This video tells the story of a woman who did the right thing by paying her mortgage but her house was being sold because the title was listed as someone else’s. Going through the proper channels she had no recourse so she and her husband had to hire a lawyer to straighten things out.

Keeping a paper trail is important especially in the digital file age. Check your records regularly to see if your payment is going to your account. Also have a recent paper copy of your payments in case something goes wrong.

Houses may also be sold for taxes, or pose problems when refinancing if the taxes are not paid. A Chicago area company was taking payments for property taxes and insurance but hadn’t been using the money to pay their customers taxes or insurance.

If people have a record of their payments to the company then they might have some recourse especially if they have cancelled checks. In Illinois, the attorney general’s office is looking into customer complaints by many people who say the company took their money but did not pay the taxes with the escrow money collected.

For payments that are being held in escrow, it is still important to check and see if your payment is being directed to the right place. Check your tax and insurance records to see if everything is being paid on time. Don’t trust that a company is doing the right thing because of the name. Human error also happens. Be watchful and pay attention to payments.