Ohio is filing a lawsuit against GMACÂ Mortgage LLC over deficient affidavits, while the servicer is among 15 companies targeted by the State of North Carolina.
Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray plans to announce today a lawsuit against GMAC Mortgage LLC.
Cordray said he sent a letter to judges in Ohio last week requesting a review of all GMAC foreclosure cases.
“It appears that affidavits were being signed en masse, and that those signing them were attesting to having personal knowledge about matters that they in fact knew little or nothing about,” Cordray stated in a news release.
A GMAC spokesman declined to comment specifically on the lawsuit but noted, “We are confident that the processing errors did not result in any inappropriate foreclosures. GMAC Mortgage takes this matter very seriously and [is] acting with urgency to resolve the issue in the affected states.”
The attorney general plans to hold a press conference today at 3:30 p.m. about the lawsuit.
Over in North Carolina, Attorney General Roy Cooper said the state issued a letter to GMAC last week asking the servicer to suspend North Carolina foreclosures until it can show that its affidavit procedures have been reviewed and are in compliance with the law. Cooper said he is concerned that some borrowers will miss out on loan modification opportunities.
Today, Cooper said that the GMAC debacle prompted the attorney general’s Consumer Protection Division to investigate 14 more servicers.
“If mortgage companies are using potentially unlawful practices to push through foreclosures in North Carolina, that needs to stop,” Cooper said in today’s statement. “Foreclosures have to happen when people don’t pay, but homeowners deserve a fair shot at keeping their homes when possible.”
The 14 companies targeted by Cooper were sent a letter Tuesday asking for information about their foreclosure practices in North Carolina and requesting a suspension of foreclosures until they can show compliance with South Carolina law.
The companies who were sent letters from North Carolina include Aurora Bank, American Home Mortgage Servicing, Bank of America, BB&T, CitiMortgage, HSBC, J.P. Morgan Chase, MetLife Home Loans Mortgage, OneWest Bank, PHH Mortgage, PNC Mortgage, SunTrust Mortgage, US Bank Home Mortgage and Wells Fargo.
