BoA, Wells Fargo, Citi & others to fork over $123 million for unlawful foreclosure of Servicemembers

Posted by CotoBlogzz

Rancho Santa Margarita, CA -The Justice Department announced today that under its settlements with five of the nation’s largest mortgage servicers, 952 service members and their co-borrowers are eligible to receive over $123 million for non-judicial foreclosures that violated the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA).  The five mortgage servicers are JP Morgan Chase Bank N.A. (JP Morgan Chase); Wells Fargo Bank N.A. and Wells Fargo & Co. (Wells Fargo); Citi Residential Lending Inc., Citibank, NA and CitiMortgage Inc. (Citi); GMAC Mortgage, LLC, Ally Financial Inc. and Residential Capital LLC (GMAC Mortgage); and BAC Home Loans Servicing LP formerly known as Countrywide Home Loans Servicing LP (Bank of America).

In the first round of payments under the SCRA portion of the 2012 settlement known as the National Mortgage Settlement (NMS), 666 service members and their co-borrowers will receive over $88 million from JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citi and GMAC Mortgage.  The other 286 service members and their co-borrowers already have received over $35 million from Bank of America through an earlier settlement.  The non-judicial foreclosures at issue took place between Jan. 1, 2006, and Apr. 4, 2012.

Section 533 of the SCRA prohibits non-judicial foreclosures against service members who are in military service or within the applicable post-service period, as long as they originated their mortgages before their period of military service began.  Even in states that normally allow mortgage foreclosures to proceed non-judicially, the SCRA prohibits servicers from doing so against protected service members during their military service and applicable post-military service coverage period.

Under the NMS, for mortgages serviced by Wells Fargo, Citi and GMAC Mortgage, the identified service members will each receive $125,000, plus any lost equity in the property and interest on that equity.  

Eligible co-borrowers will also be compensated for their share of any lost equity in the property.  

The following chart shows the number of service members who will be compensated by each of the servicers for the non-judicial foreclosures:

	Amount of Money to be Distributed	Number of Service Members Eligible for Compensation
Bank of America	$35,369,756	286
Citi	$14,880,578	126
GMAC Mortgage	$13,720,588	113
JP Morgan Chase	$31,068,523	188
Wells Fargo	$28,358,179	239
TOTALS	$123,397,624	952

Borrowers should use the following contact information for questions about SCRA payments under the National Mortgage Settlement:

• Bank of America borrowers should call Rust Consulting, Inc., the settlement administrator, toll-free at 1-855-793-1370 or write to BAC Home Loans Servicing Settlement Administrator, c/o Rust Consulting, Inc., P.O. Box 1948, Faribault, MN 55021-6091.
• Citi borrowers should call Citi toll-free at 1-888-326-1166.
• GMAC Mortgage borrowers should call Rust Consulting Inc., the settlement administrator, toll-free at 1-866-708-0915 or write to P.O. Box 3061, Faribault, Minnesota 55021-2661.
• JPMorgan Chase borrowers should call Chase toll-free at 1-877-469-0110 or write to P.O. Box 183224, OH-7160/DOJ, Columbus, Ohio 43219-6009.
• Wells Fargo borrowers should call the Wells Fargo Home Mortgage Military Customer Service Center toll free at 1-877-839-2359.

Service members and their dependents who believe that their SCRA rights have been violated should contact an Armed Forces Legal Assistance office.  To find the closest office, consult the military legal assistance office locator at http://legalassistance.law.af.mil and click on the Legal Services Locator.  Additional information about the Justice Department’s enforcement of the SCRA and the other laws protecting service members is available at www.servicemembers.gov.