A class action lawsuit has accused PNC Bank of discrimination, asserting the lender uses “pretextual reasons” to deny loan modifications to Black borrowers.
On May 3, attorney Sheryl Ring, of McHenry, filed suit in Cook County Circuit Court against PNC Bank N.A.
According to the complaint, DeOlive Fisher is the owner of a house in Evanston, which she purchased as a home for her daughter, Pier, and son-in-law, Anthony Frost. Gia Fisher is also DeOlive’s daughter, and held financial power of attorney for her mother, according to the complaint.
The plaintiffs seek to expand their lawsuit to include a class of potentially hundreds of additional plaintiffs, identified as Black homeowners in Illinois who may have been denied loan modifications by PNC, allegedly over pretextual reasons, since May 2020, possibly leading to home foreclosure actions.
According to the complaint, PNC “services thousands of loans” in Illinois, including to the approximately 15% of the state’s population who are Black.
According to the complaint, PNC Bank has filed more than 100 foreclosure actions since January 2020 in Cook County. According to Census estimates, nearly a quarter of all Cook County residents are Black.
The complaint centers on actions PNC allegedly took to deny a loan modification to the Fishers for the Evanston property.
The complaint alleges PNC moved to foreclose on the mortgage for the Evanston property in January 2020. That action was stalled, however, following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and a resulting order from the federal government, slapping a moratorium on evictions and foreclosures, as part of the official response to the pandemic.
Those orders further required lenders regulated by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to offer loan modifications to homeowners at risk of foreclosure.
In October 2020, PNC allegedly extended an offer for a conditional loan modification to DeOlive Fisher. That offer was boosted to a permanent loan modification in January 2021.
According to the complaint, Gia Fisher, acting as DeOlive’s power of attorney, allegedly signed the required documents and sent them to PNC. However, the complaint alleges PNC then demanded proof of Gia Fisher’s power of attorney.
According to the complaint, Gia Fisher then allegedly provided PNC with the requested legal form appointing her as power of attorney. PNC, however, repeatedly claimed she did not provide this form, even though she allegedly sent the form by certified mail, and personally dropped off the form at a PNC bank branch.
PNC allegedly ultimately denied the loan modification in April, and said it was again referring their mortgage loan for foreclosure.
The complaint asserts PNC’s actions are the result of a “pattern and practice” that “violates the Fair Housing Act,” of using “pretextual reasons to deny Black homeowners loan modifications, such as falsely stating that they did not receive certain paperwork.”
The complaint accuses PNC of violating the federal Fair Housing Act; Illinois’ consumer fraud law; and the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act.
The complaint seeks unspecified damages, plus attorney fees.