A written approval, a servicing transfer, and a payoff that still doesn't add up
A Michigan homeowner is suing mortgage servicers Mr. Cooper and Shellpoint, alleging they mishandled his loan assumption, botched his payoff, and damaged his credit.
The suit, filed July 6 in federal court in Michigan's Eastern District, centers on a mortgage account that changed servicers while an assumption the borrower says had already been approved was still unfinished.
The story starts with an inheritance. After an estate process, the borrower set out to assume an existing mortgage on his home in West Bloomfield. The original note, dated April 9, 2013, carried a principal of $226,956.00, a fixed rate of 3.125 percent, and a monthly payment of $1,772.18. He says he filed his assumption paperwork and kept following up with Nationstar - the servicer operating as Mr. Cooper - through late 2022 and into 2023.
The approval came, he says, on May 4, 2023, when Nationstar issued a written record reading "Simple Assumption Approved." He says he completed and returned the related documents. But the process stalled. On July 10, 2023, Nationstar notified him that servicing would move to NewRez - Shellpoint - effective August 1. The approved assumption, he alleges, was never finished before that handoff, and afterward the assumption, estate, and title issues all remained open.
What followed, according to the filing, was a year of mixed signals. He alleges NewRez treated him as a successor party while the assumption stayed unresolved, and that his payment history and loss-mitigation review were not handled accurately or clearly. His timeline in court papers reads like a loop: applications flagged complete around June 23, July 28, and August 28, 2025; denials around August 22 and September 18; a Trial Period Plan dated September 23 calling for three payments of $3,208.35; and a reported October 3 notice that a modification had been approved.
The payoff numbers are where he draws the sharpest line. A February 25, 2025 quote put the balance at $31,773.09. Yet at an October 2025 closing, the suit says, $43,130.62 went to NewRez to clear the account, and account records reflect a total clearance of about $44,453.47. Inside that figure sits $25,541.50 tagged as an "escrow-only payment" - a charge the borrower says the servicer has never fully itemized or explained.
He alleges the old loan was finally cleared through high-cost financing in late October or early November 2025, and that the servicing failures helped push him toward that costlier route.
The borrower says he then sent written notices of error and information requests in May 2026, sending the Shellpoint notice by certified mail, and that NewRez answered but did not hand over the full servicing file, ledger, and corrective explanation he wanted. He also says he disputed the mortgage reporting through Experian in 2026, and that one or both servicers failed to investigate the dispute properly once notified.
His legal claims track that sequence. Against Nationstar, he brings breach-of-contract and promissory-estoppel claims over the assumption approval. Against NewRez, he brings three RESPA and Regulation X counts covering notices of error, information requests, and loss mitigation. And he brings an FCRA furnisher-investigation count against both. His stated damages framework is $59,233.62, subject to proof. He is representing himself and has asked for a jury.
None of these allegations has been tested, and no judge has ruled on any of the claims.
