The nation’s largest banks have been under fire for several years now due to shady, unethical and even illegal lending practices. However, a new group of lenders is currently coming under fire for engaging in the same kinds of practices. These mortgage servicing companies may be smaller than large banks, but the practices many are engaging in can be just as devastating for homeowners as they would be if large banks had committed them.
These companies buy up rights to service the mortgages of homeowners. Once they retain these rights, they gain power to determine whether homeowners may modify their mortgages or must mount a foreclosure defense. And unfortunately, many homeowners are complaining that these mortgage servicing companies are engaging in some of the same abusive practices that large banks have been engaging in for years.
Among the complaints that homeowners are lodging are frustrations with wrongful evictions, being asked to present the same documentation repeatedly, significant delays in their cases and erroneous fees. According to Inside Mortgage Finance, these servicing companies now retain 17 percent of the market, which is a 14 percent increase in mortgage servicing marketplace shares since 2010. As a result, more and more homeowners are likely to run into problems with these kinds of companies in the coming months and years.
If a mortgage servicing company is making your life unnecessarily difficult, do not hesitate to contact a foreclosure defense attorney with your concerns. The law protects homeowners against abuses from these companies just like it does when large banks are abusive.
Source: New York Times, “Loan Complaints by Homeowners Rise Once More,” Jessica Silver-Greenberg and Michael Corkery, Feb. 18, 2014