Why Schneiderman Is Right !!! - 'Nevada Says Bank (Of America) Broke Mortgage Settlement - NYT

[WillyT]

Nevada Says Bank Broke Mortgage Settlement
By GRETCHEN MORGENSON
Published: August 30, 2011

The attorney general of Nevada is accusing Bank of America of repeatedly violating a broad loan modification agreement it struck with state officials in October 2008 and is seeking to rip up the deal so that the state can sue the bank over allegations of deceptive lending, marketing and loan servicing practices. In a complaint filed Tuesday in United States District Court in Reno, Catherine Cortez Masto, the Nevada attorney general, asked a judge for permission to end Nevada’s participation in the settlement agreement. This would allow her to sue the bank over what the complaint says were dubious practices uncovered by her office in an investigation that began in 2009.

In her filing, Ms. Masto contends that Bank of America raised interest rates on troubled borrowers when modifying their loans even though the bank had promised in the settlement to lower them. The bank also failed to provide loan modifications to qualified homeowners as required under the deal, improperly proceeded with foreclosures even as borrowers’ modification requests were pending and failed to meet the settlement’s 60-day requirement on granting new loan terms, instead allowing months and in some cases more than a year to go by with no resolution, the filing says.

The complaint says such practices violated the settlement Bank of America reached in the fall of 2008 with several states and later, in 2009, with Nevada that had accused its Countrywide unit of predatory lending. As the credit crisis grew, the settlement was heralded as a victory by state offices eager to help keep troubled borrowers in their homes and reduce their costs. Bank of America set aside $8.4 billion in the deal and agreed to help 400,000 troubled borrowers with loan modifications and other financial relief, such as lowering interest rates on mortgages.

<AND THIS...>

For example, the complaint says the bank advised credit reporting agencies that consumers were in default on their mortgages when they were not, and contends that Bank of America employees deceived borrowers about why their requests to modify loans were denied. In addition, it says, the bank falsely claimed that the actual owners of loans had refused to allow changes to their mortgages, and it incorrectly claimed that borrowers had failed to make payments on trial loan modifications when in fact they had. Bank of America also misled borrowers, the Nevada attorney general’s filing noted, by offering loan modifications with one set of terms only to come back with a substantially different deal. Among the more troubling findings in the Nevada complaint is the contention by several Bank of America employees that the company imposed strict limits on the amount of time they could spend on the phone assisting troubled borrowers seeking help with their loans.

More: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/31/business/bank-of-america-accused-of-breaching-mortgage-accord.html?_r=1&hp

:wtf:

:mad:

:kick:

[aquart]

1. BofA is a scum criminal and needs a death sentence.

Unless you can figure out how to give life imprisonment to a corporation.

[Pab Sungenis]

2. I've had a mortgage modification pending with Bank of America

for over two years now. They've "lost" my paperwork five times, and filed for foreclosure the day before the deadline to hand in our paperwork the first time. They've also kept making harassment calls during the whole process. It's a mess.

[mike_c]

3. jump, you fuckers....

[WillyT]

4. Gawd I Love That Sign !!!

:evilgrin:

:hi: