Residential mortgage lender Green Tree Servicing, Inc., has agreed to pay $232,000 to settle allegations the company violated debt collection regulations.
The settlement also addresses the company’s late payment of property taxes on behalf of mortgage holders, an infraction Vermont Attorney General Bill Sorrell considers an unfair trade practice.
“We must ensure that home mortgages, which are so central to the financial well-being of Vermonters, are serviced in accordance with the law,” Sorrell said in a news release.
Vermont consumers will be eligible to collect a total of $55,250 from the settlement, while the state will collect $176,750. To execute the payout, Green Tree cut checks, which the Attorney General’s Office will mail to individuals covered by the settlement.
State law prohibits debt collection calls after 9 p.m. and forbids calls to debtors at their place of work in certain circumstances, or calls to third parties indicating a debt is owed. Sorrell’s office found evidence that since 2011, Green Tree violated those prohibitions at least 26 times, according to the release.
Additionally, Green Tree allegedly paid property taxes more than 30 days late for 48 Vermont consumers. A number of payments were more than 100 days past due, according to Sorrell’s office. Green Tree claims the errors were corrected and no homeowners were left with late fees or penalties.
Consumer settlements include $1,000 to each Vermonters whose property taxes were paid more than 30 days late, and $1,000 to each person Green Tree contacted at work after being instructed not to do so, or with respect to whom calls were made to third parties. Each person contacted after 9 p.m. will be eligible to receive $500, while $250 is offered to each consumer contacted before 9 p.m., but whose call continued past that time.
By accepting the money, the payees waive their rights to seek further action against Green Tree for actions addressed in the case. Assistant Attorney General Elliot Burg said they can reserve those rights by declining to participate in the settlement.
The case against Green Tree, a national mortgage provider based in Minnesota, is one of the state’s first mortgage-related settlements since Vermont participated in a 2012 multistate, $25 billion action over foreclosure abuses. That suit, against Bank of America, J.P. Morgan Chase, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, and Residential Capital (GMAC/Ally), was followed in December 2013 and June 2014 with multistate settlements against Ocwen Financial and Sun Trust, respectively.
