State files lawsuit against Countrywide

The Indiana State has filed a lawsuit against Countrywide Financial Corp., Indiana Attorney General Steve Carter said the widely known mortgage lender company misled homeowners into taking unaffordable and unsuitable loans.

The company has been in the business for a long time but it’s only now that people of different states have raised their voice against the ill practices of the company.

Carter said that the company is accused of violating state consumer protection laws and charging heavy fines to those who defaulted.

Carter remarked that their investigation is complete and they know there are three consumers but still there are many pending complaints to be solved and further investigation is required for that purpose.

However, the mortgage giant refuted to comment on the pending lawsuit.

The company lied and misled the borrowers to go in for costly loans that were difficult to repay.
Carter said,” We’ve also had misrepresentation on loan documents where people have had their income inflated consumers have actually shown where their income is about $3,500 per month but the documents show $14,000 per month in income."

Cater pointed out that here we are dealing specifically; with suit associated with Steuben County as several people living in this area will be affected by the litigation despite the fact that the related complaint has the names of consumers in Hamilton and Marion counties.

Countrywide and other lenders involved in the mortgage crisis are under the vigilance of authorities that are investigating into the matter.

According to the filed lawsuit, the company exercised unfair trade practices, deceptive banking laws and unethical lending schemes.

The company misinformed the borrowers about pre-payment penalty terms and regarding the time-spans and their interest rate (the interest rates were subject to change over a period of time).

Carter is pleading the court to order Countrywide to end the misleading practices and nullify the prepayment penalties on loans originated by Countrywide.

Cater alleged that many states have already filed lawsuits against malpractices of Countrywide and Indiana Attorney General’s office is the sixth one to follow suit.

About $15,000 per violation has been claimed in the lawsuit.