Unfortunately, our office has had to file yet another lawsuit over a mortgage company abusing deployed military members in violation of the California Military and Veterans’ Code 800-811.
In this case (review the complaint HERE), Freedom Mortgage Corporation actually informed the clients in writing that their principal and interest were deferred pursuant to California law.
While deployed, the military members continued to pay the principal and escrow each month, even though only the escrow was required. However, each month, Freedom Mortgage persisted in sending collection statements demanding that the military family pay the full amount of the accumulated principal plus interest that is to be deferred and claimed that by the first of each month the entirety of the deferred amount was due. The amounts demanded also did not account for the fact that the principal was being paid each month.
Furthermore, Freedom Mortgage began falsely reporting to the credit reporting agencies that the military family was more than 180 days past due on their mortgage payments in an amount in excess of $28,000.00, even though the amounts demanded by Freedom Mortgage on the collection statements was under $20,000.00. It is still unknown as to how Freedom Mortgage believed more than $28,000.00 was owed in order to justify such reporting to the credit reporting agencies. However, no matter how you look at it, such reporting is false and unlawful because California law specifically prohibits deferred payments from being the source of negative credit reporting during the period of deployment.
Once the deferment period expired, Freedom Mortgage continued to persist that the entire amount of what they calculated to be the deferred payments was due (which still did not account for any of the principal payments made during deployment) and now started to add late fees and penalties and also served as a source of foreclosure threats.
Promptly upon expiration of the deferment period, Freedom Mortgage sent correspondence falsely claiming that the military family had not paid any principal or interest for more than 6 months (which is false not only because they had paid principal the entire time but also because such payments were deferred), and used this as a basis to insist upon the entire amount being paid by the first of the next month or else foreclosure proceedings might occur.
Not taking these false and unlawful threats laying down, the military family decided to retain our firm due to our experience in fighting back on such violations. We promptly filed a lawsuit and a motion for preliminary injunction to seek a court order for Freedom Mortgage to stop its abusive tactics.
If you are someone you know is suffering such abuses, or is about to be deployed, do not hesitate to contact us for a free and confidential consultation to discuss your rights and to discuss how you can be protected!