Two home lending giants are doing battle in the courts with Rocket Mortgage filing a $100 million lawsuit against its rival United Wholesale Mortgage, alleging breaching of contract.
The Detroit New noted that the lawsuit is the latest battle between mortgage lenders led by Rocket Companies Chairman Dan Gilbert and UWM CEO Mat Ishbia. Both companies are headquartered in Michigan.
According to the News, Rocket’s filing to the New York state Supreme Court seeks $100 million in damages from UWM for allegedly breaking an agreement with the Coppell, Texas-based mortgage servicing company Mr. Cooper, which Rocket acquired in October 2025. Rocket said that UWM, which previously worked with the mortgage servicer, violated a contract with Mr. Cooper, doing business as Mr. Cooper Group Inc., by trying to siphon business away after its rival took over the company.
Past Statements
The complaint quotes past statements it said Ishbia made, including that he would “lose money just for fun” in efforts to raid Mr. Cooper’s servicing portfolio, among other statements.
In the lawsuit’s opening statement, Rocket said it “seeks to hold UWM accountable for the significant harm caused by its willful and wanton breach of non-solicitation contractual obligations it owes to Mr. Cooper.
“Mr. Cooper paid UWM hundreds of millions of dollars for the servicing rights to nearly 182,000 loans, and in return UWM contractually agreed in writing that it would not attempt to solicit the mortgage borrowers on those loans away from Mr. Cooper’s servicing platform.”
“Nevertheless, in blatant breach of its contractual obligations, UWM intentionally solicited these very mortgage borrowers, resulting in Mr. Cooper losing its servicing rights for thousands of mortgages that it purchased from UWM. At this time, UWM is liable to Mr. Cooper for nearly $100 million in damages resulting from its wrongful conduct.”
UWM called the lawsuit a publicity stunt and said it would “vigorously” defend itself against the allegations.
“Within months of Rocket’s acquisition of Mr. Cooper, and shortly after Rocket’s former head of wholesale joined the broker community as a UWM partner, this lawsuit appears. The timing speaks for itself. Rocket has long operated on the premise that it owns the consumer relationship — not the broker,” the company said in a statement.
UWM Calls Complaint ‘Baseless’
The UWM statement went on: “The claims in this complaint are baseless and opportunistic, and appear engineered for headlines. This is precisely the conduct we have consistently cautioned the broker community about.
“We will defend this matter vigorously and remain singularly focused on the independent mortgage brokers and the borrowers they serve.”
