BiggerPockets

You don't say what the "mistake" was, but I've gotten pretty good at previewing my HUD-1s and generally find errors prior to closing. In the rare cases that I've found them after closing I've simply shown them to the closing agent, they've rechecked their math and paid me any monies owed.

Some pretty tough federal rules on closing so if there's a mistake it's usually pretty easy to rectify.

Suing is ALWAYS a last resort, especially at that amount because you're going in "naked" (no attorney) and a local JP can always claim no jurisdiction on Federal laws and kick you to the US Disctrict Court.

OTOH, I've found moral suasion to be a very effective tool when dealing with companies that rely on their public image. I'm not saying YOU should do the following but I've done it a couple of times to good effect. Merely tell the party that hosed you (if they really did) that;

"If this is not rectified within 5 business days I will make it a point to tell EVERYONE how you failed to handle the situation; this includes people I meet; at church, at Little League, at PTA, at Lodge, in line at Starbucks or the grocery, at the bus stop, on forums at our local community bulletin board. If you have any concept of the effectiveness of word of mouth advertising you'll see the value of NOT having this happening".

frank

"If this is not rectified within 5 business days I will make it a point to tell EVERYONE how you failed to handle the situation; this includes people I meet; at church, at Little League, at PTA, at Lodge, in line at Starbucks or the grocery, at the bus stop, on forums at our local community bulletin board. If you have any concept of the effectiveness of word of mouth advertising you'll see the value of NOT having this happening".

The 99:1 of Customer Service:
Please 99 customers, they'll tell 1 other.
Piss of 1 customer, they'll tell 99 others!

It's about property taxes that were calculated wrong. The title co. won't do anything. It's like talking to a brick wall. They will not file my E&O claim either.

Bill, title co. refuses to do anything. I filed a written complaint (with documentation) with the state licensing agency for title companies against them. I'm waiting to see if that does anything.

Bienes, what's the issue? Were the calculations just plain wrong? Typically the prior year taxes are used to estimate the current year taxes. That can cause taxes to be off. But they will typically make you sign a statement saying that's how they were estimated and that you have no recourse if the taxes are different.

If there were prior year taxes that hadn't been paid, a title search should have turned that up. If not, that would be a claim against the title insurance.

What happened is, the title company never bothered to check if the seller removed her Florida homestead exemption (which she did, earlier in the year). That's the main reason the taxes were off. It's a little bit less than $800 total. I could sue the seller to get the money but she lives in another state now. I've been advised I have little chance of collecting from her if she doesn't want to pay. Letters to her about the money have met with no response.

Also we had a different title co. listed on the contract but the real estate co. forced us to use their own title co. (the one that made the mistake).

I'm waiting to see if there are any results from the complaint I filed. I don't know whether just to cut my losses if that doesn't work out, and whether small claims court is worth it. I've been advised to try talking to the broker of the RE company to see if they can work something out for me. I don't know if there's any hope of that.

It's not a gigantic amount of money but I feel that this title co. is generally incompetent and no doubt has already screwed someone else over through their negligence since this happened to me. But I don't know whether to just drop the whole thing at this point.