The facts are that the mortgage servicing arena is fraught with what I call “mortgage disservice.” Fee gouging and borrower abuse seem to be the typical MO’s of many servicing companies and with our current mortgage and housing crisis in full , this is a perfect opportunity for servicing companies to rake in massive fees on delinquent loans.

When I started this blog, almost immediately, homeowners started reaching out to me for assistance with their mortgages and in dealing with their servicing companies. Email after email, call after call and story after story revealed a sick pattern of borrower abuse at the hands of many of our nations top servicers. Countrywide, American Servicing Company (ASC), Litton and the list goes on, were and are players in this mortgage disservice game.

Here is a list of the different kinds of abuses that borrowers are suffering while their mortgage are being serviced or when they reach out for help with their exploding mortgages.  

• They purchased overpriced homeowners’ insurance, even though the borrower already had a policy, and paid for it by increasing the borrower’s balance so it would not be noticed for a period, if ever.
• They failed to credit borrowers for extra payments.
• They held scheduled payments past the grace period before posting them, thus collecting late fees.
• They imposed prepayment penalties on borrowers who were refinancing, even though the notes stated that there was no such penalty.
• They failed to report good payment history to the credit reporting bureaus, thus preventing borrowers from improving their credit scores.
• The statements provided borrowers were late, and so poorly designed that even an expert found them incomprehensible, thus making it difficult for borrowers to detect their shenanigans.

Predatory servicing is even easier to get away with than predatory lending, since the customer has already been landed and has no place to go.

The first thing a homeowner should do is ask the lender to fully document all fees that are owed. More often than not, a verbal request will go ignored as the fees tack on, daily and if not by the minute. They may even say, “No problem Mr. Jones, we’ll send that to you ASAP.” Just to get you off the phone and guess what? Your fees keep adding on as you wait by the mailbox for something that will never come.

What a homeowner can do is request in writing what is called a “Qualified Written Request” (QWR). There is a little know law that protects homeowners against questionable fees, entries, documentation and a “life of loan history” (all fees and payments ever made on your mortgage) from your lender. Under Section 6 of the Real Estate & Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA), a borrower can request that the lender document all claims for fees.

The Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA) is a consumer protection statute, first passed in 1974. The purposes of RESPA are to help consumers become better shoppers for settlement services and to eliminate kickbacks and referral fees that unnecessarily increase the costs of certain settlement services.

Details about RESPA Corresponding with the above purposes:

1. RESPA requires that borrowers receive disclosures at various times. Some disclosures spell out the costs associated with the settlement, outline lender servicing and escrow account practices and describe business relationships between settlement service providers.

2. RESPA also prohibits certain practices that increase the cost of settlement services. Section 8 of RESPA prohibits a person from giving or accepting any thing of value for referrals of settlement service business related to a federally related mortgage loan. It also prohibits a person from giving or accepting any part of a charge for services that are not performed. Section 9 of RESPA prohibits home sellers from requiring home buyers to purchase title insurance from a particular company.

RESPA in general
RESPA covers loans secured with a mortgage placed on a one-to-four family residential property. These include most purchase loans, assumptions, refinances, property improvement loans, and equity lines of credit. HUD’s Office of RESPA and Interstate Land Sales is responsible for enforcing RESPA.

If you have been charged questionable fees or even if you have not, isn’t it wise to make your lender prove to you every penny that you owe them? Please follow the below instructions to fight for your rights!

An informed homeowner is a person that can fight back against questionable fees and use the law to save their home

Loan servicing complaints - Section 6 provides borrowers with important consumer protections relating to the servicing of their loans.

Under Section 6 of RESPA, borrowers who have a problem with the servicing of their loan (including escrow account questions), should contact their loan servicer in writing, outlining the nature of their complaint. The servicer must acknowledge the complaint in writing within 20 business days of receipt of the complaint. Within 60 business days the servicer must resolve the complaint by correcting the account or giving a statement of the reasons for its position. Until the complaint is resolved, borrowers should continue to make the servicer’s required payment.

A borrower may bring a private law suit, or a group of borrowers may bring a class action suit, within three years, against a servicer who fails to comply with Section 6’s provisions. Borrowers may obtain actual damages, as well as additional damages if there is a pattern of noncompliance.

Other enforcement actions

Under Section 10, HUD has authority to impose a civil penalty on loan servicers who do not submit initial or annual escrow account statements to borrowers. Borrowers should contact HUD’s Office of RESPA and Interstate Land Sales to report servicers who fail to provide the required escrow account statements.

Filing a RESPA complaint

Persons who believe a settlement service provider has violated RESPA in an area in which the Department has enforcement authority (primarily sections 6, 8 and 9), may wish to file a complaint.

The complaint should outline the violation and identify the violators by name, address and phone number. Complainants should also provide their own name and phone number for follow up questions from HUD. Requests for confidentiality will be honored. Complaints should be sent to:

Director, Office of RESPA and Interstate Land Sales
US Department of Housing and Urban Development
Room 9154
451 7th Street, SW
Washington, DC 20410