JPMorgan Chase Sued For Misleading Homeowners

By : Carlos Montes

It has become apparent that the recent recession has made for some fabulous opportunities for some unscrupulous people and businesses to cash in on other people’s misfortune. Unfortunately, it has also been the case that while some companies have been trying to assist home owners, it’s not always easy to tell the well meaning from the deliberately devious. In the latest news about struggling home owners dealing with their lenders comes a whole new chapter in possible misinformation and miscommunication. Recently, some Californian home owners were informed by their bank that while they were struggling to pay their mortgage, they would have to be delinquent to actually qualify for mortgage modification. So, their Chase bank representative told them to stop paying their mortgage for a time so that they could qualify. The plan worked, and the couple received a letter notifying them of their qualification for the program in June 2009; unfortunately, three weeks later they also received a letter from their bank letting them know that their bank was foreclosing on their home. While the bank was claiming that their home was not, in fact, foreclosed on the family was having agents looking at their home under the impression that the house was an REO; public records show that the bank did actually foreclose on the property while telling the family that they had not. One can only guess at the bank’s reasoning in this case. The unfortunate family apparently spent months trying to work out the situation with their bank before deciding to file a complaint in District Court, charging the bank with breach of contract, fraud, predatory lending, and violation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act. The couple is demanding $150,000 in damages from JPMorgan Chase in compensation. Unfortunately for JPMorgan Chase customers, this is not the only case of predatory lending that has come to light. More customers in other locations have been coming forward to press charges against JPMorgan Chase as a result of what they claim is wrongful foreclosure. In at least one case the bank continued to claim that the home had not been foreclosed on when in fact it had been sold to a third party and the rightful home owners were evicted. Hopefully with these cases coming to light, there will be added incentive for lenders to work truthfully with home owners so that less homes are foreclosed on and more mortgages are modified so that owners can manage their payments.

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