Can foreclosure be eliminated from your credit if you find out that you were paying on a loan that had a bogus appraisal?

Answer 1

To get it off the report, you'd need to get the foreclosing lender to retract the information and it is highly unlikely the lender will voluntarily do that. If you would not have purchased the property except for a fraudulent or inaccurate appraisal, you may have grounds to rescind the purchase transaction, or sue to recover money or get other relief from the court depending on your state laws. You really do need to get advice from a real estate attorney in your local area. An attorney could review the facts to determine likely defendants of legal action, such as the lender, appraiser, real estate brokers and agents. Timing is also relevant whenever considering legal action, so talk to an attorney immediately. If too much time has gone by since the problem occurred, you might not be permitted to sue. If the purchase was rescinded, then sending a copy of the court order rescinding the transaction to the credit bureaus should be sufficient to get the foreclosure information deleted from the report. If not, a separate court order could compel them to remove it. My answer assumes that the appraisal amount is SIGNIFICANTLY inflated. If the appraisal figure was only slightly high, a court might conclude differently. If the appraisal was fabricated but the valuation was reasonable, the court might not invalidate the purchase. In other words, had a legitimate appraisal been done and the valuation amount would have come in at about the same number, the court may conclude that you would have proceeded with the transaction anyway. Well, good luck.