Homeowners Beat Banks To Court As South Florida Attorney Files 25 Federal Suits Alleging Fraud, Violations Of Lending Laws; Seeks To Undo Lousy Loans

In South Florida, The Miami Herald reports:

• Some South Florida borrowers who are in default on their home loans aren't waiting around for their lender to begin foreclosure. They have beaten their lender to the courthouse by filing lawsuits that allege the institutions committed fraud and violated federal lending laws by overstating the borrowers' incomes to qualify them for loans, changing the loan terms just before closing, and failing to disclose the loan costs.

• ''These [borrowers] are basically sheep among the wolves,'' said Frank J. Ingrassia, a Margate lawyer who last week filed about 25 lawsuits on behalf of the borrowers against various lenders in U.S. District Court in Miami and Fort Lauderdale.

• The suits mark the latest salvo against the subprime lending industry, which consumer advocates contend recklessly extended loans to borrowers and fed a buying frenzy that led to the real-estate bust.

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• Legal Services of Greater Miami is taking a similar tack -- alleging lenders committed fraud -- in defending homeowners in some foreclosure cases, said Carolina Lombardi, a senior attorney for the agency.

For more, see Troubled borrowers sue mortgage lenders (Some South Florida homeowners have sued their mortgage lenders, alleging the institutions committed fraud in making loans that borrowers couldn't afford to pay) (if link expires, try here).

For other posts on homeowners using Federal & state consumer protection statutes to try and undo bad mortgage loans, Go Here, Go Here, and Go Here. undo mortgage loans TILA batallion