, but assured me somewhat patronizingly that they were "actively" investigating the issue. Hmm, if it's been two weeks since you called and you haven't tried calling back yet, that doesn't sound too active to me, but what the hell do I know? So I expressed that if this doesn't get resolved by April 1st, which in fact is only a month away, then I'm going to mildly freak out, and he expressed that I should chill the hell out. There's plenty of time, says he, and it will all be resolved before April 1st, and if by strange chance it isn't, I can just pay the smaller payment on April 1st and they'll accept it because they'll know the investigation is ongoing. Well, we'll just see about that.

So this is me trying my best not to worry about it. I just hate not knowing what's going on -- I wish I could be more involved in the investigation process rather than just sitting here waiting for a call. sigh.

Happy freakin' Monday.

Comments

[tiggrrl.livejournal.com]

Don't listen to them about that whole "We'll just accept the smaller payment" thing unless you have something in writing to send them with the payment to remind them. I had a similar problem with my company last year, except that they were overcharging me, and I knew it, and could prove it, and they didn't give a damn, so I had to pay the higher amount until this year they sent me a letter saying, "oops, looks like we overcharged you all last year, here's a check and lowered payments for this year." Granted, my higher amount was only by $50 a month, but it was still a major pain.

[mamajoan.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I definitely wouldn't just send the smaller payment and assume it'll all work out. But I'm hoping it'll be resolved by then anyway so it'll be moot. *cross fingers*

[discreet.livejournal.com]

$300! $300!

Isnt that a lot to add just because there wasnt enough for a tax bill?

[mamajoan.livejournal.com]

Yes, it really is!! But it does make sense (I mean, mathematical sense anyway) if you assume that I'm paying the taxes for the entire building.

[discreet.livejournal.com]

are you paying taxes for the entire building??!

[mamajoan.livejournal.com]

yes, if you read my journal back around the 14th/15th of feb, you'll see that I was very surprised to learn that the guy who owns the other condo in my building hadn't been paying any taxes (he was surprised to learn this too) so it had all been paid out of my escrow account and his escrow account was full of money just sitting there doing nothing. So we are still trying to figure out how to straighten it out for the future, and how to settle up between us for what has already been paid.

I was happy, at the time, because I figured it probably meant that my mortgage payment will decrease once this gets straightened out ... which is why I freaked out so much when I got the paper saying that they are actually INcreasing. yikes.

[emrinalexander.livejournal.com]

Do you have an attorney? Like the one who handled your part of the real estate settlement? It is AMAZING how fast these investigations step up when somebody with "Attorney at Law" on their letterhead gets involved.

[mogwar.livejournal.com]

There's no reason why you shouldn't be able to do your own investigation. In the end it's your tax bill for your property. Just because it's paid through an escrow account doesn't make a difference. You're still the one ultimately responsible. The mortgage company is merely providing you a service (admittedly, a service that covers their own ass).

[mamajoan.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but I already know what the problem is. It's that my mortgage company thinks it needs to pay the entire tax bill. I can't resolve that on my own. The "investigation" is just the mortgage company getting their heads out of their asses and going, "hey look, this is a condo, we only need to pay half the taxes."

[retch.livejournal.com]

ugh, that's annoying! Good for you for keeping on the ball, don't let them slack off and screw up! Especially since the taxes are due regardless of who is screwing up, and the govt. will probably not care who screwed up when they add penalties for late payment!