Mortgage Fraud

July 20, 2020 By Marc Dann

Marc Dann - Marc Dann Consumer Fraud & Foreclosure Defense Attorney A lot has happened since we issued our first COVID-19 on March 13. In our tenth update we’ll take a look at recent developments, discuss impending challenges and opportunities, issue a couple warnings, and dispense some sage advice…

Involuntary Forbearance can threaten your financial future

Let’s start with a cautionary tale about involuntary mortgage forbearance. As we’ve said repeatedly, while it can be a lifesaver for people who are facing financial disaster as a result of the pandemic, forbearance is NOT forgiveness. Homeowners will eventually have to make the interest, principal, and escrow payments they have been delaying.

In addition, forbearance may jeopardize court-approved bankruptcy repayment plans and could make it difficult to buy a new home or refinance an existing loan. That’s why we urged homeowners to think carefully before taking advantage of the forbearance programs made available by the CARES Act and many private lenders.

Unfortunately, a number of banks and servicers didn’t give borrowers a choice. Back in May we warned that a number of banks and mortgage servicers were putting homeowners into forbearance by “mistake.” One of the offenders, and I’m sure this will shock no one, was Wells Fargo. According to a CNBC report, borrowers who called servicers seeking information about forbearance and other relief programs were put into forbearance without their consent by swamped call center workers.

At that time we doubted that Wells, perennial winner of the worst bank in the world award, was really doing this by accident. Turns out we were right. NBC News reported on July 16 that Wells was purposely placing borrowers into forbearance without seeking or receiving their permission.

The story focused on Troy Harlow of Buchanan, Virginia who filed personal bankruptcy in 2017 after a kidney transplant put him on permanent disability. Troy never missed a house payment because his primary goal was to stay in his home.

Wells Fargo is among the banks and servicers who have placed borrowers into forbearance without their consent.

That didn’t matter to Wells. Without his knowledge or permission, on April 29 the bank told the bankruptcy court overseeing Harlow’s payment plan that he had asked to pause his mortgage payments because he had been hurt by COVID-19. Harlow who never even thought about asking to be placed in forbearance continued to forward the full amount owed on his mortgage to Wells.

Harlow’s attorneys soon learned that he wasn’t the only victim. Wells had played the same dirty trick on homeowners in 11 states.

That news set off alarm bells here at DannLaw and led us to launch an investigation to determine if borrowers in Ohio and New Jersey have been scammed by Wells and other lenders. With that in mind, we’re asking homeowners to do two things:

First, contact your lender to determine if they have placed you in forbearance without your permission.

Second, if they have you should contact us right away so we can help rectify the problem and determine if we should file a class-action suit on behalf of every borrower who has been abused by Wells and other lenders. You can reach us by calling 216-373-0539 or filling out and submitting our contact form. Please do this right away because involuntary forbearance can cause real problems for years to come.

Is it time to take your loan out of forbearance?

If you chose to place your loan in forbearance, it’s time to start thinking about an exit strategy. If you haven’t been able to make payments because you lost your job or were laid-off when the COVID-19 crisis cratered the economy but are now back to work you should consider taking your loan out of forbearance before the amount of delayed interest, principal, and escrow you owe becomes unmanageable.

To determine if you should begin making your house payment again, consider the amount you owe on your home relative to its value. If your home is worth more than your mortgage balance it is an asset that you should protect. If it is worth less than you owe it is a liability so your mortgage payment should be viewed as a housing cost and compared to alternatives like paying rent. You should also evaluate other factors including the state of the housing market in your neighborhood, the company that owns your loan, and whether you intend to sell your house sometime in the next few years.

The moratorium on foreclosures is about to end

OH Foreclosure Timeline The moratorium on foreclosures imposed at the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis are coming to an end in some Ohio counties and will lapse for federally backed mortgages at the end of August. That means sheriff’s sales will resume soon.

If you were in foreclosure when the pandemic struck you should contact your attorney right away. If you have not retained a lawyer contact us to arrange a no-cost consultation so we can review your case and discuss ways we may be able to help save your home. To learn more about the options available to you click here to visit the Foreclosure Defense page on Dannlaw.com.

Evictions set to resume

Dann Law Firm - Foreclosure Defense Today it is estimated that more than 8 million Americans, including tens of thousands of Ohioans, are behind on their rent payments and may soon be evicted from their homes. This number could rise substantially when the CARES Act’s Pandemic Unemployment Insurance payments sunset at the end of July.

While distressing, the situation is not hopeless if renters and landlords communicate with each other and work together to overcome the challenges caused by the pandemic. Here are some important steps to take:

1. Renters should communicate in writing with their landlords about their ability to pay, partially pay, or not pay rent. Both renters and landlords are trapped in a dilemma they did not cause, so landlords may be willing to work out payment arrangements. No one benefits from a vacant apartment.
2. Check this list to determine if your landlord has a federally backed mortgage and is therefore prohibited from evicting tenants. If you are a landlord with a federally backed mortgage you may apply for forbearance if your tenants are unable to pay their rent. The eviction moratorium/forbearance program will end in late August unless Congress extends it.
3. If you reach an agreement with your landlord regarding late or partial payments put it in writing. We will soon post a form on our website that will make it easy to create written versions of tenant/landlord agreements.
4. Do not ignore letters or emails you receive from a court and always attend hearings when ordered. While there are legal defenses available to renters and strict procedures that must be followed before a landlord can evict a tenant, ignoring notices and/or failing to appear just about guarantees that your belongings are going to end up on the street.
5. Retain legal counsel. If you cannot afford an attorney call your local legal aid office. As a service to people impacted by COVID-19, we are making DannLaw’s Cleveland and Cincinnati offices available if you need a computer or internet access to participate in a virtual eviction hearing. A member of our legal team will also be on hand to answer general questions about evictions.
6. I and Jeff Watson, General Counsel to a number of real estate investor groups will conduct a virtual seminar for landlords and tenants on Thursday, July 23 at 8:00 P.M. This informative session, titled, “The Eviction Tsunami: Facts and Strategies that Lawyers, Landlords and Tenants Must Know,” will feature a discussion of the growing eviction crisis as well advice and strategies that will help landlords avoid insolvency and tenants escape homelessness. To register for the seminar click here.

Collection firms are up to their old (dirty) tricks

While debt collectors are typically shameless, there has been noticeable slow-down in activity since the onset of the COVID-19 crisis in March. But as states take steps to restart their economies and courts begin to reopen, we’ve received reports that collection lawyers, debt buyers and creditors are ramping up operations. That means debtors must be on the lookout for and pay close attention to any legal notices they receive.

As we noted in our discussion about evictions, the quickest way to lose a case and have a judgement entered against you is to ignore the problem. Trust me, it’s not going to go away simply because you toss a letter in File 13 or don’t show up for court. So please, respond in writing to communications you receive and appear in court when ordered.

In addition, you should contact us to arrange a no-cost consultation. We’ll be happy to discuss your situation and your options. We’ll also determine if debt collectors have violated any of the laws and rules that protect consumers. If they have, you may be entitled to financial compensation. Here’s a brief overview of the rules that govern the collections industry:

The Fair Debt Collections Act (FDCA). Enacted in 1978, the FDCPAis the most well-known federal consumer protection statute. Its primary purpose is to prevent third-party debt collectors from using abusive, unfair, false, or deceptive practices to collect debts. To put it simply, collectors may not lie to or mislead consumers in the course of attempting to collect a debt. Violators of the Act may be liable for statutory damages, actual damages, and attorney’s fees.
Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) The TCPAlimits the use of automatic telephone dialing systems (ATDS) and artificial or prerecorded voice messages by telemarketers. Since its passage in 1991, the TCPA has been expanded to cover the use of ATDS’s and voice messages by debt collectors and now applies to cell phones if an affected consumer does not have a landline. Under the law collectors may not call a cell phone unless the owner gives consent. That means it’s important for consumers to deny consent verbally during the initial call and then to immediately withdraw consent in writing.

Statutory damages under TCPA range from $500.00 to $1,500.00 per call and may be applied to each and every call made if it is found that a debt collector willfully violated the Act. The ability to “stack” damages serves as an effective deterrent and provides just compensation for consumers who have been victimized by aggressive debt collectors who willfully violate the law.

Check Your Credit Report Weekly

The CARES Act allows you to obtain copies of your credit reports from annualcreditreport.com on a weekly basis. You should take advantage of this opportunity because a number of state unemployment computer systems have sustained massive data breaches. DannLaw has filed class-action lawsuits in Ohio and Arkansas related to those breaches.

In addition, several provisions of the CARES Act are inconsistent with the Fair Credit Reporting Act. Please reach out to us right away if you notice inaccuracies on your credit report because you can sue credit reporting agencies and entities that furnish information to them if they refuse to correct mistakes.

The Con Premieres August 5

Marc Dann - "The Con" Documentary Screenshot Finally, I would like to extend a personal invitation for you to join me on August 5 for the premiere of “The Con,” a four-part series about the 2008 fraud and corruption-fueled collapse of America’s housing market. I’m both proud and humbled to say the series highlights the steps I took as Ohio Attorney General and at DannLaw to hold those responsible for the crisis that led to 10,000,000 families losing their homes accountable for their actions. The series provides a lesson for the risks we face as we hurtle toward a pandemic-related recession.

“The Con,” like all movies being released in the midst of the pandemic, is being released direct to video via independent theatres. To receive your invitation to the free live premiere, click here and then click on “Follow” above the video. If you like The Con on Facebook, you’ll be invited to the free live premiere on August 5. We’ll be posting more news about “The Con” in our blog and on our Facebook page in the weeks to come.

July 1, 2020 By Marc Dann

Marc Dann - Marc Dann Consumer Fraud & Foreclosure Defense Attorney The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Seila Law v. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau marked the culmination of a years-long attack against the agency by the business community, Congressional Republicans, and the Trump administration. It also provided a major dose of “be careful what you wish for because you just might get it” for the powerful forces who have been trying to destroy the CFPB since it was created in the wake of the collapse of the nation’s housing market in 2007-2008.

Precipitated by Donald Trump’s decision to fire director Richard Cordray in defiance of the statute that established the agency, the suit, filed by a firm that ran a mortgage modification scam, was expected to deal a fatal blow to the CFPB. Or at least that’s what those who lined up on the side of Seila, including the DOJ, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Foundation of Independent Businesses, the Mortgage Bankers Association, and a number of entities that had been tagged by the Bureau for abusing consumers, hoped.

The Court, in a 5-4 decision dashed those hopes. Yes, the majority upheld Cordray’s firing and found that the governing structure of the agency was unconstitutional, but this sentence dealt the CFPB’s foes two staggering blows:

“The agency may therefore continue to operate, but its Director, in light of our decision, must be removable by the President at will.” You may read the entire decision and the amicus briefs here.

The first blow: the CFPB may continue to operate and, thanks to this decision, constitutional challenges to its validity are now at an end. That’s not quite what the boys at the USCOC and the NFIB were looking for when they filed their amicus briefs.

And here’s the second: Kathy Kr CFPB Complaint Database aninger, the unqualified anti-consumer political hack Trump appointed to succeed Cordray can be booted out the door 30 seconds after Joe Biden is sworn into office.

The ironic part of this entire affair is that the governing structure of the CFPB was specifically intended to shield the agency from politics. The GOP’s attacks have now made who will run the Bureau and whether they will use its immense power to protect consumers a perpetual issue in presidential campaigns.

Along with taking great satisfaction at seeing the business community’s attack on the CFPB blow up in their collective faces, we at DannLaw are also extremely pleased that the ruling preserves our ability to act as “private attorneys general” who can use the Real Estate Sales Practices Act (RESPA) and the Truth in Lending Act (TILA) to protect our clients and seek and secure damages from mortgage servicers and lenders who violate the law.

While little noticed, Director Cordray’s creation of a private right to action is one of the most important components of the laws and regulations enacted after the housing crisis. He, along with Senator Chris Dodd, Congressman Barney Frank, and then-professor Elizabeth Warren recognized that the failure of government regulators to exercise their oversight authority played a major role in bringing the nation and the world to the brink of a catastrophic financial meltdown. By giving private attorneys the power to use RESPA and TILA to hold bad actors accountable they created a second line of defense for homeowners, consumers, and the American economy.

At DannLaw, we’ve used that power to help hundreds of people fight off illegal foreclosures, obtain loan modifications, safeguard their assets, and hold onto their hopes and dreams. We’re truly grateful that those who sought to destroy the CFPB have instead guaranteed that we and lawyers like us across the country will be able to use the law to fight for our clients well into the future.

In fact, I’m so grateful, I think I’ll send the guys at Seila and the Trump Justice Department a thank you note today.

November 13, 2019 By Marc Dann

Today, we’re going to tell you story about good vs. evil, right vs. wrong. The main character in the tale is Riad Ghosheh who owns a home that Ocwen Loan Servicing LLC and PHH Mortgage Services tried to steal. They’re the bad guys.

How bad?

Ocwen/PHH: The bad guys who tried to steal Riad Ghosheh’s home. Nearly 12,000 consumers have lodged complaints about the company with the CFPB.

As of this year, more than 11,000 complaints against Ocwen had been lodged with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). PHH, which Ocwen acquired in 2018, has been tagged 781 times. Ocwen, a company we’ve fought and written about many times, is truly among the worst of the bad actors that populate the mortgage servicing industry. It won’t come as a surprise that the company no longer operates under the Ocwen name. They decided to hide behind PHH’s relatively clean reputation. But believe us, Ocwen’s back there pulling the strings.

Those are the bad guys. Who are the good guys?

Well us, of course, the DannLaw legal team. When Riad learned that Ocwen/PHH was about to steal his home he contacted us. Here’s a spoiler alert: we saved his house. On October 30, Federal District Court Judge Mark Norris issued a temporary restraining order that stopped the bad guys from moving forward with a foreclosure that was scheduled for November 1. In the wake of Judge Norris’ ruling, Ocwen/PHH has decided to abort its attempt to swipe Riad’s residence. You can read Judge Norris’ order here: tnwd-2_2019-cv-02710-00015 (1)

Talk about riding to the rescue just in the nick of time…

But the saga doesn’t end there. Simply saving Riad’s house didn’t seem like justice to him or us. Ocwen/PHH had put him through a horrible ordeal. They broke the law—in fact, they broke a bunch of them. So we’re using those laws, in particular the Real Estate Sales Practices Act (RESPA) to hold Ocwen/PHH accountable and make them pay for nearly wrecking Riad’s finances and disrupting his life. You can read the complaint we filed against the companies in Federal District Court for the Western District of Tennessee here: Ghosheh Riad 2019 10 18 TS Complaint

Truth be told, we’ve helped hundreds of people like Riad over the years. But his story is both especially compelling and infuriating, so we thought we’d share it, both as a cautionary tale and to illustrate the strategies we use to fight giant banks and mortgage servicers—and WIN.

Here’s our story…

The home Ocwen/PHH tried to steal from Riad Ghosheh.

Riad Ghosheh, who is legally deaf and partially blind, owns a home in Cordova, Tennessee, a community just east of Memphis. Earlier this year, Riad went to Israel for an extended period of time to take care of family business. Before leaving he asked his son to make the mortgage payments on the home and gave him the money to do so.

You can probably guess what happened next: his son didn’t make the payments. Riad returned to the United States and learned that his loan had gone into default. Needless to say, this was not the homecoming gift he expected.

In order to stop the home from going into foreclosure, Riad filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy on June 3, 2019. As we’ve noted in our blogs and on our website, filing Chapter 13 immediately brings foreclosure actions to a dead stop.

On or about the same day, Riad received a “Streamline Modification Trial Period Plan” (TPP) from Ocwen his loan servicer. Loan modification plans like this are designed to give homeowners the opportunity to prove they can make their mortgage payments and resolve arrearages. They are also supposed to stop foreclosures. Note the use of the word “supposed.” This will be important in just a bit.

The TPP Riad signed and returned to Ocwen well before the deadline set by the company. Ironically, the letter opens with the word “congratulations” and contains the phrase “We’re here to help!” The former was a cruel joke, the latter an outright lie.

If he accepted the proposed TPP, Riad would be required to make three payments of $1,418.15 beginning July 1. If he made the three payments on time, the company would offer him a permanent loan modification plan. Riad signed the TPP on June 18, 2019, and mailed it to Ocwen the same day.

Because he knew he could afford to make the payments called for in the TPP and because the agreement was supposed to prevent Ocwen from foreclosing on his home, Riad allowed his bankruptcy petition to be dismissed. After all, his main reason for filing was to save his home from foreclosure—a threat he supposedly no longer faced.

There’s that word again.

On June 24, Riad, as required by the TPP, made the July payment of $1,418.15. Records show Ocwen received the payment on June 28. He made the August payment on July 24 and the September payment on August 26. Three payments required. Three payments made—early.

So far so good, right?

Look, we told you this was a story of good vs. evil, not a fairy tale. Things were far from good.

Here’s what happened to the three payments:

Ocwen kept the July payment but never applied it to Riad’s loan;

On September 22, PHH, which had taken over the loan, sent the August payment back along with a letter notifying Riad that he had violated the terms of the TPP;

The September payment, which was made nearly a month before PHH sent back the August payment, is MIA. No one at Ocwen/PHH can find it.

Riad was, to say the least, alarmed by these events, so he asked the person who held his power of attorney to contact the bankruptcy lawyer who had filed the Chapter 13 petition on his behalf earlier in the year.

This was a good call on Riad’s part because the bankruptcy attorney was the person who notified him that his house was slated to be sold out from under him on November 1. Ocwen/PHH had never contacted him or his counsel. The lawyer only knew the sale was about to take place because he saw it advertised in the newspaper. It appears the fine folks at Ocwen/PHH who forgot to apply Riad’s July payment to his mortgage then forgot to notify him that they were about to steal his home did remember to advertise the attempted theft in the paper.

At this point, put yourself in Riad’s place. You trusted your kid to make your house payments. He didn’t.

You trusted your mortgage servicer to play by the rules and honor the terms of a mortgage modification plan they offered you. They didn’t.

You assumed that Ocwen/PHH would abide by the laws that govern the mortgage servicing industry. Of course they didn’t. Abiding by the law is not part of their business model.

And as a result of it all, you came within days of becoming homeless—even though you did everything you were supposed to do.

And Riad, like thousands of other people who have been victimized by Ocwen, would have been homeless had he not contacted the DannLaw team.

As we mentioned above, we’ve already saved Riad’s home. Now we’re suing Ocwen/PHH in Federal Court to make them pay for the emotional and physical distress their sordid behavior caused, for damaging Riad’s credit, and for violating both RESPA and Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA). Our filing alleges that Ocwen/PHH did the following:

Count One: RESPA Violations

Count Two: Breach of Contract

Count Three: Promissory Estoppel (OK, we know you don’t know what that is, and the explanation is really long and complicated, but take our word for it, Ocwen/PHH did it.)

Count Four: Conversion

Count Five: Unjust Enrichment (This one is easy to understand, it basically means Ocwen/PHH stole Riad’s cash.)

Count Six: Violations of the FDCPA

The best thing is, Riad doesn’t have to pay us to wage this battle on his behalf. If we win the case, Ocwen/PHH will be required to pay our fees and we will receive a small percentage of any damages the court awards.

And the damages part is no fairytale—we’ve won significant financial awards for people like Riad numerous times in courts across the U.S.

That’s our story. We’ll let you know how it ends. But in the meantime, if you or someone you know is facing foreclosure or is being abused by a bank or mortgage servicer, don’t be a victim. Fight back like Riad, by contacting the experienced foreclosure defense attorneys at DannLaw. You can reach us by calling the office near you or by completing the form on our Contact page.

We’ll be happy to schedule a no-cost consultation, provide you with sound legal advice, and help you save your home and win the financial settlement you deserve.

November 15, 2018 By Marc Dann

We have the honor of representing three people who lost their homes because they were unjustly denied a loan modification by Wells Fargo.

One of those clients, Jose Aguilar, recently told his story to a reporter from American Banker, a financial industry trade journal:

Jose Aguilar was shocked, but also angry, when he received a letter of apology earlier this fall from Wells Fargo.

Aguilar and his family lost their home in Chittenango, N.Y., in 2015 after trying time and again to get a mortgage modification from Wells. “I was denied, denied, denied, denied, denied, denied,” he recalled.

Now the San Francisco bank was saying that it made a mistake. Aguilar’s application should have been approved.

The 41-year-old father recounted how the foreclosure upended his kids’ lives, who moved to Florida after being uprooted from their home in upstate New York. Aguilar and his ex-wife have two boys, ages 9 and 15. Wells Fargo sent a $25,000 check, an amount that Aguilar saw as inadequate.

“To me, it’s a slap in face,” he said. “It’s not going to repair my life. I mean, my kids have been traumatized.”

The scandal-plagued bank blames a computer glitch. We blame the companies carelessness and unfettered greed. We’re working hard to secure justice–and just compensation–for Mr. Aguilar and his family as well as others whose lives have been devastated by Wells Fargo.

If you or someone you know has been harmed by Wells, contact DannLaw immediately at 216-373-0539 to arrange a free consultation. You may be eligible to receive significant damages from Wells.

The entire American Banker article follows below:

‘I lost my home because of a computer glitch’: Wells’ victims seek answers

By Kevin Wack

Jose Aguilar was shocked, but also angry, when he received a letter of apology earlier this fall from Wells Fargo.

Now the San Francisco bank was saying that it made a mistake. Aguilar’s application should have been approved.

“To me, it’s a slap in face,” he said. “It’s not going to repair my life. I mean, my kids have been traumatized.”

Aguilar is one of hundreds of homeowners that Wells has identified as victims of a calculation error involving foreclosure attorneys’ fees. He took the $1.9 trillion-asset bank to court on Tuesday, filing a petition that aims to compel Wells to disclose additional information that could be used as the basis for an eventual lawsuit.

The mortgage servicing errors add to the list of woes at scandal-plagued Wells. The bank’s critics say the mistakes are emblematic of a company that devotes insufficient resources to back-office operations and then litigates the resulting customer grievances aggressively.

“This is a problem that goes back to the beginning of the Great Recession, and continues to plague customers of Wells Fargo,” said Timothy Blood, a San Diego attorney who filed a class-action lawsuit in 2010 that alleged the bank improperly denied applications for mortgage modifications.

“They seem to constantly be making errors in processing loan modifications. That’s what their job is.”

The class action that Blood brought in 2010 alleged that Wells did not follow through with its obligations under the post-crisis program that used federal taxpayer dollars to pay for mortgage modifications. Seven years later, the case was settled for $750,000 plus attorneys’ fees, which worked out to $65.45 per affected borrower.

In July 2018, Wells disclosed in a securities filing that it had identified a calculation error that affected certain accounts that were in the foreclosure process. The bank said at the time that the problem was corrected in October 2015, and that approximately 625 customers were incorrectly denied loan modifications, of whom roughly 400 lost their homes.

Three months later, Wells Fargo revised its previous disclosure, stating that the errors actually persisted until April 2018. The bank also raised its estimates of the number of customers affected, stating that roughly 870 borrowers were incorrectly denied mortgage modifications, and that foreclosures were completed in approximately 545 of those cases.

In recent weeks, Wells has been sending apology letters to affected borrowers. “We have some difficult news to share,” the letters begin.

The letters state that a payment enclosed will help make up for the borrower’s financial loss, and note that Wells Fargo is reaching out to consumer bureaus to ask that any negative reporting be removed. They also offer mediation at no cost to borrowers who feel the bank’s compensation is inadequate.

Tom Goyda, a Wells Fargo spokesman, declined to provide the range of financial sums that the bank is sending to borrowers, or to provide details about how the bank calculated its offers. The bank said in August that it accrued $8 million for customer remediation, which would amount to an average of less than $13,000 per victim.

“We’re trying to work with each customer to arrive at a solution that addresses their personal situation,” Goyda said.

Goyda noted that affected customers can request mediation even if they cash the checks that Wells sends to them. And if they are unsatisfied with the results of mediation, they have the choice to pursue other legal options, he said.

But the bank’s offers to harmed customers fall short, according to 20 pro-consumer organizations that are writing to the Federal Reserve on Tuesday. In their letter, the organizations argue that Wells should be required to make affected homeowners whole as a condition of lifting the nine-month-old cap on asset growth at the bank.

Organizations that signed the letter include Americans for Financial Reform, Public Citizen, the National Fair Housing Alliance and the Consumer Federation of America.

“Until proper compensation is provided and Wells Fargo demonstrates that it has reformed its systems and practices to prevent problems like this in the future, Wells Fargo’s apologies are hollow and insufficient,” said Linda Jun, senior policy counsel at Americans for Financial Reform.

Some of the borrowers who recently received letters from Wells Fargo are now exploring their legal options. Marc Dann, an Ohio attorney, said that he has three such clients, including Aguilar.

Because the bank’s letters did not include details about what went wrong, Dann recently wrote to Wells Fargo to request additional information about what happened to one of his clients. He cited federal mortgage servicing rules that in certain circumstances require the disclosure of information to borrowers.

A lawyer for Wells Fargo declined the request, stating that the regulation’s requirements are not applicable in situations where the information is being sought more than one year after the mortgage was discharged.

“They’re like a stone wall on this issue,” Dann said.

So Dann has resorted to asking courts to order Wells Fargo to provide additional information prior to the filing of a lawsuit — an unusual step that he says is necessary because he does not know enough to determine which laws may have been violated.

“There’s no question, there’s a wrong that happened here,” Dann said. “The question is, how do we properly litigate it?”

When Goyda, the Wells Fargo spokesman, was asked whether the bank intends to fight efforts by affected borrowers who want to go to court, he said: “I don’t know that there’s one single answer that we could give to that question.”

“It may very well depend on the circumstance, but we would approach each legal action individually,” he added.

Aguilar said in a recent interview that he bought his home outside of Syracuse, N.Y., in 2005. The problems began after the discovery that the house had mold; health concerns prompted the family to move.

Thinking that they might never return, Aguilar fell behind on the mortgage. But the family later decided that the mold could be remediated and moved back in.

Aguilar said he that spent many months trying to get a mortgage modification from Wells, and was repeatedly told that his paperwork had been lost.

Aguilar estimated that houses in Chittenango comparable to the one his family lost are selling today for around $130,000 to $140,000. He said that he owed $92,000 on the mortgage before losing the home.

But it is difficult to put a price tag on a wrongful foreclosure.

“It’s been hard for me. It’s been hard for my kids too,” he said. “I lost my house, I lost my family, all because of a computer glitch.”

September 20, 2018 By Marc Dann

DannLaw attorneys suspect troubled bank has understated number of victims, urges Wells borrowers who received loan modifications between 2010 and 2015 to seek legal advice.

Earlier this year Wells Fargo revealed in an SEC filing that a “software glitch” caused the bank to improperly deny mortgage loan modifications to 625 homeowners between 2010 and 2015. At the time, Wells said it had set aside eight million dollars to compensate borrowers impacted by the mistake, including the 400 families who lost their homes to foreclosure. Now victims of the incident are receiving checks from Wells. Attorney Marc Dann, founder and managing partner of DannLaw, is urging them to seek legal advice before accepting the money.

“A number of borrowers who received checks from Wells have contacted us to ask if the amount being offered is fair,” Atty. Dann said. “Obviously, families who went through the trauma of losing or almost losing their homes due to Wells’ incompetence deserve more than a few thousand bucks—especially if the company violated federal lending laws and rules. We’ve launched an investigation to determine if that’s true. No one should cash a check they receive from the company or sign a settlement agreement until our inquiry is complete.”

That investigation is likely to reveal Wells has understated the number of people damaged by the glitch. “Company officials admit 625 borrowers were improperly denied modifications,” Atty. Dann noted. “But that’s only part of the story. The same software error may have caused loan mods that were granted to be miscalculated. As a result, thousands of homeowners may be making payments that are much higher than they should be.”

“Wells has no intention of telling them about the problem, so we’re making a concerted effort to alert anyone whose mortgage was modified by Wells Fargo between 2010 and 2015 that they may have been cheated,” he said noting that borrowers with “conventional” loans owned by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac comprise the pool of potential victims.

“Talking to those folks will enable us to assess whether and to what extent Wells violated lending laws and regs, including the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA) and the Truth in Lending Act (TILA)” Atty. Dann explained. “If we discover the law has been violated, borrowers could receive thousands of dollars in compensation from Wells whether they are a member of the group of 625 homeowners the bank admits to abusing or someone whose loan mod was miscalculated. In either case, we’re able and eager to take legal steps that will hold Wells accountable for its actions and make victims whole.”

Borrowers who receive a compensation/settlement check from Wells, as well as those who received a loan modification from the bank between 2010 and 2015, may call 877-475-8100 to arrange a free consultation with DannLaw.

February 12, 2018 By Marc Dann

Last year, Edwardo Sanchez, a paralegal in DannLaw’s New Jersey and New York office became the first person in his family to graduate from college, an event he proudly shared on Twitter. His tweet was noticed and retweeted by none other than Bill Gates who told his 43.2 million followers that Edwardo’s story was an “amazing moment of hope and progress” in what had been a “really tough year.” I agree with Mr. Gates, Edwardo’s achievement gives us all hope that the American Dream is still alive.

Like Mr. Gates I also believe 2017 was a really rough year – and I’m afraid it may have been the first in an epoch during which it will become increasingly difficult for people to realize their dreams whether they involve graduating from college, buying a home, living in a safe neighborhood with good schools, achieving financial security, participating in the democratic process, realizing their full potential as human beings, or enjoying their retirement years. All those things are now at risk because the current administration is rolling back regulations and refusing to enforce laws that ensure Edwardo and other Americans have the opportunity to use their talents to achieve and succeed.

I’ll readily admit I was depressed about the situation until I realized that there was one group in the country that could step in and assume the responsibilities government was abdicating – lawyers. That’s right, lawyers like me, like my colleagues at DannLaw, like the thousands of lawyers across the country who do one thing in many different ways – help clients achieve their dreams.

When you think about it, we lawyers have always been in the hope and progress business. We’ve always been there when the government failed to protect its citizens. Lawyers were at the forefront of the civil rights movement, the drive to make cars safer, to rid medicine of bad doctors and dangerous drugs, to clean up our air and water, to protect consumers, and advocate for the disabled.

Armed with only JDs, knowledge, guts, and an unwavering belief in the principle of equal justice under law, lawyers made America a better place to live time and time again.

That aspect of our profession has never been more important than it is today.

With that in mind, we at DannLaw are redoubling our efforts to battle the home foreclosure crisis that is still roiling communities across Ohio by using Regulation X of the Real Estate Settlement Protection Act (RESPA) and Regulation Z of the Truth in Lending Act (TILA) to hold lenders and servicers accountable when they ignore the law and abuse borrowers.

Fortunately, these powerful tools managed to escape the fate that has befallen large portions of the nation’s regulatory regime over the past year. Indeed, I’m both happy and astonished to report that Reg. X is stronger than ever thanks to the enactment of additional amendments that became effective in October. Readers can learn more about the new provisions by visiting DannLaw.com or by contacting Dan Solar, leader of our RESPA practice group.

We also plan to do more to help borrowers deal with student loan debt which now exceeds $1.31 trillion and is turning the dream of obtaining a college degree into a nightmare for American families. According to Emily White, director of our student loan practice group, the Department of Education’s decision to relax oversight of the industry has freed lenders to use increasingly aggressive tactics against borrowers. Although people who took out loans backed by the government have few options, we can help students who borrowed from National Collegiate and other private lenders because those companies, like their counterparts in the mortgage industry, often commit sloppy mistakes and paperwork errors that make it difficult if not impossible for them to collect. Emily and I will have more to report during 2018.

Which is a great segue into an area in which we made great progress during 2017 – disability rights law. I’m extremely proud of the work we’ve done to convince companies to bring their digital platforms into compliance with the Americans With Disabilities Act and similar state statutes.

Here’s a special note to my friends who practice corporate defense law and their clients – complying with the ADA is a win/ win. Enabling people with disabilities to purchase goods via your websites and apps will create millions of new customers and generate billions in profits. Don’t take my word for it, just ask Target, the company’s reaped huge profits since becoming a leader in accessibility.

Those are just a few areas where we have and will continue to step in and use the law to do what government won’t – protect and enhance our clients’ ability to achieve their dreams.

Knowing we have the power to do it has made me prouder than ever to be a lawyer.