RESPA Services for Individuals

If you’re like most consumers, your home purchase is likely to be the largest and most important investment you’ll ever make. Just like any other investment, you’ll want to make sure that you maximize the return on your investment—that means keeping your costs down as much as possible.

Unfortunately, unscrupulous mortgage lenders, banks, and other settlement providers will often try to unlawfully increase your costs through various violations of RESPA. However, RESPA does have several provisions that prohibit a real estate settlement provider from accepting or offering payments for RESPA-related services when no actual services are provided. The first is a prohibition against paying for settlement-related referrals. This provision provides that no one shall offer or accept any fee, kickback or anything else of value pursuant to an agreement (either written or oral) that real estate settlement business will be referred to a third party. The second is an anti-kickback provision. This provision makes it illegal for a party to charge for a RESPA-related service and then share or split a portion of that fee with a third party who does no service for the fee. These illegal charges, markups and fees many times show up during the course of our discovery when foreclosure actions against home buyers are initiated by Lenders. Home buyers were totally unaware of the mischief and illegal activities that took place until they lost their homes and called us for help.

RESPA also requires that settlement providers provide borrowers with a number of different disclosures during the settlement process to allow borrowers to understand all of the costs they will incur in the settlement process, the nature of the settlement process, and their rights and remedies. For a more detailed overview of RESPA, please take a look at our About RESPA Page.

If you believe that you have been the victim of a RESPA violation, you have the right to file a RESPA lawsuit to recover your damages and other amounts available under the law. The damages for violations of RESPA’s anti-kickback and referral fee provisions can be considerable and include both civil and criminal penalties. Violators of these provisions can be subject to a fine of up to $10,000 and a year in prison. If you have been victimized, you are entitled to an amount equal to three times the illegal charges, your reasonable attorneys’ fees, and costs of suit.

If you or someone you know has been victimized by an unlawful RESPA overcharge, or if you have any questions about any aspect of RESPA, don’t wait. The deadlines for bringing a RESPA lawsuit can be short; if you delay, you could lose your right to bring a claim. Call the RESPA Resource Law Center toll-free at 877-854-2182 or email us and we’ll provide you with a FREE initial consultation. And if we take your case, we’ll handle it on a contingency basis. That means that you won’t pay us any attorneys’ fees unless we recover something for you.

Your home was very expensive—there’s no need for you to pay more to unscrupulous lenders, title companies or other settlement providers. Call us and we’ll fight to help you recover all the RESPA damages that you’re entitle to under this important consumer protection law.