We wanted to refinance our mortgage and were well into the process when the broker requested a payoff amount. When we got the statement with the payoff amount from the loan servicing company, it included a request to pay roughly {$5100.00} for property taxes. 

This was odd, because XXXX XXXX XXXX held our property taxes in escrow every month and had over {$7100.00} in an escrow account. Why did they need an additional {$5100.00}? 

We called and asked and they said the {$5100.00} was to pay property taxes if the loan closed after the taxes were due. We were thoroughly confused because - of course - they had {$7100.00} in an escrow account they could use to pay the {$5100.00} in property taxes. 

So, I was stuck. The lender would not refi the mortgage without a proper payoff amount and XXXX XXXX XXXX would not change the payoff amount. I eventually called an attorney and he got the loan servicer to update the payoff amount. 

We thought we were in good shape, but then the broker told me the new lender was dragging their feet and that we would need to finance an additional {$5100.00} to cover the property taxes. 

It did n't make any sense, but we were in a very bad mortgage and we desperately needed to lower the payment so we just XXXX XXXX the {$5100.00} only increased our payment by {$12.00} a month, and we assumed we would be getting the escrow amount of {$7100.00} back, so we just went with the new loan. 

Last week, we received an escrow distribution of {$1200.00}. They kept roughly {$6000.00} and we financed an additional {$5100.00}. I do n't know who cheated us out of our money but it 's clear to me that we were taken advantage of. 
