Estate of Denial: Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC) was accused in a group lawsuit of ignoring federal rules on reverse mortgages and forcing homes into foreclosure instead of giving heirs a chance to buy them.

Estates and surviving spouses have the right to purchase properties at 95 percent of appraised value after the death of a borrower who took out a federally insured reverse mortgage, lawyers for a California man said in the complaint filed Aug. 3 in federal court in San Francisco.

Wells Fargo hasn’t been notifying heirs of this right and has been starting foreclosures if demands aren’t met for repayment of the full mortgage balance, according to the complaint filed by the son of a California homeowner.  The plaintiff, Robert Chandler, also sued the Federal National Mortgage Association, or Fannie Mae.