NC AG Obtains Court Order Temporarily Shutting Down Loan Modification Firm Taking Upfront Fees; Seeks Permanent Ban, Penalties, Homeowner Refunds

In Raleigh, North Carolina, WRAL-TV Channel 5 reports:

• A Superior Court judge has ordered a Raleigh company that advertised on local gospel radio that it could save homes from foreclosure to stop doing business in North Carolina, Attorney General Roy Cooper said Thursday. Judge Howard Manning agreed Wednesday with Cooper’s request to stop Mortgage Help Services Inc. and Chief Executive Nathaniel Livingston from advertising, performing or taking money for loan modification and foreclosure assistance services. Cooper is asking the court to ban the company permanently and order it to pay refunds to consumers and civil penalties.

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• Mortgage Help Services and Livingston claimed in ads to be experts in modifying mortgage loans and rescuing homes from foreclosure. A lawsuit filed by the Attorney General's Office alleges that consumers who paid Mortgage Help Services between $500 and $1,500 upfront got little or no help modifying their loans to lower their interest rates or monthly payments.

• A North Carolina law that Cooper lobbied for makes it illegal to charge an upfront fee for foreclosure assistance or mortgage loan modification services. The company often encouraged homeowners to stop making their mortgage payments and cease communicating with their lender, which put them deeper in debt and closer to foreclosure, Cooper said.

For more, see Judge shuts down foreclosure scheme.

For the North Carolina AG press release, see AG Cooper shuts down Raleigh foreclosure fraudster (Mortgage Help Services took struggling homeowners’ money but failed to help them).