What do I do if Nationstar is showing up on my credit report but I don’t have a mortgage in my name. It’s in my spouse’s name only.
“What do I do if Nationstar is showing up on my credit report but I don’t have a mortgage in my name. It’s in my spouse’s name only.”
This is something that we see quite often. It’s when a mortgage company, for example, NationStar, gets a loan and they will start collecting against you even if you are not on the loan.
I’ll use myself as an example. If my wife is the only one on the note, the note is the debt and that is tied to the dirt, or the property, by the mortgage. Now, we say, “I need to make my mortgage payment.” If we were being technically correct, we would say, “I need to make my note payment.”
But let’s assume that only my wife is on the note. I’m not on the note at all. But suddenly on my credit report, Nationstar is reporting that I owe the debt. Or they are sending me collection letters saying, “Hey, John. You owe this debt.” But you see, I don’t owe the debt.
So what do I do?
Normally when a company like Nationstar gets the debt, the question is: was that loan in default when Nationstar first touched it.
The answer is almost always yes. When this is true then Nationstar is a debt collector and they’re subject to the FDCPA, Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.
So, what does that law provide? What does it give to you? It tells debt collectors like Nationstar, “You better not lie. You better not do anything unfair or harassing.”
OK let’s think this through. If I’m not even on the note and I don’t owe any money, then if Nationstar is saying I owe them money, that’s a lie. That’s unfair.
Certainly, the note, the contract does not say, “Oh by the way, you can report this or collect against people who don’t owe the debt.” Of course it doesn’t say that!
Is it harassing for Nationstar to collect against someone who doesn’t owe the money? Absolutely!
Saying that you’re going to going to destroy your credit report, send harassing letters, and make harassing phone calls to someone is awful.
Especially when that person doesn’t owe you any money.
I don’t know how else you would describe it other than as unfair, untrue and harassing.
So, what’s the solution?
There’s a couple of ways that you can solve this.
One, you can dispute through the credit bureaus.
Many times, a company like Nationstar won’t remove this from your credit report, but if you go directly to the credit bureaus – Equifax, Experian, TransUnion – sometimes they will.
Even if Nationstar doesn’t want them to.
Although, usually they’ll do whatever Nationstar will tell them to do because the credit reporting agencies focus on their paying customers like Nationstar, not you.
The other approach is to say, “You know, we’re just going to sue Nationstar under the FDCPA,” because the FDCPA prohibits:
- false credit reporting,
- false debt collection and
- harassing or unfair conduct
How else do you describe the conduct of Nationstar or a similar mortgage company?
Usually, that is the best approach.
Because when you sue these companies like a Nationstar (there’s plenty of others that do this as well but our question is on Nationstar) they tend to suddenly go, “Wait, wait, wait, wait. We’ll fix this problem, and leave you alone. We’ll take care of your credit reporting and now how much do we need to pay you?”
But if you just call them, if you just write them letters, a lot of times they’re just like, “No. That’s not gonna do it. We’re not gonna make a change.” They don’t fix it and they don’t compensate you.
However, when you sue them, and they get that lawsuit in their hands, suddenly now they’re very interested to at least try to make things right. The question is: will they pay the right amount of money? When they know they have been caught, and sued in federal court, sometimes they become apologetic. Other times they “double down” and still argue but either way is fine.
If you’re dealing with Nationstar, Ocwen, Selene, SLS, Bank of America, whoever the company is and they are reporting on your credit report and they’re coming after you for a loan that you’re not even on, you need to take some very serious and usually immediate action to make sure that that gets fixed now.
In the future, that company will remember, “Oh yeah, don’t do false credit reporting on the spouse who doesn’t owe anything!” So that’s usually the right solution.
If you have experienced this with Nationstar or some other mortgage company, and you live in Alabama, give us a call at 205-879-2447 or contact us through our website and we’ll get right back with you.
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