Mortgage servicing delays have caused the Department of Housing and Urban Development to pay a whopping $413 million for unnecessary interest and other expenses. The payment put a major dent on the FHA Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund and its ability to pay other claims or reduce FHA mortgage-insurance premiums, according to a report from the HUD inspector general. The amount covered interest payments and other costs on 27,634 preforeclosure claims over a five-year period. The costly setback could have been avoided had lenders completed servicing chores on defaulted FHA loans within their prescribed periods, the IG said. Although serviers were to blame, HUD reimbursed them through FHA insurance claims. The IG analyzed 100,077 preforeclosure claims paid from Aug. 1, 2012, through July 31, 2017. Auditors identified 30,061 claims that had ...