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The state of Connecticut has filed suit against mortgage lender Countrywide Financial, seeking restitution for consumers it says were misled into deceptive and unaffordable loans.
Connecticut’s attorney general Richard Blumenthal alleges Countrywide violated state consumer protection laws in its lending saying it used practices like inflating borrowers’ incomes. When consumers defaulted, he says the company charged them excessive legal fees to renegotiate loans, digging them deeper into debt.
“Countrywide conned homeowners into mortgages that they simply couldn’t afford knowing that eventually default would face these homeowners and force them, many of them, into the foreclosure process.â€
The suit seeks restitution for homeowners, as well as punitive fines against Countrywide. It also asks the court to modify mortgages that broke state laws. Connecticut follows California and Illinois, which have also filed suit against Countrywide. The lender has recently been taken over by Bank of America. In a prepared statement, the bank said it does not comment on pending litigation, but will respond to the Connecticut attorney general in due course. The Bank also notes that it has already committed not to offer negative amortization products like option ARMS.
I can relate
Hello,
I just want to comment that i had Countrywide Home Loans for a few years and never had any problem with them. IT's just unfortunate. However, i understand exactly what is going on here cause i believe my last mortgage holder (Washington Mutual) did the same thing. I couldn't refinance to an affordable payment after my variable mortgage was a year old and i originally planned on refinancing to get out of it and into a fixed rate. I ended up losing my home. I'm so sad. I couldn't handle the much higher payment or the high town taxes either, but i feel the bank could have done better to help me out. I was stuck and then the payment and my other credit card debts were starting to snowball. I didn't know what to do, after realizing i couldn't save my house. i also had lung surgery, and after finally getting back to work in 7 short weeks, i was part a many-person lay off. I was devastated. I took jobs to put food on the table. If the mortgage company could have tried more to help me, i wouldn't be out of a home now. I had to have my children move out. Now I have my belongings in a large Storage unit and being turned down at every Managed Apartment Community where i choose to apply to live. I chose the only solution, foreclosure to filing bankruptcy, which is in the process to HELP me START OVER and yet i feel i'm 50 years old and being discriminated against badly cause they must pull a credit report. I tell them up front cause i'm an honest person, what i have been through and they still have me apply then pull the credit to find that i'm a "Credit Risk". I was never before. In fact i've never rented!! i've had 4 homes in my lifetime and raised 2 children mostly on my own! I worked hard but because of my chosing to start over, they don't want to know about this and it doesn't seem to count. It's not fair. I shouldn't be homeless. I am working a full-time job and still looking for a decent rent. I am with my son in a 1 bedroom apartment and i need to find myself a place to call home again. He didn't want me on the street! But i can't stay there much longer. I've been very sad and even depressed cause i've spent months looking for a rental only to be turned down. I think I will like living in an an apartment once i am given a chance. I would like to know if there's any law or rule or exemption? letter or ANYTHING in writing for my protection and my rights, such as a letter, for example, that i can get from the state or government that would understand what i'm going through and would Pardon me (for the right words, forgive me) so i may NOT be considered a risk and be given an equal chance to rent where i want, and so i can get over this situation and start living again. I have always been independent as a single mom and proud for all i have been able to accomplish. I even had two jobs to make ends meet! Now, i'm in the same situation as many, many other people losing their homes. I really didn't think i'd have a problem renting a place for a while. I never worried about it. Now months later, i don't know what to do. I need to be given a chance to live where i want. (and NOT LOW-INCOME HOUSING). I would love to be able to have something in my hand to give to the manager of rental properties and so they can reconsider my application for a place to live. Without anything i can't find a decent home in a decent neighborhood!! I never ask for help but it's been very hard. I wonder if i can seek any help?
Thank you for being so kind as to read this. I want to throw in the towel. Things are hard enough. How can we turn things around? I was also told i need a cosigner. I don't want to bother anyone. Times are tough for everyone.
I know this is long, but my point again is i feel Countrywide shouldn't be getting all the blame for what other lenders have been doing a while and getting away with! I'd be very happy to have a mortgage with Countrywide HOme Loans again!
Sincerely, Theresa Termini,