Does Section 8(b) apply to the “mark-up” of a third party’s charge?
Two recent district court decisions have agreed with HUD that Section 8(b) is violated when a party, without providing any real services, “marks up” the charge of another settlement service provider and retains the difference. In Martinez v. Weyerhauser Mortgage Co., the court concluded that a lender who charged a borrower $65 for courier fees, but was only able to produce receipts from couriers that totaled $56.25, may have violated RESPA with regard to the “unaccounted for courier fee of $8.75.”/`12 In McCulloch v. Great Western Bank, the court denied the bank’s motion to dismiss a complaint alleging that the bank had violated Section 8(b) by charging the plaintiff borrower $50 for a credit report when the credit reporting agency had invoiced the bank only $13.50 for the report. In support of its decision, the court cited a HUD Web site of answers to frequently asked RESPA questions in which HUD stated that it would be a violation of Section 8(b) for a lender to collect an appraisal
