Williams v. PHH Mortgage Settlement: Who Qualifies and Payout Amounts

The Williams v. PHH Mortgage settlement is a $1.5 million class action resolution covering roughly 96,000 borrowers who received Notices of Default from PHH Mortgage Corporation. Plaintiffs alleged the notices threatened immediate loan acceleration and foreclosure before PHH was legally allowed to take those steps under the federal 120-day delinquency rule. The U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina granted preliminary approval on February 4, 2026, and held a fairness hearing on June 9, 2026. PHH denied any wrongdoing.

Who Qualifies for a Payment

The settlement splits eligible borrowers into three sub-classes. You may fall into more than one, and about 9,550 loans do.¹

FDCPA class: residential mortgage borrowers anywhere in the United States whose loan was 30 or more days delinquent when PHH acquired servicing rights, and who received a Notice of Default between December 18, 2022, and December 15, 2025. Roughly 77,500 loans.
California class: borrowers on residential mortgages secured by California property, serviced by PHH, who received a Notice of Default between December 18, 2022, and December 15, 2025. Roughly 20,600 loans.
North Carolina class: borrowers on residential mortgages secured by North Carolina property, serviced by PHH, who received a Notice of Default between January 14, 2021, and December 15, 2025. Roughly 7,400 loans.

PHH board members, executive-level officers, and the federal judges assigned to the case are excluded.² If you opted out by the May 5, 2026 deadline, you are not in the settlement.

One boundary worth flagging: this settlement is about the wording of PHH’s default notices, not about wrongful foreclosure, force-placed insurance, or the older private mortgage insurance kickback claims resolved separately in Munoz v. PHH Corp.³ Different case, different eligibility, different money.

How Much You Can Expect

PHH agreed to pay $1.5 million, divided into three equal $500,000 funds, one for each sub-class. The FDCPA class fund of $500,000 equals the maximum statutory damages allowed on a classwide basis under that law.¹

Before checks are cut, each fund is reduced by court-approved attorneys’ fees of up to one-third, service awards to the lead plaintiffs totaling no more than $10,000, and any settlement administration costs above the $200,000 PHH agreed to cover separately.⁴ What’s left in each fund is divided equally among the eligible loans in that class.

Because the per-loan share depends on how many loans remain in each class after opt-outs, the exact individual amount has not been publicly set.⁴ Borrowers whose loan falls into two sub-classes will get a share from each fund.

Uncashed checks expire 180 days after issue. Any money still unclaimed 300 days after the final settlement date will be donated to the Asheville, North Carolina chapter of Habitat for Humanity.⁴ Cash the check when it arrives.

How You Get Paid

You do not need to file a claim. Class members who did not opt out will automatically receive their share by check mailed to the address PHH has on file, or by electronic payment if they elected that option through the digital disbursements portal on the settlement website.⁴

Checks will be issued within 75 days of the final settlement date and are made out jointly to all borrowers of record on each qualifying loan.⁵ If a co-borrower is a former spouse or a deceased relative, plan ahead for how the check gets endorsed.

If PHH does not have your current mailing address, contact the settlement administrator, Eisner Advisory Group LLC (EisnerAmper), through the settlement website.⁴

Where the Case Stands Now

Judge Kenneth D. Bell granted preliminary approval on February 4, 2026, finding the class satisfied numerosity, commonality, and adequacy of representation.¹ The opt-out and objection deadline was May 5, 2026. The fairness hearing took place on June 9, 2026.⁶

As of mid-June 2026, the court had not yet entered a final approval order. Docket entries from June 12, 2026 show plaintiffs’ counsel filed a supplemental declaration in support of their motion for attorneys’ fees, expenses, and service awards, indicating the court was still considering those requests.⁷ No payments will go out until final approval is entered and any appeal period has passed.

What the Lawsuit Was About

Tonia Williams and Beverly Dantzler sued PHH in Mecklenburg County Superior Court on January 14, 2025; PHH removed the case to federal court on February 26, 2025 as Case No. 3:25-cv-00144. The complaint asserted claims under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, the North Carolina Debt Collection Act, the North Carolina Collection Agency Act, and a state-law negligent misrepresentation theory.⁸

The theory rests on a conflict between two rules. Standard mortgage contracts, including Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac forms, require servicers to send a notice of default and intent to accelerate before foreclosing. A separate federal regulation, the 120-day rule, bars servicers from taking the first formal step toward foreclosure until a borrower is more than 120 days delinquent.⁵

Plaintiffs said PHH sent notices to borrowers only 30 or 45 days behind, giving deadlines to cure that fell about 30 days short of when foreclosure would even be legal. Under the FDCPA, threatening an action a debt collector does not intend to take or cannot legally take violates Sections 1692e(5), 1692e(10), and 1692f.⁵

PHH denied the allegations and argued its notices used conditional language, including the word “may,” that the borrowers’ own mortgage documents required. The company said no reasonable reader, even under the FDCPA’s least sophisticated consumer standard, would read the letters as an immediate threat of foreclosure.⁵ Judges in the Northern District of New York and the Northern District of Georgia had dismissed similar claims against PHH in other cases, reading the notice language as describing a possibility rather than a threat. The split in outcomes shaped both sides’ willingness to settle.

PHH Mortgage Corporation is a subsidiary of Onity Group Inc., formerly Ocwen Financial Corp. Onity renamed the mortgage subsidiary itself in March 2026, so borrowers may now see statements from Onity Mortgage Corporation covering the same loans that received the PHH notices at issue in this case.⁹

1
ClassAction.org. Williams v. PHH Mortgage Corp. Preliminary Approval Order
2
ClassAction.org. Williams v. PHH Mortgage Corporation Class Notice
3
PHH MI Settlement. Munoz v. PHH Corp. Settlement FAQ
4
Williams PHH Settlement. Williams PHH Settlement FAQs
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ClassAction.org. Williams v. PHH Mortgage Corporation Settlement Agreement
6
Williams PHH Settlement. Williams et al. v. PHH Mortgage Corporation Settlement
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PACER Monitor. Williams v. PHH Mortgage Corporation
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ClassAction.org. Williams v. PHH Mortgage Corporation Settlement Agreement
9
Onity Group Inc. Onity Group Officially Rebrands PHH Mortgage to Onity Mortgage