Rocket Mortgage has filed an amended complaint that accuses United Wholesale Mortgage (UWM) of violating contractual restrictions on soliciting borrowers whose mortgage servicing rights (MSRs) were sold to Mr. Cooper Group, alleging the conduct caused nearly $100 million in damages.
The amended complaint, filed Aug. 27 in the Supreme Court of the State of New York, expands on allegations in Rocket’s original lawsuit filed in May 2026 and details its claims that UWM breached nonsolicitation provisions covering nearly 182,000 mortgages whose servicing rights Mr. Cooper purchased from UWM in 2024.
According to the document, Mr. Cooper purchased the servicing rights in three transactions between January and June 2024 for $773 million. The loans had an aggregate unpaid principal balance of about $65 billion, according to the complaint.
The agreements included broad restrictions that prevented UWM, as well as its agents, brokers and independent contractors, from soliciting borrowers to refinance their mortgages during the life of the loans. The agreements allowed general, nontargeted advertising and refinances initiated by borrowers themselves.
“UWM agreed to a broad non-solicitation covenant under which UWM was prohibited from soliciting, directly or indirectly, the refinancing of any mortgages within the loan pools that Mr. Cooper purchased. That was a vital term of the contract, intended to protect the value of the loans and servicing rights that Mr. Cooper acquired,” the amended complaint states. “UWM has engaged in a pattern of repeatedly and flagrantly breaching its non-solicitation obligations over, at least, the last 18 months.”
Accelerated prepayment rates
Rocket alleges that UWM’s conduct caused the covered loans to prepay at rates about 2.5 times higher than comparable mortgage pools.
By December 2025, more than 15,500 of the approximately 182,000 loans had been refinanced, according to Rocket’s analysis. More than 48% of these refinances were completed through UWM, making it the largest refinancer of the loans and more than twice as large as the next-largest originator, the complaint states. Rocket estimates its resulting damages at nearly $100 million.
Rocket alleges that UWM violated the agreements through several refinance initiatives, including Refi75, KEEP and Refi Shield 100.
UWM launched Refi75 in September 2024, offering an additional 75-basis-point incentive on certain refinance loans. Rocket alleges that the program did not exclude borrowers whose loans had been sold to Mr. Cooper and resulted in thousands of refi transactions involving covered loans.
The complaint also targets KEEP, an artificial intelligence-powered system UWM launched days later. According to Rocket’s complaint, KEEP generated prevalidated refinance opportunities for borrowers with prior UWM loans and targeted borrowers whose mortgages were included in the servicing pools sold to Mr. Cooper. Rocket claims that the system resulted in thousands of additional refinances.
Escalation follows Mr. Cooper acquisition
The dispute escalated after Rocket announced its planned acquisition of Mr. Cooper in March 2025. Rocket says UWM president and CEO Mat Ishbia subsequently directed brokers to target loans whose servicing rights had been sold to Mr. Cooper.
According to the complaint, Ishbia described the effort as putting a “bounty” on these loans and told brokers to refinance loans sold to Mr. Cooper. UWM subsequently introduced Refi Shield 100, offering a 100-bps discount on certain refinances. Rocket alleges Ishbia said he would “lose money just for fun” to take loans out of Mr. Cooper’s servicing portfolio.
Rocket also alleges that UWM provided brokers with lists identifying specific loans to target, including loans in Mr. Cooper’s servicing pools. The amended complaint cites Tim Barry, CEO of LitFinancial, as having confirmed that his company received lists containing Mr. Cooper loans.
Barry did not respond to HousingWire‘s requests for comment at the time of publication. A spokesperson for Rocket said it had no comments to add beyond what was in the original filing.
UWM has denied the allegations outlined in the original suit, calling the complaints “baseless” and “opportunistic.” The company did not provide a new statement at the time of publication.
UWM reported a loss of more than $450 million in the second quarter of 2026 and received a capital infusion shortly thereafter, which Rocket outlined in its complaint. Rocket argued that these pressures created an incentive for UWM to pursue refinances involving loans it had previously sold as servicing rights.
Rocket Companies completed its $14.2 billion acquisition of Mr. Cooper on Oct. 1, 2025. The transaction combined Rocket’s mortgage origination business with Mr. Cooper’s large servicing portfolio.
The amended complaint asserts a breach-of-contract claim and seeks at least $100 million in compensatory damages, along with interest, attorneys’ fees and costs.
