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» VISIT US ONLINE @ DSNEWS.COM 89 accusing it of illegally charging excessive fees for property inspections, according to media reports. Judge Otis Wright in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California threw out the suit in late May, ruling that a group of California homeowners' claims against Ocwen amounted to a breach of contract claim but nothing else. e homeowners filed the suit against Ocwen in 2014, accusing the Atlanta-based non-bank mortgage servicer of violating various California state laws as well as federal laws, including the U.S. Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, according to Reuters. e homeowners claim that Ocwen charged them for unnecessary repeat inspec- tions properties where the borrower was either delinquent or in default, and by doing so they claim Ocwen was in violation of Fannie Mae's servicing guidelines that require individual cases to be assessed to determine if the proper- ties are in need of subsequent inspections after the first. In his ruling, Wright said the homeowners could not enforce Fannie Mae's servicing guide- lines because they were not a party to them. Since the homeowners' entire claim depended on those guidelines, without them they had no claim, the judge said. "We are pleased and agree with the decision of the court," Ocwen spokesman John Lovallo said in an email to DS News. e homeowners also accused former Ocw- en chairman Bill Erbey, as a major shareholder in Altisource Portfolio Solutions, the company with which Ocwen contracted to perform the property inspections. e plaintiffs in the suit did not name Erbey as a defendant. Erbey, who founded Ocwen in the mid-1980s, resigned his position with Ocwen in December as part of a $150 million settlement with the New York Department of Financial Services over alleged servicing violations. Colorado RANK: 52 90+ Day Foreclosure Unemployment Delinquency Rate Rate Rate APRIL 2015 0.91% 0.43% 4.2 YEAR AGO 1.24% 0.59% _ YEAR-OVER-YEAR CHANGE -26.7% -27.0% -1.2 Top County HUERFANO COUNTY 90+ Day Foreclosure Delinquency Rate Rate APRIL 2015 0.95% 2.80% YEAR AGO 1.69% 1.23% YEAR-OVER-YEAR CHANGE -43.8% 128.4% Top Core-Based Statistical Area CRAIG, CO 90+ Day Foreclosure Delinquency Rate Rate APRIL 2015 1.94% 1.98% YEAR AGO 1.56% 0.84% YEAR-OVER-YEAR CHANGE 23.9% 135.5% note: The 90+ day delinquecy rate is the percentage of outstanding mortgage loans that are seriously delinquent. The foreclosure rate is the percentage of outstanding mortgage loans currently in foreclosure. State rank is based on the March 2015 foreclosure rate. All fi gures are rounded to the nearest decimal. The unemployment rate refl ects preliminary March 2015 fi gures released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. All other data courtesy of LPS Data & Analytics. IN THE NEWS LenderLive Completes Acquisition of Walz Group Denver-based end-to-end mortgage services provider LenderLive announced that it has acquired regulatory compliance solutions, full- cycle critical document fulfillment, and certified mail automation provider Walz Group. Walz will operate under its existing Walz brand as a standalone division of LenderLive, and the current Walz management team will remain in place, including Rod Walz, founder and president of the company. "Rod and his team have built a world-class operation focused on critical communications, compliance, printing, and certified mail solu- tions," said Rick Seehausen, CEO of Lender- Live. "ey have also developed an impressive array of patented, proprietary technology, and we are confident that Walz will be a highly ben- eficial addition to the LenderLive platform." e Walz Group was founded in 1983 to solve the financial services industry's array of complex compliance requirements and to auto- mate critical correspondence (such as notices of default, correspondence related to loss mitiga- tion, or other service-related correspondence) to borrowers via certified mail. With a deep understating of ever-evolving legal and regula- tory requirements to properly deliver notices of default, Walz currently serves six of the top 10 mortgage servicers and more than a quarter of Fortune 100 corporations. e Walz Group is based in Temecula, California, with satellite facilities in San Diego and Phoenix. "We chose LenderLive and Aquiline Capi- tal Partners for their tremendous experience in mortgage and financial services; their ability to invest in our product and service offerings; and their shared focus on delivering exceptional client service and value," Rod Walz said. "ey will provide us with strategic and financial guidance, expanded resources and technology, as well as increased partnership opportunities." A unique set of end-to-end services and products that will combine compliance, data management, back-end office technologies, and critical document management will be the result of LenderLive's acquisition of Walz. According to the announcement, LenderLive has identified immediate synergies between LenderLive's GuardianDocs product line and the mortgage solutions in loss mitigation and default services used by Walz. "e combined capabilities of Guardian- Docs and Walz will provide elegant solutions to today's complex life-of-loan challenges," Seehausen said. ShortSave Announces Enhancements for Servicer and Borrower Experience Colorado-based award-winning borrower- facing mortgage default servicing system pro- vider ShortSave Inc. has announced upgrades to improve analytics and compliance tracking for servicers and enhance the experience for borrowers. Among the upgrades made by ShortSave to improve the experience for servicers is a suite of dashboard tools enabling servicers to conduct analyses on loans in the default servic- ing pipeline. e tools include status reports based on application status and time-stamped borrower activity in the system. is particular upgrade is critical as far as providing transpar- ence to borrowers and ensuring that ShortSave is in compliance with the Consumer Financial In March 2015, California had the largest improvement of any state from its peak distressed sales share. California's March 2015 distressed sales share of 9.9 percent was 57.6 percentage points lower than its January 2009 peak of 67.5 percent, according to CoreLogic. KNOW THIS

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