HONOLULU – Attorney General Mark Bennett and Stephen Levins, Executive Director of the Office of Consumer Protection, announced today that Hawaii has joined a multistate effort to address practices by mortgage loan servicers that appear to be in violation of state laws.
It has recently come to light that a number of mortgage loan servicers have submitted affidavits or signed other documents in support of either a judicial or non-judicial foreclosure that appear to have procedural defects. In particular, it appears that affidavits and other documents have been signed by persons who did not have personal knowledge of the facts asserted in the documents.
In addition, it appears that many affidavits were signed outside of the presence of a notary public, contrary to state law. This process of signing documents without confirming their accuracy has come to be known as “robo-signing.”
The Department of the Attorney General and the Office of Consumer Protection believe such a process may constitute a deceptive act and/or an unfair practice or otherwise violate state laws.
To handle this issue in the most efficient and consistent manner possible, a bi-partisan multistate group has been formed to address issues common to a large number of states. The group is composed of state attorneys general and state bank and mortgage regulators. Currently 49 state attorneys general have joined this coordinated multistate effort.
State bank and mortgage regulators are participating both individually and through their Multistate Mortgage Committee, which represents mortgage regulators from all 50 states.
In Hawaii, the Office of Consumer Protection is investigating the conduct of the lenders and their servicers. The multistate group has begun inquiring whether individual mortgage servicers have improperly submitted affidavits or other documents in support of a foreclosure in our states. The facts uncovered in our review will dictate the scope of our inquiry. A list of the participating states is attached below.
For more information, contact: Stephen Levins Bridget Holthus Executive Director Special Assistant to the Attorney General Office of Consumer Protection Department of the Attorney General Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs (808) 586-1284 (808) 586-2636 bridget.holthus@hawaii.gov ocp@dcca.hawaii.gov www.hawaii.gov/ag www.hawaii.gov/dcca/ocp