During the summer of 2016, the Mortgage Banking Association (MBA) petitioned the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to have certain mortgage servicing calls exempt from the autodialer regulations in the TCPA. In the petition, the MBA argued that mortgage servicers are responsible for contacting borrowers and gathering important and urgent data. Some of this correspondence has time-sensitive implications, such as gathering missing documentation, finding out whether a borrower has abandoned a property, or identifying financial circumstances.
The FCC recently responded to the MBA and denied the petition, saying that the consumers’ right to privacy is more important than the ease of making autodialed calls. “We find the public interest in and the need for the timely delivery of the calls described by MBA do not justify setting aside a consumer’s privacy interests in favor of an exemption”, stated the FCC in its response.
Their response also recommends that Mortgage Companies explore new methods of obtaining express written consent in order to make calls to borrowers using autodialers. An example would be to get the consent on the original mortgage application itself.