AARP provided a more insight this week into a lawsuit filed by the organization on behalf of non-borrowing spouses of reverse mortgage borrowers. Through a blog post on AARP’s website, Drexel University Law Professor Lisa McElroy, who also comments in the press regularly on legal topics, recapped the issues brought forth by the suit.
A previous related suit filed against the Department of Housing and Urban Development and won by two plaintiffs in late 2013 AARP was viewed as “great news,” McElroy writes.
“Now, AARP Foundation Litigation has filed a class-action suit on behalf of all widowed homeowners who were harmed by HUD’s reverse mortgage policy — one that caused many of them hardship when mortgage lenders foreclosed on their homes,” she explains.
Non-borrowing spouses whose names were either not on the home title to begin with or whose names were removed from the home title some time before the reverse mortgage closed, are facing undue harm, and all of those spouses should receive protection from HUD against foreclosure, AARP claims in its suit against HUD.
The suit could encompass a “multitude” of borrowers, McElroy writes, citing input from AARP Litigation Foundation attorney Jean Constantine-Davis who says it is likely that “thousands of widows and widowers are affected by this legal resolution.”
The class action, AARP says, will help as many as possible.
HUD had not replied to a request for comment as of press time.
Written by Elizabeth Ecker
