RESPA – Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act
If you’re like most consumers, your home purchase was most likely the biggest and most important investment of your lifetime. Unfortunately, there are many deceitful and dishonest mortgage lenders, banks, and other settlement providers in the world today, and these companies have been around for decades. These companies will often try to illegally increase your costs through many different violations of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act or RESPA.
What is RESPA?
The Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act provides protection to consumers against abusive and hidden fees associated with closing a real estate transaction. RESPA requires that settlement providers present borrowers with an number of different disclosures during the settlement process to allow borrowers to understand all of the costs they will incur in the settlement process, the nature of the settlement process, and their rights and remedies.
Violations of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act are very common. They may take the form of duplicate fees for origination and administration. One of the most common nondisclosure violations involves fees “paid outside of closing” (POC), which often indicate a deceptive practice known as yield spread premiums.
How Can We Uncover RESPA Violations
Using the Dodd-Frank Act we will examine all documents related to your loan. We want to see if you actually agreed to pay the fees and costs you incurred. If you do not have all the required documents don’t worry, we will obtain them from your lender.
RESPA violations can provide you with a range of legal options.
You may choose to:
- File a lawsuit against your lender, targeted at stopping foreclosure or rescinding/unwinding your loan
- Cite violations as leverage in working through a deed-in-lieu of foreclosure
- Cite violations while negotiating various loss mitigation options
