New Briefing Paper by Private Property Advocates Draws Link between Predatory Lending and Mortgage Servicing Abuse in America

Washington, DC (PRWEB via PRWebDirect) May 24, 2005 -- A new report titled, "Private Property Rights Deferred: Has Predatory Mortgage Servicing Destroyed the American Dream" has found that mortgage servicing fraud and abuse by unscrupulous mortgage companies and their agents is stripping working families of home equity and, in certain instances, foreclosure because of the failure to properly account for monthly mortgage payments in favor of excessive fee income. A mortgage servicer generally is a company involved in an outstanding loan transaction that has the responsibility for collecting and recording the monthly payments from the borrowers, pursuing all legal remedies against borrowers who fail to pay, and for remitting the collections to the appropriate parties.


Written by Rawle Andrews Jr., Esq., and Leroy Jones, Jr., JD in the DC Office of Andrews & Bowe, PLLP, the paper explores the importance of existing protections for private property owners under federal and state consumer protection laws, recent developments in the Executive, Legislative and Judicial Branches of the Federal Government that directly impact the rights and incidents of homeownership in this Technological Age of serial refinancing, and practical solutions for combating the unlawful activities of unscrupulous mortgage companies and their agents during the lengthy home loan administration process.

Examples cited in the paper include: (a) the consequences of H.R. 1025 (the proposed Mortgage Servicing Clarification Act); (b) the Seven (7) Deadly Signs Mortgage Serving Fraud and Abuse; (c) the fallout of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision not to overturn the $6.0 million punitive damage award for homeowners in EMC Mortgage Corp. v. Stark, No. 04-1056 (U.S. May 2, 2005) (order denying certiorari for EMC Mortgage Corp.); and (d) the critical need to preserve home loan and related documents to preserve private property rights and combat mortgage servicing fraud.

The premise of the paper is that while predatory lending has and continues to receive the most public scrutiny, the failure to draw a solid line between predatory lending and mortgage servicing abuse is preventing the elimination of both evils because "improper mortgage servicing trumps the very best home loan every time, and the stakes get even higher if a homeowner is saddled with a predatory, sub-prime loan" or the real estate bubble bursts.

About Andrews & Bowe, PLLP
Andrews & Bowe, PLLP is a business law and government relations firm with attorneys practicing in Washington, DC and Chattanooga, TN, and governmental affairs personnel in Washington, DC. The Firm provides litigation, regulatory and transactional advice and counsel to businesses and individuals, and typically represents homeowners in private property disputes.

Contact:
Rawle Andrews Jr., Esq.
Andrews & Bowe, PLLP
Phone: 202-349-3975
Fax: 410-510-1034
URL: www.lobbylawfirm.com

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