Bank of America Class Action Lawsuit Alleges FCRA Violations

Bank of America Corp. has been hit with a class action lawsuit alleging it violated the rights of consumers who applied for loan modifications on mortgages by inaccurately reporting their mortgages as delinquent to credit reporting agencies.

“The United States Congress has found abundant evidence that the banking system is dependent upon fair and accurate credit reporting,” the BofA class action lawsuit states. “Inaccurate credit reports directly impair the efficiency of the banking system, and unfair credit reporting methods undermine the public confidence which is essential to the continued functioning of the banking system.”

According to the Bank of America class action lawsuit, consumer reporting agencies play an important role by assembling and evaluating information about consumers, such as their credit worthiness, credit standing, credit capacity, character and their general worthiness.

Because credit reporting agencies collect such sensitive information about consumers, Congress created the Fair Credit Reporting Act, which requires consumer reporting agencies to adopt reasonable procedures to meet the needs of commercial entities while remaining fair and equitable to consumers, the BofA class action lawsuit says.

Plaintiff Alfredo Leon Orea, a California resident, claims his credit report was negatively affected by an inaccurate serious delinquency that was reported to the credit reporting agencies by Bank of America.

According to the BofA class action lawsuit, Orea applied for a modification of his existing home mortgage with Bank of America in 2013. He was reportedly told that he did not qualify for the modification, but Bank of America allegedly made the modification anyway, without informing Orea.

Because Orea was unaware that the modification had been made, he continued to make payments on his original loan, which Bank of America collected, according to the FCRA class action lawsuit. Bank of America then allegedly claimed he was delinquent on his payments under the modification and reported him as delinquent to credit reporting agencies.

Upon inspecting the title, Orea discovered that Bank of America had made the requested modification. He reported the issue with BofA, which agreed to notify credit reporting agencies about the mistake, according to the class action lawsuit.

“However, Defendant also claimed approximately $10,000 in past due charges,” Orea alleges in the Bank of America class action lawsuit. “The $10,000 in past due charges were recorded in the title and reported on Plaintiff’s credit.”

“Furthermore, Defendant fined Plaintiff in the amount of around $2,500 for the erroneous charges,” Orea alleges.

Orea claims BofA violated FCRA by continuing to furnish false information to the credit reporting agencies and failing to conduct a reasonable reinvestigation into the charges disputed by Orea. Even though he informed BofA that he was disputing the debt, the bank allegedly reported a negative trade line on Orea’s credit report, in violation of the FCRA.

According to the BofA class action lawsuit, Orea now has a decreased credit score that may cause him to be unable to obtain credit in the future. He says a credit card application has already been denied. He also claims he has suffered emotional distress because inaccurate derogatory information about him has been transmitted to others.

By filing the BofA class action lawsuit, Orea seeks to represent a Class of consumers whose credit reports from Transunion, Equifax and/or Experian reflects an inaccurate consumer credit report inquiry by Bank of America pertaining to their mortgage modification status. He also seeks to represent a California subclass.

The FCRA class action lawsuit asserts BofA has violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the California Consumer Credit Reporting Agencies Act, the Rosenthal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.

Orea is represented by Todd M. Friedman and Adrian R. Bacon of the Law Offices of Todd M. Friedman PC.

The Bank of America FCRA Class Action Lawsuit is Alfredo Leon Orea v. Bank of America Corp., Case No. 3:17-cv-01253-LB, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.