Question: OK, what do you do when the loan company changes your address to an address you never lived at. Then for a year sends letters to this wrong address and then puts your loan in default because they claim they could not contact you. NOTE: the loan company never received any information from the student to change his address. The last loan they had on the student has his correct address. The student was still in school while the company was sending letters to an address he never gave them, also the student worked at the school during this time. The student has just finished school and found out about the defaulted loans when he went to change banks and the bank did a credit check and told him about the defaulted loans. His student loans should not be due until July 2003. Anybody know a good lawyer in the Washington DC area. The student can not get the loan company to take the loan back because they keep telling him he should had told them where he was and it is all his fault he is in default. He can not get the Dept of Ed to understand he did not move they changed his address by mistake. The loan company does not understand THEY made a mistake. HELP!

Answer: This is an interesting quandary that you are in… I have heard of this happening quite frequently before but that was in the late 80’s and early 90’s… And those lenders and billing servicers are out of business now. In representing borrowers in a default prevention program – I (we) was successful in working with the guaranty agency to force the lender to repurchase loans when default claims were paid and the lender or their billing servicer did not service the loan properly. Sometimes we were successful a full year after the default claim payment.

One weakness in the arguments that you presented is the line that follows: :| >The last loan they had on the student has his correct address. That may be the case – but what was the address on the loans prior to the last loan… Just because you provide a new address on a new loan – doesn’t mean that they lender has to change it… Address changes come directly from you.

Do you have the lender’s servicing history on the loan??? Ask for it, you may get it. Could the lender at one time have received mail return from the address you never left?

An argument that the lender is going to fall back on is that your promissory places the burden of communication on you and not them… So, because you signed the note thereby stating you understood all the terms and conditions, you knew you had to repay them either during school or after you left school… And because it take a full year to default on a student loan – they are going to claim it is still you fault…

If your claim is true – ask the school for help. Your Financial Aid Director – even the Bursar (business officer), most likely, has very high level contacts with the guaranty agency, ED and the lender – Call them to the plate and ask for their help.

Sorry – but I do not know any good lawyers in the DC area that can help you… But there are lots of them. I don’t think you have to go down this path yet. There are plenty of people at the Guaranty Agency and ED that can and will help you. With that being said – you should be able to find relief at the Ombudsman’s office – go to http://www.ed.gov/ and search for the Ombudsman’s page

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