Is this trend a total disregard for the courts, mortgage fraud, or just oppressive tactics? O. Max Gardner III, a lawyer in North Carolina who represents troubled borrowers, says that he routinely sees lenders pursue borrowers for additional money after their bankruptcies have been discharged and the courts have determined that the default has been cured and borrowers are current. It seems like violation of federal court orders to most people, but it happens more often than you might think. Here is one example:

After meeting her mortgage obligations under the 60-month bankruptcy plan, a woman’s case was discharged and officially closed on March 9, 2007. Countrywide, the servicer on her loan, did not object to the discharge; court records from that date show she was current on her mortgage. But one month later, she received a notice of intention to foreclose from Countrywide, stating that she was in default and owed the company $4,166.

Court records show that the amount claimed by Countrywide was from the period during which she was making regular payments under the auspices of the bankruptcy court. They included “monthly charges” totaling $3,840 from November 2006 to April 2007, late charges of $128 and other charges of almost $200.

A lawyer representing the woman in her bankruptcy case, Kenneth Steidl, of Steidl and Steinberg in Pittsburgh, wrote Countrywide a few weeks later stating that his client had been deemed current on her mortgage during the period in question. But in May, Countrywide sent her another notice stating that her loan was delinquent and demanding that she pay $4,715.58.