Harrell v. Freedom Mortgage Corp.
The Bureau filed an amicus brief addressing how to interpret the term “servicer,” as defined in RESPA and its implementing regulation, in the common event that the right to service a consumer’s mortgage loan is sold or transferred between companies. The brief argued that a company that acquired all rights to service a mortgage loan and began collecting borrower payments on the loan was a “servicer” of the loan under RESPA, with a responsibility to ensure timely payments from the borrower’s escrow account. This was true even though the servicer had arranged by contract for another entity to assist in servicing the loan.