Consumer Protection Legal Services aka The Law Offices of Gary Lane, hired or contracted two non-attorney companies by the name of Homeowners Assistance Inc., and First Housing Of America to prepare and negotiate loan modifications on their behalf. These companies had their real estate licences revoked by the CA. Dept. Of Real Estate due to law violations in regards to advance fee agreements, and violations of various other Real Estate laws. HOA and FHOA had numerous complaints from customers for not rendering services that was paid for and promised in regards to loan modifications.
In order to stay in business as a Foreclosure Consultant and offer Gary Lane expertise in this field, as well as generate new business for him, HOA and FHOA entered into a business contract with Gary Lane. Attorneys were exempt from collecting advance fees, and the lucrative business of loan modifications proved to be very profitable for him. Gary Lane charged clients high advance retainer fees, knowing that his clients had already received Notices Of Default, Foreclosure Notices, and Notices Of Trustee Sales.
The scope of legal services that Gary Lane will provide at an additional cost is forensic loan audits, which the retainer agreement specifically states will be performed in the initial fee. He claims it would be used as leverage to get the lender to modify your loan, but only another way to make more money on advance fees for doing nothing for you. These services do little if anything to modify your loan or stop a foreclosure.
Gary Lane, HOA, and FHOA, made claims that they had a 95% success rate. They shared stories of clients who they have helped stop foreclosures, get low interest rates, get principal balances reduced, get past due mortgage payments forgiven or put on the back of the loan, get forensic loan audits to use as leverage for loan mods., and get lawsuits that got loan notes rescinded. I was told they could do the same for me, and I paid Gary Lane an advance retainer fee of 3,995.00 to retain his services. After calling their office on several occasions for a status on my loan mod., and my calls being routed to different extensions and voicemails, they told me they didn't have an updated status from my lender. I was told this every time I called. Eventually they did not provide the services that I paid for or keep the promises they made. My loan was not modified, and my home continued to go through foreclosure. Gary Lane did not prepare are negotiate my loan mod., nor provide the services agreed to in the retainer agreement. I did not receive any phone calls or correspondence from him. When I contacted his office I could not speak to him or any other attorneys. Because of the new law that was enacted in October that states, it is unlawful to collect advance fees before a loan mod. Is given by the lender, Gary Lane, HOA and FHOA decided that it will no longer be profitable for them to do loan mods., since they could not charge the high advance fees even if they did absolutely nothing. Gary Lane has now permanently employed many of the employees of HOA and FHOA, including the President and Principal Officer, Pepi Abad. The firm's chief objective now is to once again become the lucrative business it once was, by soliciting clients and giving them false hope and false information to again charge high advance retainer fees for forensic loan audits that do little or nothing to help the homeowner save their home or restructure their mortgage.
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