Mortgage servicer abuse facing state, fed probes
On Wednesday, consumer defense attorney Linda Tirelli added another outrageous example of mortgage servicer misbehavior to her growing file of hundreds of such abuses against New York homeowners.
The overcharging by a servicer — which manages mortgages day-to-day for lenders — to bill a homeowner in foreclosure over $2,700 for property inspections that cost just $9.60 a pop came as federal and state regulators are investigating shoddy practices by servicers and big banks, which are often one and the same.
Wells Fargo, Citibank, Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase are the top four servicers and lenders in the US, with a total of 61 percent of loan originations and 54 percent of servicing market share in the first quarter of 2011.
Tirelli asked for invoices, as mandated by federal bankruptcy law, but the bank’s attorney told Tirelli he wasn’t sending them until she started litigation.
“That, to me, is abuse,” Tirelli told The Post. “How are you supposed to face your creditor if your creditor is not going to substantiate his claim?”
Unsubstantiated claims are just one of the many forms servicer abuse takes. The most common, experts say, include:
* Junk fees, which are inflated or erroneous charges for property inspections, property preservation fees, and broker price opinions.
* Misapplied or rejected payments. Servicers are known for rejecting homeowners’ checks or applying funds to the wrong account, generating late fees and penalties that put a struggling homeowner further in arrears.
* Attorneys’ fees. North Carolina consumer defense attorney O. Max Gardner III has documented instances of bankrupt mortgagees being billed for attorneys’ fees paid by servicers, despite the court awarding a lower amount.
* Dual-tracking, or assuring a homeowner that a trial modification is going well, while proceeding with a foreclosure essentially behind the homeowner’s back.
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all banksters should be jailed and or executed. everyone should sue their asses off. they should pay all the homeowners they wrongfully foreclosed. they should all go to hell.
Add Aurora Loan Services to the list of degenerate Servicers. Lies deceit and fraud – $2000 for one attorney signature, charges for 7 drive bys a month, foreclosing while homeowners are making forbearance payments, mortgage payments being credited to Aurora employee’s account rather than to homeowner’s mortgage, cancelling homeowners’ fully-paid insurance policies and then back dating their force-placed policies AFTER foreclosure. Isn’t that insurance fraud? Now a homeowner in Tucson kills himself due to a foreclosure eviction. To show you how Servicers have gone array, they even go against Court Orders. A homeowner, who has filed a lawsuit, just received a letter from Aurora’s attorneys stating she has missed a forbearance payment and will be foreclosed on; but isn’t that odd because the Court Ordered the homeowner, while in litigation, to pay “rent” to the court, not Aurora. Isn’t that Contempt of Court? When, Dear Mr. President, are you going to order a halt to these illegal foreclosures once and for all? You should have done it 2 years ago, then our Country wouldn’t be in this dismal economic condition. Our States are suffering from lost revenue from property devaluation. They are finally waking up and ordering investigations. Thank God someone is listening.
the corruption is staggering.
we have the internet, you jerks!
do you think that you are invisible?
Thats right Fury, they have no idea what we can find when we set our mind to it. All those SEC filings, PSA agreements, Investor lawsuits, county recordings, robo-signed docs, a virtual treasure chest of fraud.
true.
it is like matt taibbi said.
“the fraud is there.they can see as much as they want to see.” (paraphrasing).
all of our fraud is out there. it has been scanned by our various courts.
They robed you in your face and nobody can or does anything about it that is why they don’t want Elizabeth Warren’s Consumer Agency so they can keep having a license to rob the american people indiscriminately
I’ve got so many wrongful charges as well but I didn’t make the news , I’ve already gave up onthe Media they only want to tell just a couple of stories, as so they don’t look like they favor the “dead BEAT” ober the bank . I found a 37,000 that I was charged for ,in the so called fake ass records of a loan that doesn’t exist and I have the original wet ink Note , The Media isn’t knocking down that door of proven fraud to spell it out to the public against the TOO Big TO Fail , Too Big To Jail and you Know why it’s cause they ALL TOO SCARED!!!!!
If the banksters try to pass off those charges in BK court they’re gonna get b*tch-slapped by the trustee or judge. Have you thought about going the BK route? Max Gardner has a bunch of good articles on phony servicer charges.
I’m not a bit surprised. Look at the slap-on-the-wrist fine B of A received last year (100 million I think) on behalf of Countrywide’s misdeeds; little items like $500 a pop to mow a postage-stamp sized yard.
Well I am eating popcorn as I watch the Investors suing the Servicers. The lawsuits are happening so fast I don’t know which one to watch. Pure glee for me.
I posted awhile back that a ppc went to do the lawn and another one was leaving so he called the bank. The bank said pretend to do it and send us the bill, we will pay you. I have a really good feeling after researching everything I did today…it is all falling in the favor of We the People. The TPTB have begun to eat each other alive. i am surprised no one is jumping out of windows yet.