Kemper Mortgage, Inc. - Retail

Based on information we have coming in from a number of sources, it appears Miamisburg, OH based Kemper Mortgage, Inc. may be near collapse. Although their web site is down, you can still view an archived copy here. Said one email to us, "they have laid off most of their staff, closed two offices, and are rumored to have lost their warehouse lines with Suntrust and Flagstar. Colonial National also cut them off."

An Ohio AE we spoke with told us their headquarter's office had gone from some 40 loan officers down to 4, and mentioned that on a recent visit it appeared "the staff were curiously digging through all the files." We got similar reports of the Tempe, AZ office. Another (former) employee wrote:

"They take an appraisal hold back from loan officers upon hiring -- $600.00 out of the first two commission checks, just in case the loan officer resigns and owes money on appraisals... They went from 25 loan officers in the Tempe office to 4 and a lot of those loan officers are not being paid their appraisal money."

A class action lawsuit (pdf) was filed on behalf of employees against Kemper Mortgage, Inc. on 2008-05-12 for "non-payment of overtime and failure to provide meal and rest periods." It was removed to the U.S. District Court on June 16th, and a hearing has been set for September 5th. The complaint states "the class consists of over 200 employees called "loan officers" employed throughout the United States" and notes "over 30" are believed to have been employed in Nevada. In subsequent filings relevant to the case, it is estimated damages if awarded, would exceed $5 million.

On another legal front, Colonial National Mortgage filed suit against Kemper Mortgage, Inc. on 2008-04-21 demanding the repurchase of five loans funded under their warehouse lending agreement for alleged fraud. You can view the case (as amended 2008-06-05) here (pdf). A "Notice of voluntary case dismissal" (pdf) was filed by Colonial just yesterday, August 6th. Public records do not identify a reason for the withdrawal. Our call to Colonial's legal counsel was not immediately returned.

Volume info and a headcount of all employees was not readily available at the time of this writing. Kemper Mortgage, Inc. appeared to have six branch offices scattered among the states of AZ, CO, FL, IL and NV according to CityTownInfo.com.

Contact us with any additional information you can provide on this company.