Predatory Lending
Predatory mortgage lenders target low-income and minority homeowners and solicit them into loans that exceed the value of their homes and contain excessive and/or adjustable rates of interest. Predatory lending practices, which result in impossibly high monthly payments for unsuspecting borrowers, make default and foreclosure likely on homes that have often been in families for generations. Our attorneys seek to protect West Virginian homeowners from foreclosure through state and federal litigation, specifically targeted at assisting individual homeowners and creating positive legal precedent.
We represent homeowners who have been tricked into an unfair loan on a family home, or who have been fraudulently sold defective mobile or stationary homes. In these cases, real estate brokers or mobile home dealers team up with predatory lenders and appraisers who overvalue the home and hide defects from unsuspecting buyers. The buyers are then left with a defective, sometimes uninhabitable home and a debt that they cannot afford to repay.
Mortgage Servicing
We also represent the victims of abusive and illegal mortgage servicing techniques that increase the risk of foreclosure and/or repossession. We help homeowners who have been promised assistance — such as a loan modification or other program — by their mortgage servicer that was never delivered. Our attorneys also assist homeowners who have been illegally threatened and harassed by their loan servicers, including by incessant calls, disclosure of information about their debt to others who have not been authorized to receive this private information, excessive unauthorized fees, and refused payments.