Avoiding Lender-Placed Insurance Fees with attorney Zakiya Watson-Caffe, Esq.

Agnes and Ryan talk with attorney Zakiya Watson-Caffe, who practices in New York and Georgia, about lender-placed insurance, where a mortgage servicer buys coverage on your home after a lapse or a gap and charges you far more than your own policy. She explains escrow, why these policies often cost hundreds or thousands more, what to check, and how Georgia foreclosure differs from New York. She also shares her own mortgage jump from about 1,000 to 1,800 dollars.

Takeaways

• Lender-placed insurance protects the lender's interest, not yours, and usually costs far more than a policy you shop for yourself.
• Build a relationship with an insurance broker and check your policy and lender status once or twice a year so a missed payment does not go unnoticed.
• If your mortgage payment jumps for no clear reason, contact your servicer, your broker and an attorney early, because defaults and credit damage build quickly.

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome and catch-up
• 1:36 Introducing attorney Zakiya Watson-Caffe
• 6:22 What lender-placed insurance is
• 9:33 Why it becomes a problem: the cost
• 14:52 Does lender-placed coverage protect you?
• 17:33 Why would lenders do this
• 21:44 A predatory pattern and foreclosure
• 24:50 Judicial and non-judicial foreclosure
• 26:25 The guest's own mortgage increase
• 35:20 How to spot and prevent it
• 37:26 How to reach the attorney
• 45:17 Wrap-up and where to listen

Conversation and opinion, not medical, legal, tax or financial advice.