TCPA Suit vs. LoanDepot Is 28th Filed vs. Mortgage Lender Since May 2014
LoanDepot “incessantly” placed telemarketing calls to the cellphone of plaintiff Kristi Hull despite not having the “appropriate form of consent” to call her, and notwithstanding that her number was listed on the national do not call registry since August 2012,…
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alleged Hull’s Telephone Consumer Protection Act complaint Monday (docket 1:23-cv-02567) in U.S. District Court for Colorado in Denver. She brought the case against loanDepot “to protect her privacy rights, namely the right to be left alone from unwanted telemarketing phone calls,” said her complaint. Nearly 38 billion robocalls were placed in the U.S. in the first eight months of 2023 alone, said the complaint, citing YouMail’s Robocall Index. The TCPA’s private right of enforcement “is critical to stopping the proliferation of these unwanted telemarketing calls,” it said, suggesting the FCC isn’t the most effective deterrent. Citing media reports, the complaint said the FCC levied more than $200 million in civil penalties against robocalling telemarketers between 2015 and 2018, but it collected less than $7,000. Beginning around June 6, and continuing at least through July 3, Hull estimates she received at least 50 prerecorded voice calls on her phone from loanDepot, said her complaint. The calls were for the purpose of requesting “just a few pieces of critical information necessary” to complete Hull’s recent mortgage refinance application, it said. But Hull never submitted a mortgage refinance application, or any type of loan application, to loanDepot, it said. She believes the calls really “were merely a way to solicit business” from her, said the complaint. On information and belief, discovery may reveal that loanDepot placed more than 50 calls to Hull’s phone, and did so without her “prior express written consent, or any form of consent,” it said. Hull “never had a prior existing business relationship” with loanDepot “before receiving these incessant and unwanted calls,” it said. LoanDepot “knew or had reason to know” Hull’s number was listed on the national DNC registry, “yet incessantly called her” anyway, it said. The calls were “harassing, irritating, invasive and annoying,” it said. She seeks treble damages of up to $1,500 for each knowing and willful violation of the TCPA. Court records show Hull’s lawsuit is the 28th TCPA action filed against loanDepot since May 2014.