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Bank of America is “misleading, deceptive, and unfair” in the servicing of its home loans, fraudulently charging consumers unnecessary insurance and inspection fees, a new class action lawsuit alleges.
The nationwide class action lawsuit was filed in Florida on May 7 by lead Plaintiff Kimberly Sullivan, who says that Bank of America (BOA) deceptively charged her for unnecessary and even fake property inspections, and forced her into excessive insurance policies.
Sullivan’s home has a mortgage loan serviced by Bank of America, which is also the lender and debt collector on the loan. When Sullivan took the title of the Palm Beach County home in 2012, she tried to contact BOA to pay off the mortgage, according to the lawsuit.
However, despite Sullivan’s repeated efforts to contact the bank, BOA filed foreclosure proceedings against the original owner in 2018.
“Notwithstanding knowing for months that Sullivan had purchased title to the property and was in fact attempting to contact BOA and attempt to resolve the mortgage debt/delinquency, BOA specifically choose to not name Sullivan as a defendant even though she was an indispensable party to BOA’s foreclosure claim under well-settled Florida law,” the claim states.
The courts forced BOA to amend the complaint to include Sullivan, and in April 2018 Sullivan made a written offer to BOA for $500,000 to satisfy what was owed, according to the class action lawsuit.
“It was not until March 2019 – almost seven years after Sullivan bought the Property and after six years of expressly refusing to acknowledge Sullivan’s interest in the Property or to otherwise confer with her – that BOA finally acknowledged Sullivan as the lawful successor in interest under the Mortgage in a written communication dated March 21, 2019,” the class action lawsuit claims.
Thereafter, BOA sent her communications concerning the property, including records reflecting the amount and nature of the property inspections and other charges being added to balance of the loan.
According to the claim, Sullivan suspected BOA’s reports of inspection were not only unnecessarily high, but many were false. “While BOA attempted to withhold the requested information from Sullivan, she ultimately prevailed in obtaining the relevant property inspection records from BOA, which confirmed Sullivan’s suspicions regarding the fraudulent nature of the supposed property inspection fees.”
“More specifically, BOA’s own records establish that BOA and Safeguard fraudulently charged for property inspections that were never performed.”
Between 2010 and 2019, BOA said it had done 100 drive-by property inspections of Sullivan’s home, which Sullivan was charged for, states the claim. However, in 57 of these inspections the reports submitted reflect that the inspector could not gain access because the property was located in a gated community and the inspector was denied access by the guard.
“BOA services home loans according to uniform practices designed to maximize fees assessed on borrowers’ accounts when they are behind on their payments,” the class action lawsuit claims.
“Consistent with these practices, BOA uses an automated default servicing platform to illegally, unfairly, and fraudulently charge defaulted or at-risk-of-default borrowers for multiple and repetitive “property inspections” that are not required by lenders, not permitted by lender guidelines, and in many cases not allowed under state and federal regulations and guidelines.”
Sullivan is also seeking redress for alleged “unnecessary expenses and/or unprovided services, which are in some cases outright fraudulent and in all cases excessive, deceptive, and otherwise unfair,” including for forcing places insurance.
According to the class action lawsuit, BOA is able to get away with predatory loan servicing as it knows it will be reimbursed by Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac if homes go into foreclosure – meaning it makes revenue off the fees it charges and foreclosure proceedings.
“Defendants’ schemes take advantage of the current structure of the mortgage industry,” the claim states.
Sullivan wants to represent anyone in the U.S. who was charged property inspection fees through BOA’s automated loan servicing platform. She is suing for breach of contract, good faith laws, state consumer, lending and trade acts, and unjust enrichment.
Sullivan is seeking certification of the Class, damages, injunctive relief, restitution, interest, legal fees, and a jury trial.
Bank of America is also facing another class action lawsuit for allegedly making a “dishonest dollar” off of account holders by charging deceptive transfer fees. Consumers claim BOA preys on their lack of knowledge about how money transfers work and hits them with deceptive fees amounting to as much as $10 each, according to the class action lawsuit.
Do you have a home loan serviced by Bank of America? Have you faced any fees you thought were unfair? Let us know in the comments section!
Sullivan is represented by Scott David Hirsch of Scott Hirsch Law Group and Daniel E. Gustafson, Daniel C. Hedlund, and David A. Goodwin of Gustafson Gluek PLLC.The Bank of America Deceptive Home Loan Servicing Class Action Lawsuit is Sullivan v. Bank of America, N.A. et al., Case No. 9:21-cv-80828-WPD, in the U.S. District Court Southern District of Florida.
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64 thoughts onBank of America Unlawfully Services Home Loans, Deceiving and Costing Consumers, Class Action Lawsuit Claims
I am in desperate need of help Bank of America wrongfully took our home after a 10 year foreclosure battle. 6 separate servicers during that time & confirmed a 2 yr old sheriff sale a week before the closing of the sale on our house to my father. A sale we only made to get away from thier loan. It has been 10 years of stress & fear and no way out for us. They lied and deceived us every step of the way. We lost our home of 30 years through lender misconduct and fraud. We have a solid paper trail of proof but do not know what to do. We are waiting for eviction by sheriff any day now. How can this happen?
BOA added a 48,000 lien to my home . They left me go behind 12 months payments(23,000) on their orders not to pay then gave me a loan modification then unknowing to us put a lien for 48000 I question them there answer i am wrong have paperwork to prove it should only be 23000 no help from them
Bank of America took our home from us when they mishandled escrow payments and refused to take payments from us and ended up foreclosing on us after we tried to make contact to pay all of the excessive fees and late penalties they were demanding they told us the payment had to go to the lawyers. And then sent us on a wild goose chase to get in touch with them. We lost our home. They are the saddest kind of people there are.
This is only part of what happened to me. My pipes burst so I went to Austin as of of their affiliate companies-Allstate denied my pipe freeze claim in Texas. They lost my phone number and continually called my adult daughter who now won’t speak to me. This is illegal. I’m am I. The reinstatement division even though I have tried to pay them. I worked for their fraudulent loan modification in2012 which I modules ZERO loans as they wanted the homes. Now they have tried to put me in a loan modification program even though I called and said that would never happen. I’m suing them because, there is more…
M A
I have documents and attorney contacts that were made numerous times to address concerns, errors and miscommunications against Bank of America. Please contact me.
Yes. Please add. I have documentation from Countrywide and BOA, I truly need help
I applied for a home loan late last year (December 2021) but due to the unwieldy BofA system for loan approval, missed out on the property I wanted as well as on the historically low interest rate at that time. Eventually, after complaining to management about the unfairness of this incredibly slow and painful process, my home inspection fee was refunded, but the damage had already been done. Is this an appropriate case for your class action lawsuit against BofA?
I would like to be added. BofA was deceptive during housing crashing denying me loan modification, and conveniently loosing mailed documents. Very unfair and ethically questionable business practices.
I would like to be added to the list for deceptive loan modification. It was forgery, identity theft, wire fraud, and mail fraud. I lost my home to illegal long modification. I have the documents to back it up my claim.
I would like to be added to the list for deceptive loan modification and foreclosure practices against Bank of America
BofA nightmare, our balance to payoff my house $14000, then Covid hit and they offered us to deferred payment which would be placed to end of the without change To our mortgage. We did that. After Covid we paid $5000 what was left and deferred payment (18 months) was to kick in. Not so easy. According to BofA since we paid off that 5000 balance our mortgage ended and now we have to pay off our deferred portion. Not so fast. During 18 months they made 3 inspections to make sure house was occupied and kept up, totaling $400. Now they want us to take another loan to pay off deferred payments that Comes to $9000. Called BofA on 6 different times not once we had straight answer. Now we have to take a loan and higher percentage to payoff the deferred payments
Please someone help
Bank of America has been a hassle the whole time. We lost almost everything in the housing crash they denied us a modification back in 2013. So we moved to a smaller house we had been renting out and we were going to let this home go to foreclosure. We worked on a modification in the smaller house which was Wells Fargo who is being sued now currently got denied there where it would have been way more affordable. After all of this & months of BoA not doing anything with our bigger dream home they sent us a letter saying we could try for a modification again. We were unsure what to do as the other home we had moved to was denied by Wells Fargo so I started the process over again with the house with BoA. At this point the house had been empty for about a year. After many back & forth and them saying they didn’t get certain documents from us they finally said we qualified for a modification on the home so we moved back in to to the home in 2015. In 2017 my husband had a stroke & we had reduced income & we had to apply again which we did and this time we qualified quicker. Then we were getting back on our feet when Covid hit and we had to take the forbearance for Covid. In June of of 2021 I got a letter from BofA saying if I filled out all the papers they would reinstate the loan as it wasn’t past the time for that. I filled out all the paperwork including an auto draw sheet to restart paymens & sent it in FedEx. I kept calling to check on the status & would wait & get put on hold & transferred to different departments to check on the the reinstatement. In the end they said they denied the reinstatement because the papers were received one day late. I called and asked if they could reconsider this as it was only one day late & I could set up auto draw at this point as we were doing better & they said they would check but never heard anything. I called many times checking on what to do & would get cut off when it seemed like someone was figuring something out or they would say one thing then it would be different when I would receive a letter. Finally at the beginning of 2022 they send me papers to fill out for another modification. I sent all the papers in & was just denied again and they said we only qualify for a short sale so unless I figure something out we will have to figure out a new place to live which I don’t know if we can I had health issues last year & was unable to work for a while it’s just been a mess the whole time. I told them we are doing better both our business & my health & if they could reinstate the loan and move the payments to the end of the loan then we would be able to start payments back up. So far no luck I am sending in an appeals letter. Just wish there was a class action against them already. They tacked on all of the late fees & interest to the loan back in 2015 after they left it sit for a year instead of waiving that for the modification at the time we accepted as we had nowhere else to go. Now we are facing this again after Covid & it feels like they just want the property to make a profit off of it. We may have to file Ch. 13 to help with the situation but don’t know what to do at this point. Wish I knew a good lawyer to sue them I am sure we are not the only ones that got mishandled in this whole mess.
I lost my home to mortgage fraud 2018. Loan modification was created with forge signatures, BofA excepted wire fraud, and identity theft documents. Ditech confirm the loan modification were fraudulent and over turn the loan modification. Creating late fees and penalties to my mortgage, forcing me to walk away from my home. I have not received any compensation for this crime committed against me. I have documents to support my claim. All this occurred in 2012 – 2013