Foreclosure Consultant Targeted

An Orange County Superior Court judge has frozen the assets of a Garden Grove foreclosure consultant after homeowners alleged that the company had conned them, the state attorney general’s office announced Thursday.

The assets of Marc Sheckler, the company’s president and attorney, also were frozen, officials said.

The court order “says nothing about my client ceasing to do business,” Karin Easter Gurwell, the attorney for Housing Assistance Services Inc., said Thursday. She disputed the state’s contention that the firm’s assets have been frozen, saying the company can continue to pay its rent and employees and use its equipment.

She also said the company was “sandbagged” by the state. “They went in, filed all their paperwork, they didn’t give us a copy ... the first we heard about it was the temporary restraining order application.”

Gurwell said company officials were unaware of the number of complaints the state said had been lodged against the firm, adding that she knew of only three. “My client has and will continue to obey all laws,” Gurwell said.

The firm has been under investigation since May on suspicion of having violated California’s Mortgage Foreclosure Consultant Act, said Tom Dresslar, a spokesman for the attorney general’s office.

Homeowners, some from out of state, filed “dozens” of complaints with the attorney general’s office and the Better Business Bureau, Dresslar said, contending they had been charged but had not received promised services.

According to Dresslar, no foreclosure consultant is allowed to accept money from clients until the terms of the contract have been fulfilled. “In this case,” he said, Housing Assistance Services is taking “$1,250 up front -- that’s a clear violation of the law.”

The company, Dresslar said, also charged clients separate fees for bogus services associated with its Fresh Start Program, which it says helps homeowners negotiate a loan modification or forbearance with their mortgage lenders. A “reinstatement processing fee,” he said, is a charge the company issues for completed services.

“They have ripped off consumers in highly vulnerable positions,” Dresslar said.

The attorney general’s office is seeking at least $2 million in civil penalties, as well as restitution for alleged victims.

The state also hopes to ban Sheckler and Housing Assistance Services from operating in California.

The parties are scheduled to meet in court Sept. 3 over whether the temporary restraining order should be made permanent.