More than 14,000 Floridians will receive checks totaling more than $16 million this week as a result of the national Ocwen mortgage settlement, Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi’s office announced.
In December, Ocwen agreed to a $2.1 billion settlement that stemmed from a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau investigation into its servicing practices.
Claim forms were sent to more than 26,000 Florida residents who lost their homes at the end of June.
Now the checks are finally being distributed to eligible consumers who lost their homes to foreclosure between 2009 and 2012. Each check is for approximately $1,150 per claim.
The Florida AG played a key role in helping negotiate the $125 million settlement between Ocwen and the attorneys general of 49 states, state banking regulators and the federal CFPB.
The lawsuit alleged that Ocwen signed foreclosure-related documents outside the presence of a notary public and without personal knowledge that the facts contained in the documents were correct. Ocwen also allegedly committed various errors and abuses in their mortgage servicing processes.
Checks are expected to arrive in the mail this week, and the number of eligible claims submitted determined the amount of payment for each claim.