Examples of wrongful foreclosure conduct in Alabama by mortgage companies


Examples of wrongful foreclosure conduct in Alabama by mortgage companies

Examples of wrongful foreclosure conduct in Alabama by mortgage companiesMortgage companies, such as Bank of America, Chase, Deutsche Bank, Wells Fargo, etc., are commonly sued for illegal conduct.

This happens whether it comes before, during or after a foreclosure in Alabama.

Here are some examples which we will expand upon in later articles:

  • Lying (fraud) about a specific foreclosure date being postponed or rescheduled (this violates Alabama law and also the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act when it applies);
  • Lying about the identity of the owner of the mortgage note which violates the FDCPA;
  • Adding bogus charges that are not allowed by the mortgage/note or the law;
  • Foreclosing when the homeowner is not actually in default;
  • False credit reporting which can violate the FDCPA and the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA);
  • Continuing to report a balance owed when the “foreclosure” sale actually paid off the loan — this can also violate the FDCPA and the FCRA;
  • Collecting illegal fees after a bankruptcy;
  • Not responding to a Qualified Written Request (QWR) under RESPA (Real Estate Settlement Practices Act);
  • Claiming a foreclosure sale occurred when no one actually went to the front door of the courthouse and did a foreclosure;
  • Forceplacing expensive and unneeded insurance when a homeowner already has insurance;
  • Not applying payments in the right order — generally contacts require the money to go to principal, interest, and then escrow but often mortgage companies apply the money to late fees and other bogus charges first; and
  • Violating the TCPA (Telephone Consumer Protection Act) by illegally calling a homeowner’s cell phone with a computer dialer or automated message.

We’ll cover these in more detail later but these are some of the more common ones we see.

Contact Us.

If you live in Alabama and have questions about a threatened foreclosure, or one that has already happened, give us a call.

You can reach us by phone at 1-205-879-2447.

We will be glad to help you figure out your options.

If you’d rather, you can fill out our contact page to get with us.

Thanks for reading, and have a great day!

-John G. Watts


2 Comments

  1. Mortgage company used income from one person but put the mortgage contract in another persons name. Contract does NOT have the name of the person with the income. Person whose name shows on the contract had NO, repeat, NO income. Is this legal?

    • John Watts says:

      Ronnie,

      Its hard to answer whether it was legal or not without seeing the details but in general there is nothing wrong with a consumer and a mortgage company entering into a contract.

      Even if the consumer has no sources of income.

      I’ve never seen this before so it is a bit surprising to me and we always look to see was there some type of abuse or fraud.

      But just in general terms, Alabama courts have not been receptive to claims that “I made a bad deal and the mortgage company is to blame” — the courts say “If you signed the contract, you are obligated on it unless there was fraud or you were incompetent, etc”.

      I may have missed your questions so let me know if I answered it and definitely need to have a lawyer look at the actual documents and circumstances before an actual legal opinion can be given to you.

      Thanks for the comment….

      John Watts
      Birmingham, Alabama

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