Foreclosure Industry Says It’ll Do a Better Job of Screening Its Workers After Widespread Break-Ins
After hundreds of lawsuits and thousands of complaints, banks are finally pushing for reform in one of the darkest corners of the housing market. Under new guidelines expected to be adopted this year by most of the industry, the workers that watch over millions of homes in default or foreclosure will be subject to heightened levels of background checks.
The measures are meant to screen out people convicted of a criminal offense, such as theft or fraud. They follow widespread allegations, first reported by The Huffington Post, that the handymen and home inspectors that banks hire to look after vacant properties are breaking into still-occupied homes, and looting them of valuables. Some of these people, who work indirectly for the banks through a web of contracting companies, have lengthy criminal records.
“The intent is to give communities a high level of confidence that the people walking around in homes are not going to cause problems,” said Eric Miller, the executive director of the National Association of Mortgage Field Services, the trade association that helped design the new standards.
The new screening requirements mark the most significant effort by the mortgage industry to date to crack down on abuses that have resulted in a wave of unflattering media coverage, hundreds of consumer lawsuits and a case brought by the Illinois attorney general against Safeguard Properties, the biggest player in the industry.
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