6 Abusive, Illegal Tactics Mortgage Servicers Use to Make You Pay

One of the top stories for underwater homeowners who are thinking about filing Las Vegas bankruptcy is the revelation that Bank of America engaged in a variety of shady business practices to abuse the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) and push debtors into foreclosure. One of the more noteworthy tactics it engaged in was evading the foreclosure abuse settlement with the federal and state governments by selling its mortgages to non-bank servicers that aren’t government regulated. On name that pops up in particular is Green Tree Servicing, which is based in St. Paul, Minnesota, but sometimes does business in Nevada. Here are the kinds of abusive and illegal practices Green Tree and other servicers engage in.

1. After buying 650,000 mortgages at $93 million in January 2013, Green Tree began imposing illegal fees on borrowers when processing payments.
2. Green Tree also allegedly failed to process mortgage payments on time, which it could use as an excuse to charge late fees or initiate foreclosure proceedings.
3. It called homeowners at proscribed hours. It supposedly also used abusive languages when trying to collect debts.
4. Green Tree and others also failed to process valid mortgage modification applications, or it denied them for invalid reasons.
5. One woman in Florida is suing Green Tree for calling her debtor husband nine times a day, including calls to coworkers.
6. Another non-bank servicer, Ocwen, scammed homeowners by sending them a check for $3.50 as an incentive to enroll in an appliance insurance plan. The plan itself costs more than $50 per month.

These kinds of business practices violate all kinds of laws, such as the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and the Telephone Consumer Protections Act, as well as numerous state laws. If your mortgage is being serviced by a non-bank company, and it’s behaving like this, talking to an experienced Las Vegas bankruptcy lawyer can help you find out if you have a valid claim against them. You might also benefit from filing chapter 7 or chapter 13 bankruptcy.

For more questions about bankruptcy in Las Vegas, please feel free to contact an experienced Freedom Law Firm Las Vegas bankruptcy attorney for a free initial consultation. Call us at 1-702-803-9251 to set up your free consultation.