A resident of Westmont Ill, has filed a lawsuit seeking class action status against Wells Fargo & Co of San Francisco, alleging that the company failed to accurately assess the values of its customers' homes when it decided to reduce associated home equity credit lines.
Michael Hickman alleges that he had secured a $75,000 home equity line of credit from Wells Fargo in May of 2006, however in October 2008 he was informed by the company that his line of credit had been reduced to $31,039.83. This, according to Hickman, is in violation of a federal law which prohibits lenders from reducing home equity credit lines without first having either assessed the value of the property or, for some other reason, suspended or reduced the credit line.