Massachusetts AG Initiates Probe Into F'closure Mill Suspected Of Possible Illegal Practices In Booting Tenants When Carrying Out F'closure Evictions

In Boston, Massachusetts, The Boston Globe reports:

• Harmon Law Offices, a Newton firm that specializes in foreclosures, is being investigated by the state attorney general’s office for allegedly unlawfully sending eviction notices to residents of bank-owned properties. State officials want to determine whether Harmon Law failed to comply with a new Massachusetts law that protects tenants living in foreclosed homes from eviction, a spokesman for Attorney General Martha Coakley said yesterday.

• Coakley said her office also is looking into allegations that Harmon Law disregarded a court order requiring it to notify the state before foreclosing on homes with mortgages originated by subprime lender Fremont Investment & Loan.

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• Paul Collier, a Cambridge lawyer who represents many clients facing foreclosure, said a group of local lawyers has been monitoring the procedures Harmon Law uses to evict tenants living in foreclosed homes.

• The new state law is intended to keep tenants from being forced out of a property regardless of when a foreclosure occurred, Collier said. “The purpose of the provisions of this statute is to protect anyone who is still in their homes,’’ he said.

For the story, see AG seeks data on evictions (Newton law firm faces query over rules protecting tenants).