<prompt> Human: Hi there, long time lurker, first time poster. This board has been super valuable to my family and I as we use the advice and motivation from contributors on this board to get our finances in order and manage our money better. Thanks to all whove shared their insights and perspectives in this community, Im sure there are a ton of lurkers like myself who youve inspired without you even knowing it! So thank you for the time and energy. TLDR: Mortgage company performed analysis and recently jacked up our monthly obligation by 600 to a total of 2030 because our taxes doubled when in fact they went down. Put down 2037; at closing, and want to validate that I have the option to stop escrowing get advice on my options.Heres the full scenario:29 M in Houston, Texas. Wife 29 has mortgage in her name because I owned another property at the time of closing and we were still unmarried at that point. House came up on market at discount previous owners getting divorced so we moved quickly and were able to make it work. Live in current house since March 2016 2 years 3 months at this point. Put down 2037; at closing on a sale price of 262,000, opted to escrow insurance and taxes because at the time we didnt feel responsible enough to set aside cash monthly and thought itd be easier. At the time, we were told 2037; down afforded us the option to escrow or not.Monthly obligation Principal, interest, insurance and taxes until last month has been 1450 and change. Last month, I called in to mortgage company to make our payment, stated make minimum monthly payment due and realized after the fact I was charged 2030. I was stonewalled by customer service when I called in as Im not on the mortgage, but didnt pursue further because we could absorb the increase that month with money set aside, and our house is currently under contract to sell so I figured at closing wed see that back anyway. This month, I called in to make the payment and was told the amount of 2030 was our new monthly when I questioned them about last month again tried to use the overpayment to decrease my payment this month. I was told an analysis was performed on our city, county and school district and home insurance tax obligation to escrow, and that our taxes doubled which was the justification for the increase in monthly payment. After some research, I found our city, county and school district taxes went DOWN year over year. Not by much, but house was appraised for 5k less than the previous year. So that surely cant be the justification for the increase? Only other legitimate outside factor I can think of would be Hurricane Harvey impacting insurance rates, though my house and neighborhood did not flood and 600 month seems far too high given that windstorm events are a yearly occurance to some degree down here in Houston. Still have not validated with the insurance provider and am currently working on that.So my immediate questions here are:1. Do I have the ability to stop escrowing insurance and taxes to avoid this increase? If so, how do I execute this as the customer service reps at the mortgage company have been stonewalling my wifes requests saying we dont qualify because not enough of loan has been paid off even though we qualified to opt out of escrow at closing and have paid off even more of the loan since closing. 2. Are mortgage companies allowed to change monthly obligations whenever they like and how can I protect against this in the future aside from buying a house in cash to avoid a mortgage altogether. 3. What documentation can I request from this mortgage company to validate their analysis and ability to do this what documentation would be necessary for potential legal action just in case we drop payments to only principal and interest and they attempt to hurt our credit via collections. Please let me know if I left out any details here thatd help provide clarity. Thanks so much for your consideration and the time spent helping people in this community!  <response>: I didnt read this whole thing, but escrow can vary year to year. Mine fluctuates 300-400 any given year. Couple years ago it went up due to taxesinsurance, this year it went down. Its pretty common.Just wanted to say that if you werent aware. 