Bank of America is well-known for cheating people out of tens of thousands of dollars in mortgages and loans. Bank of America, like other mortgage lenders, has a legal incentive to keep its clients’ paying high costs and fees. The lawsuits filed by the homeowners are a perfect example of how class action lawsuits can be used to force banks to take accountability for their actions. A class action lawsuit is filed on behalf of a large class of individuals who are owed money by Bank of America but have no means of collecting on the loans. The suits are being brought on behalf of all those who have fallen victim to the illegal activities of Bank of America.
Bank of America is guilty of charging predatory interest rates, intentionally jamming borrowers into subprime mortgages, making it difficult for people to obtain mortgages in the first place, keeping interest rates high, and switching mortgages without telling borrowers that the original mortgages were illegally sold. Bank of America is also responsible for deceptive advertising that has targeted desperate homeowners seeking to refinance or save their homes. Bank of America’s marketing department is well aware of the fact that foreclosures are high on its list of problems. But in order to avoid having to deal with foreclosures, it is doing everything it can to make it as easy as possible for borrowers to abandon their homes. All this is being done in the name of profit.
One class action lawsuit was filed in Florida against Bank of America for its illegal activities in its mortgage loan program. The suit was filed by the Florida PLC, which is an arm of the state government. The lawsuit charges that Bank of America engaged in predatory lending practices in violation of the federal Truth in Lending Act. This case involves a case in which the plaintiff had a defective loan that caused him to become a one-time homeowner.
The plaintiff had defaulted on his Bank of America mortgage loans, which ultimately resulted in his inability to make the payments required on his home loan. After not receiving any payments from his bank, the court ordered foreclosure proceedings. When told by the bank’s counsel that the plaintiff had defaulted on his mortgage loans, the said U.S. attorney responded that the bank did not engage in any such activity; however, it was disclosed in court documents that Bank of America did receive a complaint concerning the matter from the Florida PLC.
In a second case, Bank of America received a complaint regarding its allegedly deceptive practice of charging higher rates of interest on mortgage loans to borrowers. According to this class action lawsuit, a customer received a mail from the bank stating that he owed an additional $50,000 on a house. The borrower indicated that he could not pay the money in full because he was “under financial hardship.” Instead of sending the borrower a notice informing him that the bank reserves the right to charge interest on a defaulted mortgage loan, the bank’s counsel sent the letter to the customer’s last-known address indicating that the customer would face “frivolous litigation.” The bank was then permitted to pursue the complaint through legal means.
As these examples illustrate, many homeowners have been the subjects of what has come to be known as a rogue or boiler room industry. This industry exists to conduct secret business practices in order to create as much profit as possible and do so at the expense of the most innocent and honest homeowners. In one example cited in this article, the complaint alleges that a Bank of America fraudulently took out a second mortgage on the same home in order to pay for a lavish holiday. The complaint further contends that the bank failed to disclose that vacationing on a work related boat for forty days with personal personnel on board was actually a reason for the second mortgage. Bank of America has also been accused of illegally forcing borrowers to sell their homes to pay for the homes of fraudulent employees who were doing contract work on behalf of the bank.