Specialized Loan Servicing, LLC Foreclosure Defense

Specialized Loan Servicing, LLC is a mortgage servicer that administers home loans mainly for Bank of America and CountryWide. After a homeowner is approximately two months delinquent in making their mortgage payments, the original lender will hire Specialized Loan Servicing to collect the overdue payments and if necessary, foreclose on the home. The big banks do this because they often do not want their names associated with foreclosure. Instead, they hire mortgage servicers to do this, and may even sell the original loan to the servicer so they can proceed. This way, the servicer may garner a bad reputation for foreclosures, but the big banks will not.

Specialized Loan Servicing handles many residential mortgages and they are a legitimate company. If you have received notice that the company is pursuing foreclosure against you, it is important to obtain legal advice. Our Florida foreclosure defense lawyers can provide it and help you obtain the best possible outcome.

What Does Specialized Loan Servicing, LLC, Do?

Many people think that Specialized Loan Servicing is a debt collection company, but they are not. While they do collect over $800 million every year from consumers, those profits come from the collection of mortgage payments from borrowers. According to the company’s own website, they are an asset management company. The company does not only service mortgages on behalf of larger financial institutions, but they also purchase mortgage loans from these same banks. A majority of the loans they now own originated with the Bank of America.

Click to learn how homeowner forecloses on Bank of America with the help of Loan Lawyers.

Complaints Filed Against Specialized Loan Servicing

While Specialized Loan Servicing, LLC, is a valid company, this does not mean that they always treat borrowers fairly. The company was ordered by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to pay millions of dollars to its customers in May of 2020 due to its deceptive and unfair tactics.

Customers have given Specialized Loan Servicing an average ranking of 1.04 out of 5 on the Better Business Bureau. There have been 530 complaints regarding the company closed in the last three years, and 175 closed in the last year. Specialized Loan Servicing, LLC, is also not accredited by the Better Business Bureau. Some of the most common complaints on the website include:

• Requiring certified funds, which requires a cashier’s check when making payments, even though returned payments were due to an accounting error at Specialized Loan Servicing,
• Failing to pay property taxes with funds that were being held in escrow,
• Inflating a payment of $7 to $50,000,
• Placing liens on properties for many years until the value of the home improves and they then take action,
• Entering payoff payments as regular payments, without giving consumers any information about how they will correct the error, and
• General customer service complaints.

Force Specialized Loan Servicing to Prove They Own the Loan

If you have been contacted by Specialized Loan Servicing or they have notified you that they are going to foreclose on your home, they may have purchased your loan from a larger financial institution, or they may not have. Specialized Loan Servicing only has the right to foreclose on your home if they do own the mortgage. If they do not, they do not have legal standing, or legal ground to proceed with a lawsuit and this can serve as a defense.

Even if Specialized Loan Servicing has purchased your home from a larger institution, you still must force them to prove it. It is not uncommon for mortgage loans to change hands many times and when they do, important documents become lost. If Specialized Loan Servicing cannot produce the documents and prove that they own the loan, they cannot proceed with foreclosure.

Other Defenses to a Specialized Loan Servicing Foreclosure

Even if Specialized Loan Servicing does own your loan, there are other defenses that can help you avoid foreclosure. The most common of these are as follows:

• Loan modifications: You can apply for a loan modification with Specialized Loan Servicing. If you are successful, you can change many different parts of your mortgage. These include lowering your interest rate, reducing your monthly payments, extending the life of your loan to make payments more affordable, and even reducing the principal amount.
• Unclean hands: Unclean hands in foreclosure cases refers to any deceptive or fraudulent act on the part of Specialized Loan Servicing that results in foreclosure. For example, if the company told you that you did not have to make mortgage payments for a certain period of time but then foreclosed on your home, that can prove unclean hands.
• Failure to provide notice: Specialized Loan Servicing must provide you with notice if they intend to foreclose on your home. This notice must also inform you of the delinquent amount and provide you with 30 days to pay it. While this may not stop foreclosure entirely, it can give you more time to repay the overdue amount before the company can file again.
• Statute of limitations: Mortgage servicers have only five years to file a foreclosure lawsuit against you. If they do not file within this time, they have lost the legal right to foreclose on your home. However, every mortgage payment you make restarts the clock on the statute of limitations. It is important to speak to an attorney who can determine if Specialized Mortgage Servicing still has the right to foreclose on your home.
• Bankruptcy: Bankruptcy can help you save your home, particularly if you file Chapter 13. Chapter 13 bankruptcy reorganizes your debt into a repayment plan, which can provide you with additional time to repay the delinquent amount.

Our Foreclosure Defense Attorneys in Fort Lauderdale Can Advise You of Your Legal Options

At Loan Lawyers, our Fort Lauderdale foreclosure defense attorneys can review the facts of your case and determine the best strategy to use moving forward. Call us today at (954) 523-4357 or fill out our online form to schedule a free review of your case with our experienced attorney and to learn more about how we can help with your case.