Wells Fargo has agreed to pay $50 million to a class of more than 250,000 mortgage holders to settle claims that the bank improperly marked up fees for third-party home appraisals following loan defaults in California.
The complaint alleged that although the mortgage agreements allowed Wells Fargo to charge borrowers for getting broker price opinions (“BPO’s”) from third-party real estate brokers, Wells Fargo secretly charged more for the BPOs than the bank paid for them. A BPO is an informal type of home appraisal prepared by a real estate broker that a lender will typically demand once a borrower defaults on a residential loan.
The case is Latara Bias, et al., v. Wells Fargo & Co., et al., case number 4:12-cv-00664, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.