Reverse Mortgage Companies Sued by 95-Year-Old Homeowner

A 95-year-old woman is suing a pair of reverse mortgage companies for levying excessive fees on her after her home fell into foreclosure.

According to a report from The Eye, Retha Floyd of Washington, D.C., faced foreclosure in 2012 after falling behind on less than $2,000 in property taxes and insurance payments. In her lawsuit, Floyd charged that Texas-based Nationstar Mortgage and Michigan-based Compu-Link began to demand property inspections on her property. Floyd claims that more than 30 property inspections took place, sometimes two or three times a month, and she alleges the fees associated with these inspections expanded her existing mortgage debt.

Although she saved her home after successfully negotiating a new payment plan, she is now seeking class-action status for her lawsuit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, against Nationstar and Compu-Link.

"Defendants use automated software to order and/or conduct repeated, unreasonable, and unnecessary 'property inspections' with the effect of maximizing fee income and cheating borrowers who can least afford it," the suit said.

Floyd is represented in her case by Legal Counsel for the Elderly, an affiliate of the senior advocacy group AARP, the Boston-based National Consumer Law Center and the Washington-based law firm Tycko & Zavareei. Nationstar and Compu-Link did not publicly comment on the lawsuit.