Cenlar Central Loan Administration

We have received 2 separate checks for $5. They arrive in an envelope with a small green slip of paper that says it is for "mortgage recording fees". We have never heard of this bank and neither has our mortgage company. The check doesn't have the normal appearance of a check. PLEASE do not attempt to cash it. If you endorse it and they get your bank account information, it would be horrible and very difficult to stop them from stealing from you. Who knows what kind of bad people are behind this ridiculous scheme.

I got a bill for my last mortgage payment. I paid the full amount on time (several days before the grace period ended). I got a letter saying that the payment was short and that they do not accept short payments and that they are returning the payment. They also charged me a late fee. I called them and said, "of course the payment is short. That's because it's my last payment and it is less than my regular payment!!!" They said they would rescind the late fee. I just got a letter from them asking me to pay the remaining mortgage plus the late fee. THIS COMPANY IS DYSFUNCTIONAL!!! I still haven't received the credit for the payment I made to them. SHAME ON CITIBANK FOR CHOOSING THESE CROOKS TO SERVICE MORTGAGES.

I'm so glad we're refinancing, this company is awful.

Simply put I have such a distaste for this company. Why did Citi sell my mortgage to this horrible company? I have a late payment on my credit report because of this company, which dropped my score 59 points! The only late mark on my credit report I disputed it with proof and it still remains. I absolutely hate this company! They get two thumbs down!

To make a long story short Cenlar is by far the worst loan company that I have had in the last 20 years. My Citibank loan was sold or transferred so I had no choice unless I wanted to refinance again. I would advise anyone that is considering using them to look elsewhere. My family lost our house in the 2018 Carr Fire. I had my insurance agency send me the equity in the house over $500k, and the loan amount went to Cenlar $187k. Cenlar, did not like me being the owner builder, and wanted all the insurance $ to be sent to them and then they would release funds as needed. When requesting funds, Cenlar approved sending $40k to start the build. The concrete on the house was $65k, requested an inspection at 50% complete.

I too came from CitiMortgage, I have never been late on a mortgage payment nor late in submitting information per a mortgage lender's request. However, a few months after the takeover of my mortgage Cenlar requested proof of Hazard Insurance. I submitted my declaration promptly. I followed that submission up with a phone call. I was told they had received the information and I was good. A month later I was charged for Hazard Insurance over $860. I have now spoken to a min. of 10 different people. I have resent my P&C insurance information to them a min. of 5 times. Almost every representative has told me Cenlar is wrong, there is notes within their system that these charges will be reversed.

I received a supplemental real-estate tax bill from my county. I called the escrow department at Cenlar to inquire how to have the bill paid from escrow. Person told me to send it to them to be paid. Person provided the address and I sent it, figuring it would be paid. A couple weeks later I get a letter from Cenlar stating, although there is $4000 of MY MONEY in the escrow account, there is not enough overage in the account to pay the bill (the bill was $1000). I did have an overage of $500 and they were sending me a check for $500. Said they sent the check 2 weeks ago. Still haven't received it. So after spending 2 hours on hold over three phone calls trying to get an explanation, I was told with rudeness, that they don't pay supplemental tax bills. Person said, it would cause an escrow shortage later on.

2 hours ago-Edit. I attempted to pay an additional $1242.27 in principle to this company on 3/2/2020. I had more than sufficient funds in my bank account on this date. On 3/6/2020 they issued a "returned payment reversal" stating I had insufficient funds in my account. I contacted Cenlar and spoke with a customer service rep, Darren, he stated it isn't their fault I had insufficient funds in my bank account and they will not reverse the fee and I needed to take it up with the bank. I then contacted my bank and they stated there is no record of Cenlar attempted to bill this amount. There is no record on my online banking and no bounced checks anywhere in their system. The teller also said that amount would not have returned for insufficient funds as I had more than enough to cover that payment.

Our present loan was initially serviced by Mortgage America and then sold to Cenlar. Since the sale, we have tried to apply for auto pay unsuccessfully for over three months! Keep in mind that we presently use 5 other lenders and to get into their auto pay system, they only required a blank, voided check to get the account number and routing number. Cenlar did not approve us because our bank account just had our last name followed by the words rental properties listed on the account title. They wanted documentation that it was a viable business account. We sent them a letter from our bank indicating this is our real estate checking account. They refused us again for auto pay and wanted another letter indicating that my wife and I are the signors on the account.

About 4 months ago I refinanced my home and they sold the loan to Cenlar. During these 4 months I have been having financial issues and as I try to reach Cenlar to ask for help, if I call on my way to work it’s too early. If I call after it’s too late. I have been on hold for 1 hour and 33 minutes and I’m still writing this review, while I hold. It not only today, it’s always a problem. I hope someone else buys my loan from them.

I had an insurance claim for re-roofing our house. It was covered by my home insurance company who issued two checks. The second check apparently exceeded the $40K limit Cenlar has so they required the money to be put into escrow. It apparently sits there since last year August. Cenlar refuses to release the check to me so I can pay the roofing company. Despite at least 15 phone calls from the roofing company and myself to Cenlar over a 6 month period to resolve this they still refuse to release the check with the amount that my home insurance company has already reimbursed.

I would never choose to do business with CENLAR, but Citi sold my mortgage to them. They're error-prone and their support reps - if you can get one to answer the phone - are poorly-trained and will often give you wrong information. After deciding we wanted nothing more to do with CENLAR, they billed us for the cost of multiple pay-off statements. (Why would anybody need FOUR pay-off statements?!) Seems like an easy error to fix though, right? Nope. Even when it's obviously their mistake, you'll end up paying, because you have no leverage and there's nobody in their customer service department that has the authority, ability or willingness to help. I don't understand how a company like this is allowed to be in business.

CitiMortgage sold our loan to Cenlar in February 2019 and it has been such an awful transfer for us. I have been told since the transfer that I am one month behind in my payments, but I have copies of every month's checks, showing Cenlar deposited our payment, every month. I've talked to at least 20 people in customer service department AND sent all my documents to their Research office in New Jersey, TWICE! Each time, they just send me the same "form letter" stating I'm one month in arrears!!

If customer service is important to you, steer clear of this company. I've had to utilize their chat service about 3-4 times for the SAME ISSUE, and EVERY TIME (despite different users "assisting" me each time) they've been super short with me, and after every answer (which half the time they're not even answering the question you asked) they ask, "Is there anything else I can assist you with?" and then almost IMMEDIATELY disconnect the chat if you don't respond within 30-60 seconds (and no, I'm not exaggerating); the chat window is conveniently not time stamped. Anyway, this company's customer service is garbage. I have chat transcripts for those that need proof.

CENLAR is dragging its feet to issue a refund of $19.99 they owe me. I've had to call several times about this. When they want money from you, however, they do not hesitate to take down several trees in order to send you tons of threatening mail. They do not care one bit about clients as human beings.

My mortgage was sold by CitiMortgage to Cenlar in 2018 and they have been paid in time. On 3 Feb 20 I received a letter from Cenlar stating I cannot use the phone, personal check or online option to make my loan payment. My privileges have been suspended for 12 months. I contacted them and to my surprise I was told I had three payments returned three times (3) for insufficient funds which is not true. I contacted my bank and found not record of this allegations. I called them back and this time I was told my payment was made with the wrong account number.

I was late on my mortgage and had to deal with the collections & Customer service department (I was hospitalized, but I take full responsibility for being late). I requested a letter so I could use the 401k hardship clause. It seems simple, right? Cenlar sent me a total of 7 hardship letters, the first four took 2 months and all 4 arrived too late to use (The IRS needs the letters to be submitted before the "pay no later than" date on the letter) so I asked if they could email them. They emailed me....1 statement (not even a letter), 1 Microsoft word document typed up by someone which didn't even have the letterhead from Cenlar, and one PDF of BLANK PAGES (they scanned it backward!). I finally got the letter I needed, informed them it takes 4 days to fund the money after approval from the 401K company. They said no problem, call back.

Never had such terrible service in my life! I got a mortgage with a fine company and they sold the loan off to Cenlar and they don't care about customer service! It's owned by Citi Group! I would never do any business with them in the future but it looks like I will have to deal with them for the next 30 year :(

I’m a realtor and short sale negotiator. I’ve been working with Cenlar’s since May of last year on a short sale for a couple who have massive medical bills because of his Guillain-Barré syndrome. They’re both elderly and now living with a child who cares for them. Cenlar took 7 months to approve their short sale after repeatedly losing the documents I sent them multiple times. Most banks assign a negotiator early in the short sale. We got one six weeks before the sale was approved in January. Then the buyer walked because the house had deteriorated so much. (This happens many times with short sales, so it wasn’t a huge problem. You just put the house back on the market st the approved price.) Got a new buyer, same price and terms. Submit for a buyer change for the approved short sale, and Cenlar says we have to go through the same process qualifying the sellers for a short sale- pretty much another seven month process.

The truth or shall we say my review of 2-13-2020, first off my loan was handed over to them from Towne Mortgage who is even worse after we had a verbal agreement that it would not, second they are nothing but a money handling company. If you have to pay them, Do it with a cashier's check. Never your bank account. So far since my loan started I was smart enough to enlist not only common sense but to take pictures of every check I send them and to make sure it is by signature confirmation. Do not accept their b.s. of saying you cannot send it that way to a p.o. box. It is your god-given right!

I would not recommend getting your mortgage with Citi because of Cenlar. My house was severely damaged in a fire, and it has been impossible to get them to release my insurance proceeds to rebuild. Including the large amount in excess of the mortgage. I have resorted to paying the mortgage off to be rid of this horrible company, and I cannot even get them to apply the proceeds to retire the mortgage (and return the large excess) in a timely fashion. They have made a terrible situation much worse.

This company has continuously screwed my escrow analysis. I have called three times for them to redo their numbers, as my taxes are incorrect, and each time the person on the phone tells me that the requests have not been put through. I have spent hours on the phone trying to get them to do their job and it has been pointless. I’m looking into refinancing with a different mortgage company. It is unacceptable to ask borrowers to pay more than they need to because someone is not doing their job correctly.

Updated on 07/06/2022: I'm in the process of getting my account closed by any means necessary. They are the worst. I had a number of complaints. I've had 80% correction only by complaining to the Better business bureau in NJ where they are headquartered...

This mortgage company is terrible! I have tried to reach customer service on various occasions, however, I've waited at least 45 minutes at a time and had no luck. Payments are not accurately reflected on your loan and they will report this to the credit bureau. This company should not be in business.

Been calling and emailing them about our tax statement and still have not received it. Not happy with them at all. Very disgusted by them. I called them and all they said is that it's been mailed out still nothing yet.

After months of failed auto-debits, failed alerts, and refused payments, Cenlar has slow-walked us into a mountain of legal fees and the threat of foreclosure. This is insane but I now think this is their business model. Now, I have to hire a lawyer to protect my home and my credit, which they are trashing by being absurdly incompetent. Cenlar blames Citibank. Says they can't do anything because they've sold the loan (a lie), and no one knows how to fix this. You'd think it would be accept my check, but no. This has never been about our ability to pay but Cenlar's ability to function. Horrible, dishonest, dysfunctional company. If you have nearly 30 years in on your mortgage and a bunch a sweet equity, you'd be wise to look out for these people.

My home equity account was sold by Citibank to Cenlar. No notice from either company. I don’t owe any money on this account and do not have an active loan. We only have a home equity account because our financial advisor said we should have one for emergencies. After reading reviews on another site about Cenlar, we decided we did not want to have anything to do with them. But it seems impossible to get rid of them.

My best advice is to please stay away from this company. They are so incompetent and don’t know what they are doing, it's ridiculous. This is the worst company I’ve ever dealt with, I say again this is by far the worst company I’ve ever had to deal with. No one knows anything and you’re being constantly transfer to different people who don’t know anything as well. So please once again stay away from this company.

I haven’t been able to speak with anyone for 2 days. I’ve tried both numbers provided and I only get put on hold. Been on hold for 4 hours total. Sucks when no one will speak with me and they have my house. More than discouraging.

I originally financed with another firm, who quickly sold the note the CENLAR. What a nightmare. CENLAR's recorded a different balance and effective transfer date than the original lender, and hadn't taken into effect the last payment with the original lender. They refused to acknowledge that they could have made a mistake, insisting the the problem had to be with the original lender. It look several hours on the phone with both companies, and certified UPS delivery of my documents for them to finally apply that original payment to my mortgage. I haven't decided if they're just incompetent or just don't care.