Tygart Media · Mortgage Servicer Playbooks · Force-placed insurance
What force-placed insurance actually is
Your loan requires you to carry homeowners insurance. If your servicer believes your coverage lapsed — a missed renewal, a canceled policy, a letter they claim they never received — they can buy “force-placed” (lender-placed) coverage and bill you for it. It covers the lender’s interest in the property, often with worse terms than your own policy, at a premium that can be two or three times a normal policy.
Why it happens to people who had insurance
- Your insurer sent the renewal proof to the wrong servicer address.
- You switched insurers and the new company never notified the servicer.
- Your policy renewed but with a different policy number, and the servicer’s matching failed.
- The servicer’s insurance-tracking vendor made an error.
In other words: this is frequently a paperwork failure, not a coverage failure.
The fight, step by step
- Gather your proof. Declarations pages from your own insurer showing continuous coverage for the entire force-placed period. Get them from your agent or insurer directly — not from memory.
- Send the proof in writing to the servicer’s insurance department (certified mail or the servicer’s secure upload — keep the receipt). Ask for cancellation of the force-placed policy and a full refund of all premiums charged.
- Demand a corrected escrow analysis. Force-placed premiums inflate your escrow, which inflates your payment. Once refunded, the analysis must be re-run.
- Escalate if they stall. A formal written notice of error triggers the servicer’s duty to investigate and respond — and a CFPB complaint gets attention →
Fighting force-placed insurance
| Step | Action |
|---|---|
| 1 | Send proof of your own insurance — declarations page, by certified mail |
| 2 | Demand a refund of force-placed premiums back to your policy’s start date |
| 3 | If they stall past 15 days, file a CFPB complaint |
| 4 | Escalate: state AG + RESPA qualified written request |
Force-placed policies cost 2–10x normal premiums and protect the lender, not you. Federal rules require cancellation within 15 days of receiving your proof.
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