Paying double H.O. insurance=12 yrs

What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state? Ohio
Unbelieveable..........Ok , Person has had homeowners taxes and insurance escrowed for 12 yrs. Did not throughly understand escrow concept, assumed only taxes were paid. Has ben being double billed by homeowners insurance co. AND PAYING for all this time. After 4 calls to agent to discuss the matter, it's obvious no ones moving to fast. question, try to negotiate or sue?
Total = 7/8 k.......Why wasn't this brought to the attn of homeowner by insurance agent/

Refund

Is your agent an independent agent (meaning he writes policies for multiple carriers) or a State Farm/Allstate/Farmers type agent?

If your mortgage company mailed in the premium payment, and then you mailed in a premium payment, the carrier automatically issues a refund for any payment above the total amount due. There's a good chance your refund went back to the mortgage company, who then probably credited your escrow/impound account. Your first step should be to call your mortgage company and ask. For all you know, you're not out a dime.

If your mortgage company says they never received any refund, your next step is to see who has been cashing your premium checks. Do your bills ask you to make the payments payable to your agent, or to the carrier? This where "what type of agent" you have comes into play. If you have an independent agent and you paid the carrier directly, the carrier's bank info should be stamped on the back of the cancelled check. If your agent's bank info is on the back, you might have a problem. If you paid with cash directly to the agent (never a good idea) then you won't be able to prove you ever made the payment, unless the agent issued you a receipt AND you kept the receipt.

If your agent is a State Farm/Farmers/Allstate deal, I don't know how they handle their payments, so I can't really tell you what to look for in the situation. All my advice is based on the assumption that your agent is an independent agent.

Didn't the HO get some sort of annual escrow statement showing escrow collected and paid out?

Did the HO's own insurance policy list the proper address of the mortgage holder so they would be notified of proof of insurance? Even if the HO was supposed to provide their own insurance, the loan holder may have had a clause that they would purchase insurance at owner's expense if they had no evidence that owner was providing it.

Were 2 different insurance companies involved or different policy account numbers?

Good points

That's true, efflandt, he might have had force-placed insurance on top on his normal policy. That's one way to explain the double-payments. No way to really know, though, since he hasn't replied to either of our questions.