Consumer complaint received 2017-08-31
Product: Mortgage — Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Struggling to pay mortgage — 
Company: KEYCORP (NY)

Key Bank has charged unspecified " Assess Attorney 's Fees '' for an account that it has arbitrarily deemed to be " in foreclosure, '' starting, I believe, in XX/XX/XXXX, although Key Bank has not served legal papers. In my opinion, in accordance with CFPB regulatory interpretation of Dodd-Frank that prohibits " predatory servicing, '' this is the proper course of action because there is still substantial equity in the home. Key Bank is a nationally regulated bank regulated by the CFPB, such that the CFPB has regulatory responsibility to enforce Key Bank 's compliance with state law. New York State Law CPLR 3408 prohibits the charging of attorney 's fees for the bank 's required participation in a mediation conference at the beginning of the foreclosure process, during any loss mitigation efforts or if, in the opinion of the court, the bank is not negotiating " in good faith. '' Heretofore, for about a year, Key Bank has refused to participate in mediation as provided free of charge by the New York State Attorney General ; specify a bank employee negotiator ; specify any negotiator until XX/XX/XXXX when it specified its outside counsel, XXXX XXXX XXXX, who has yet to respond to my request at the beginning of the month for a teleconference ; nor has it offered any loss mitigation other than a payment in lieu of foreclosure while refusing to pay for the substantial equity in the home. Under these set of facts, I believe no reasonable XXXX court would allow attorney 's fees until after the settlement conference and any loss mitigation efforts have been explored and applied. Moreover, the original loan contract allows for the collection of reasonable attorney 's fees but only through the due process of a legal proceeding, where the mortgagee would have notice for what the fees are being charged and the opportunity to be heard, not as unspecified ad hoc fees assessed before foreclosure. 

Attached are copies of several of the most interesting of these monthly bills ; others starting in XXXX often have bills have an unspecified {$15.00} " XXXX Attorney 's Fees. '' The consequences of assessing attorney 's fees prematurely is the attempted denial of XXXX Process to the mortgagor extremely important in cases where the mortgagor defaults or does not receive service and the acceleration of the allowable date for foreclosure by burning off equity, in utter predatory fashion. 

I would also point out that New York XXXX 's court rules now require lawyers involved in debt collection to warrant, as a matter of professional conduct, that the existence and the amount of any debt collected in the XXXX of New York is valid. 

Because I believe Key Bank is not accommodating NYS law in its computerized statement generation, I think CFPB should investigate ; this situation affects all New York XXXX borrowers in default and deemed by Key Bank alone to be " in foreclosure. '' Attached are also the texts of XXXX emails XXXX so I do not have to send them as paper filings, I have copied them to a XXXX XXXX file ). The contents of the emails speak for themselves ; I simply call to the CFPB 's attention that these emails were sent to XXXX XXXX, Key Bank CEO, XXXX XXXX, Senior VP and Manager of Consumer Debt Collection and Key Bank 's specified workout negotiator, its outside counsel, XXXX XXXX. 

I have received no responses to these emails in any form of communication.