An Implied Cause of Action Under the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act

John and Janet lived for most of their early years together in a townhouse in Manhattan. It was a rental, a two-story walk-up on the Upper West Side with barely enough room for the two of them, and it ate up most of their income so that they were barely able to save anything. "Wait a minute," John said one day, "we're paying almost as much for this dump as we'd pay for a mortgage on a nice house!" So the two of them looked over their finances. Not much there.

A few thousand and a 401(k) at Janet's work. So John and Janet went to a bank - the Shady Bros. Mortgage & Loan, up in Westchester. They were going to need a mortgage loan.