Pursuant to 11 U.S.C. § 1322(b)(2), a Chapter 13 bankruptcy plan cannot modify the rights of a secured creditor whose claim is only secured by an “interest in real property that is the debtor’s principal residence.” On December 6, the Eleventh Circuit held that this provision prevents the discharge of a mortgage in a Chapter
In the home mortgage industry, loans insured by the Fair Housing Authority (“FHA”) come with statutory prerequisites that are embedded in the loan contracts and that must be followed prior to foreclosure. One such obligation put forth by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (“HUD”) is the “face-to-face meeting” requirement. This meeting, however, is
On December 17, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York ruled in favor of a debt collector in Taubenfliegel v. Miller & Milone, P.C., granting a motion for summary judgment regarding the naming of the creditor in a collection letter.
Plaintiff Elizabeth Taubenfliegel alleged violations of Section 1692g of
In a third-party complaint captioned as Avery Patrick v. Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., 2018 WL 6613737, Docket No. A-2270-17T3 (App. Div. Dec. 18, 2018), a residential mortgage loan borrower, Avery Patrick, appealed an order of summary judgment rendered by the Superior Court, Middlesex County, Law Division, dismissing his common law tort claim for trespass
A wave of lawsuits filed under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, especially in the Second Circuit, continues regarding disclosures of interest and fees in collection letters. Consumers have complained about failure to warn of interest and fees continuing to accrue, as well as failure to disclose that interest and fees did not accrue. The
On November 21, in Sweely Holdings LLC v. SunTrust Bank et al., the Supreme Court of Virginia issued an opinion that is beneficial to the mortgage industry in Virginia because it upheld a bank’s right to foreclose, even if it could have pursued other options under a forbearance agreement. In doing so, the Court
Effective July 1, 2018, Virginia’s unlawful detainer laws were amended to include new language beneficial to mortgagees and other foreclosure sale purchasers who seek to recover possession of foreclosed property by filing suit in a general district court.
A new subsection of the statute, Virginia Code § 8.01-126(C)(4), codifies common law and confirms that a
Last month, Troutman Sanders reported on the proposed TRACED Act which would instruct the Federal Communications Commission to engage in rulemaking to protect consumers from receiving unwanted calls and text messages from unauthenticated phone numbers. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai tweeted his approval for the bill, but the FCC is not waiting on Congress to fight
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit recently held that a borrower failed to establish an actual harm resulting from his mortgage servicer’s response to a Qualified Written Request (“QWR”), thus affirming the lower court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of the servicer. The use of QWRs is a common and growing
In March 2018, the Predatory Lending Unit of the Virginia Attorney General Office’s Complaint against online lender Future Income Payments (“FIP”) began with the words of Sir Walter Scott: “what a tangled web we weave when we first practice to deceive.”[1] The lawsuit charged FIP with disguising unlawful loans – in excess of 183%