Loan papers, inspections and taxes are all part of refinancing a home. Kermit Hall refinanced his home in December, but he hit a snag at closing.
"I had to pay the property taxes for the entire year once again even though they had already been paid into escrow with my mortgage company," he said.
Hall's mortgage company, Chase Manhattan, had not forwarded his property tax payment to Wake County. To close, Hall had to go ahead and pay the taxes and then when Wake County received the double payment, they would send it back to Chase and Chase would reimburse Hall.
A month passed, and Hall still did not receive a check. He began calling Chase.
"I kept calling and each time I called they said they had no record of it. They didn't know anything about it," Hall said. "It was very frustrating."
Especially when Hall checked with Wake County at the end of January and found out they paid Chase weeks earlier, so he called Chase again.
"This was the breaking point. They said, 'Sir, we have no way of tracking this,'" Hall said. "A big company like that. I've got almost $900 in extra tax payments they owe me back. They've got no way of tracking it."
Hall had his attorney write a letter and even complained to the state attorney general. He still had no response, so he called Five on Your Side.
A spokeswoman from Chase told Five On Your Side that it was probably a "processing error" and called this type of problem "rare." She immediately sent out a check, which Hall got the next day.
"Nine hundred dollars is a good chunk of change," Hall said.
This situation just took getting to the right person, which can be a hassle when it involves a large company. You have to be persistent and keep asking for supervisors or sometimes even call the corporate headquarters, instead of going the "customer service" route.
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