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Didn't want property taxes and homeowners insurance to be escrowed -- found out this was not the case after closing, anything we can do?

>20% down payment on a 30-year fixed with decent LTV. At time of rate lock, told loan officer verbally that we would like to pay property taxes and homeowners insurance separately, i.e., not to be put in escrow.

At closing, we see that we are "pre-paying" 1 full year in advance for property taxes and insurance as it has been added to the costs. Spouse and I assume that this is means our taxes and insurance is taken care of until 2023. We thought this was the only form of payment required during this time and that they would not put into escrow. We assumed we would only be paying principal and interest.

However, our bill comes and we see that this never happened as the 1st monthly installment is higher than anticipated. Guess we misunderstood big time. Our fault for not paying more detailed attention to closing disclosures and at signing.

This was our third house (not a good excuse, we know :() so we assumed the intentions of the loan officer and quickly brushed through the docs as we thought it was trivial, and that we were all on same page. In addition, closing agent/their personnel did not point out our escrow account but rather just told us that we were pre-paying for one full year, hence the costs added at closing for the cashier's check.

We do not recall them disclosing that we would have to pay the tax and insurance additionally on top of escrow. Our previous two home loans had no impounds, so it is one of the reasons why we prefer to keep these items separate for easier budgeting.

Anyhow, the loan officer says there's nothing they can do. No waiting period to remove them as this will be into effect for perpetuity unless re-fi.

Anything we can do? We would prefer to pay these separately as we can control our financing by setting aside specific amounts. We're concerned the lender will try to "guess" the numbers for taxes and insurance rates if we ever shopped around; we rather not have to underpay nor overpay if their numbers come up short or extra. We've heard stories of the lender having to rebalance the escrow causing various monthly payment changes/refunds/adjustments and would definitely like to avoid this.

submitted by /u/stuwbgn16
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source https://www.reddit.com/r/RealEstate/comments/u72g79/didnt_want_property_taxes_and_homeowners/
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