Wells Fargo Settles Mortgage Fee Abuse Class Action Lawsuit

Wells Fargo & Company and Wells Fargo Bank NA have reportedly agreed to pay $50 million to settle a class action lawsuit claiming they imposed excessive and abusive fees on borrowers who were late on their mortgage payments.

The Wells Fargo class action lawsuit was filed in 2012 by a group of plaintiffs who allege Wells Fargo charged them over-inflated fees when they fell behind in their mortgage payments.

These fees were sometimes inflated by as much as 300 percent, the plaintiffs said.

Further, Wells Fargo used “cryptic wording” to conceal the fees, the 2012 mortgage fee class action lawsuit alleged. The fees were allegedly listed on the borrower’s statement as “corporate advances,” “miscellaneous charges” or “other charges.”

One of the fees reportedly charged by Wells Fargo was used to hire a real estate broker to assess the value of a borrower’s home based on the value of comparable properties.

This assessment is called the “broker’s price opinion” (BPO) and is used to help price the property for foreclosure.

According to the Wells Fargo class action lawsuit, lenders are allowed to charge BPO fees, but they may not perform unnecessary services or inflate the charges in order to make a profit. The plaintiffs say that Wells Fargo violated the law by charging excessive and abusive fees.

The amount of BPO charges reportedly ranged from $95 to $125 each.

According to court documents, Class certification was granted on Dec. 17, 2015, and notice of the Wells Fargo class action lawsuit was mailed to Class Members in June.

The parties reportedly reached the mortgage fee abuse class action settlement on Oct. 26, 2016.

Class Members of the Wells Fargo settlement include all U.S. residents who had a residential mortgage serviced by Wells Fargo or its subsidiaries and who paid for at least one BPO for an amount greater than the amount Wells Fargo paid a third-party vendor, from May 6, 2005 through July 1, 2010.

Class Members will reportedly automatically receive payment from the Wells Fargo settlement and will not need to submit a Claim Form in order to receive payment.

According to court documents, information about the Wells Fargo settlement will be posted at www.BiasvWellsFargo.com.

NOTE: As of the date of this publication, the website has not yet been updated with information about the class action settlement and only reflects information about the Class certification.

Top Class Actions will post updates to this class action settlement as they become available. For the latest updates, keep checking TopClassActions.com or sign up for our free newsletter. You can also receive notifications when this article is updated by using your free Top Class Actions account and clicking the green “Follow Article” button at the top of the post.

Bias is represented by Daniel Alberstone, Roland Tellis and Mark Pifko of Baron & Budd PC.

The Wells Fargo Mortgage Fee Class Action Lawsuit is Latara Bias, et al. v. Wells Fargo & Co., et al., Case No. 4:12-cv-00664, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

UPDATE: The Wells Fargo Mortgage Fee Class Action Settlement is now open! Click here to learn more.