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North Carolina loan modification company shut down by Attorney General
ShareThisScam Alert: North Carolina loan modification company shut down by Attorney General’s office
The N.C. Attorney General’s Office has temporarily shut down a Kannapolis-based company that promised homeowners it would help them lower their mortgage payments or avoid foreclosure.
Geoffrey Lamb of Cabarrus County has been barred from offering foreclosure and loan modification services. Lamb does business as The Lamb Group and US Consumer Solutions.
Cooper, whose office filed a lawsuit against Lamb in Wake County Superior Court last week, is seeking to permanently shut down Lamb’s businesses and is asking for penalties and consumer refunds. It’s part of a national crackdown on foreclosure rescue and loan modification scams.
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Lamb says the charges are unfounded. He said his real estate office specialized in short sales and that when the real estate market slowed he started offering loan modification services to keep his employees and help customers. In a short sale, a house is sold for less than the bank is owed. With a loan modification, the borrower is asking the bank to accept a reduced payment.
“It’s essentially the same thing, talking to the same people, submitting the same information,” Lamb said. “We really tried our best to help people out.”
“It’s a witch hunt,” he said of the attorney general’s allegations. “I think they are trying to make an example out of us for the wrongs of everyone else. … Their motivations are good. They’ve just got the wrong person here.”
As the real estate market has slowed, the number of mortgage-related scams has risen.
Janet Hart, of the Better Business Bureau of Southern Piedmont, said more companies are preying on beleaguered homeowners. She said her office received 10 complaints about Lamb, one in 2008 and nine during the past six months.
In 2000, the bureau knew of four firms offering mortgage rescue and modification services, businesses the bureau red-flags as “suspect,” Hart said. That number rose to a high of 56 as the economy and real estate markets soured. Last year, about 9,800 consumers called the Better Business Bureau or clicked on its Website inquiring about these types of companies, she said.
It is illegal for a company to charge N.C. residents upfront fees for loan modification services.
“These complaints are so important because the individuals who are being victimized are desperate,” she said. “They are either trying to save their home or repair their credit and they don’t have the money to lose.”
According to the attorney general, Lamb charged people upfront fees of as much as $1,500 to get their monthly mortgage payments lowered and promised their money back if the loans weren’t reworked. The office says Lamb failed to get loans modified and refused to refund money.
The attorney general cited three cases where customers paid fees but didn’t get help. In one example, according to the complaint, The Lamb Group told an elderly cancer survivor and his wife it could cut their monthly mortgage payments by $300 in exchange for a payment of $1,200. The couple paid but saw no results.
Lamb said his company submitted a loan modification plan to the bank, which agreed to modify the loan, but on terms the homeowner didn’t like. He said he never promised customers specific results and charged people after their modification plans had been submitted to the lender.
“We’ve not been perfect. We’ve made mistakes,” he said. “This is a business I wish I’d never gotten into.”
Source: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/business/story/1092222.html
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