Six years ago, former Attorney General Martha Coakley launched an investigation into Newton-based foreclosure firm Harmon Law Offices PC, concerned it was violating certain eviction and foreclosure laws.
Last spring, the new Attorney General Maura Healey quietly settled the case without the company admitting to, or the office finding, any wrongdoing. Still, Harmon agreed to make a $66,500 donation to the state’s Local Consumer Aid Fund, according to the settlement document obtained by the New England Center for Investigative Reporting.
The Attorney General’s office released the agreement after a request from NECIR. “The settlement agreement resolves all of our claims and our investigation into those claims,’’ the office said in a statement.
The case first gained attention in 2010 when Harmon Law – one of the state’s largest firms specializing in foreclosures -- sought court protection to stop or modify the attorney general’s efforts to seek legal documents. Coakley was looking to see if Harmon and others failed to comply with a then new Massachusetts law that protects tenants living in foreclosed homes from being evicted. The state also was looking at whether Harmon disregarded a court order requiring it to notify the state before initiating foreclosure on homeowners with mortgages originating with the now defunct Fremont Investment & Loan, a California firm Coakley sued for predatory lending practices.
In 2009, Coakley settled with Fremont requiring the company to pay $10 million to the state and not to foreclose on unfair loans without certain protections for homeowners.
Mark Harmon, the company’s chairman, declined to comment on the settlement. His office issued a short statement, saying it was “notified last spring that the investigation into Fremont was concluded.” In the settlement, the firm also agreed to abide by state law when evicting tenants from foreclosed homes.
John L. O’ Brien, head of the Southern Essex District Registry of Deeds in Salem, said he was disappointed by the settlement. He said he is worried that Harmon Law is “robosigning” records -- or signing multiple property-related records without reading them. His office refuses to accept housing-related documents from Andrew Harmon, a managing partner, out of concerns that they may be falsified. O’Brien told NECIR that he reviewed multiple documents with different versions of Andrew Harmon’s signature, believing other people signed his name, and put him on a list of alleged “robosigners,’’ at the registry. Harmon declined to comment on O’Brien’s allegations.
“Another sweep under the rug,’’ O’Brien said about the settlement.
Since 2010, the state Office of the Attorney General has received 110 complaints against Harmon.
