Consumer Law In the News
SC Class Action Filed Against Manufactured Home Lender
Mobile and manufactured housing industry participants have gotten a bad rap, as a group. Is it deserved? While I’m loathe to draw parallels and sweeping condemnations, the fact remains, as this article 10 days ago from The Sun News shows, two class action suits have been filed against such a lender - Vanderbilt Mortgage and Finance, Inc.
The defendant in the two suits is affiliated with manufacturer Clayton Homes. The actions alleged in the complaints center around harassing contacts with homeowners/customers; also alleged, force insurance purchases that were not legally required to be purchased. This quote from one of the plaintiffs who filed an affidavit in the case is illustrative:
“Vanderbilt began calling my residence immediately after the first day of the month,” Dalbec said in the affidavit. “Vanderbilt would call several times a day.”Dalbec said Vanderbilt representatives “always instilled a sense of urgency in their messages” and said payments had to be made immediately.
“When I returned their calls and told them I would be sending in the payment, it made no difference,” Dalbec said in the affidavit. “They would call again the next day.”
When Vanderbilt couldn’t get Dalbec on the phone, the company’s representatives called Dalbec’s mother in Columbia, according to court documents.
“They contacted my mother on four separate occasions,” Dalbec said in the affidavit. “They also contacted my father-in-law who lives in Columbia, with whom we had not had contact for over two years.”
Of course, third-party contacts (such as calling family members not on the loan, employers, etc.) are heavily regulated and restricted by the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. I’ll try to keep tabs on these suits and keep you updated.
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I also have gotten harrasing phone calls from Vanderbilt Mtg.Co. My payment is due the 17th, on the 23rd they began calling my home, even after I called to tell them my check was mailed on the 19th they continued calling and left nasty messages on my machine, telling me I HAD to give them a phone check and stop payment on my mailed check. I do not know where my check was but they eventually cashed it,I now use auto-pay just so I don’t have to put up with their very rude personnell. My payments had always been on time, usually early and I always paid extra, that is why I was so upset when they treated me this way. When I explained why I was late mailing my check, because I was in the hospital with my small baby, they accused me of lying to them, NOT HAPPY AT ALL!!! In addition I called to change my payment date so all of my bills were not due the same day, I was told to make 2 payments in one month and then start paying on that date from then on. Ha.
Vanderbilt Mortgage needs to be SHUT DOWN!!! I had one of their so called reps tell me to go live in my car. I gave the home up in bankruptcy (it took me a year to file because I tried to hold everything together when my husband lost his job) it was the happiest day of my life to be rid of them. Harassment constantly, forced insurance, you name it. They would call continously 5, 6 and 7 times a day. Always with a tone in their voice, I should pay them first don’t worry about paying the car note and getting back and forth to work. Mind you, this was a second home. I sold it, through a real estate agent, who did so on a “promissory note”, you guessed it, he bailed lowlife B******. I feel better now, everyone should sue Vanderbilt…
I TOO AM HAVING THESE SAME PROBLEMS WITH VANDERBILT. I WOULD LOVE TO JOIN A CLASS ACTION SUIT IF ANYONE HAS INFO ON ONE TO JOIN. THE ONE IN MYRTLE BEACH IS NOT TAKING ANYMORE CLIENTS..THANKS ALOT
I FOUND SOMEONE TO TAKE ON WALMART YEARS AGO SURELY THERE IS NOW SOMEONE WITH BIG BALLS TO TAKE ON VANDERBITL AND HELP ALL THESE PEOPLE LOOSING THEIR HOMES, BUSH SURE ISNT AND I LIKE OTHERS CANT GET OUT FROM THEM I HAVE TRIED THE ONLY GOOD THING ABOUT FORECLOSURE IS THEY STOPPED HARASSING ME DAILY. BU TI DONT WANT TO LOOSE MY HOME SOMEONE PLEASE HELP
I am also having problems with them. Never sure what I owe and the payments/pay off keeps changing (sometimes daily). Can’t get anything in writing. Just you owe us x amount of dollars or we foreclose.
Anybody in Georgia having a class action suit?
klwain2@yahoo.com
My husband works in the oil refineries and during the year of Katrina all oil work was pretty much shut down. Thus our paycheck was shut down. Vanderbilt told me when I was in default of $30 to go to the Red Cross and ask them for assistance. I could not believe the craziness that was coming out of their mouths. And YES the calls were harrassing and non stop. I would love to refinance and get out from under this companies thumb. THey are non caring CORPORATES. I would LOVE to be included in some sort of relief but that isnt going to happen.
I purchase a Home at Clayton Homes, not knowing on the contract that you are charged $16,000.00 for land development and coming to the point that I had to rent a bulldoze to clear the trees they cut down and left a big mess and now to take one person name off the existing contract they want to charge me the original purchase price of the home and have been paying for three years now. Question: where is my equality?????If anyone is experiancing the same situation PLEASE email me at framont4@aol.com, so a class action suite can be filed for Clayton Homes and can’t do it to anyone else.
Are there any class action suits current against Vanderbilt? We live in OK and are having tons of trouble with these people. I have NEVER (and I am 66 years old) been treated as rudely as when attempting to deal with these folks.
Vanderbilt tells me that if my payment isn’t received by the end of the month that it’s due, I’ll be in foreclosure & I’ll have to pay the past due month + the next month + a month in advance + the legal fees. You mean to tell me that when my payment is due on the 8th of the month & I can’t pay by the end of that month I’m into foreclosure???
Definitely check your finance agreement, Joseph! They cannot do anything that the agreement doesn’t authorize - that goes for fees, too (like “month in advance”).