California Injury Blog
The term “predatory lending” is used to describe a variety of fraudulent lending practices. In other words, these unethical lenders try to shove a mortgage down your throat that you cannot afford and usually succeed at doing it. They give you misinformation, lure you with false promises and use all sorts of sales tactics not considering for a minute whether the borrower has the income, assets or the ability to make the scheduled payments.
So what can victims of such fraudulent lending schemes do to right this wrong? Can they be rescued from a mortgage that threatens to put them on the path to foreclosure and financial ruin? The answer is – yes, it is possible. The legal remedies available to victims of predatory lending depend quite a bit on what kind of documented evidence the defrauded homebuyer has in his or her hands. These loans also include high fees piled on top of the mortgage, which makes it worse.
The best legal remedy for such a borrower is to seek what is known as “rescission” of the bad loan. What does this mean? Basically, that the bad loan will be erased and replaced with a loan that the buyer can afford. Not only that, but the principal owed will be drastically reduced because the fraudulent lender will be asked to pay a portion of the interest and the unjustified fees plus attorney’s fees.
The key to obtain this legal remedy is to prove that the lender did not comply with the federal Truth in Lending Act law, better known as TILA. To read more about this issue, click here.