Atlanta-based Beazer Homes USA Inc. is one of the country’s 10 largest single-family homebuilders that also provides mortgage origination to its homebuyers. In Maryland, Beazer Homes properties include a total 36 move-in-ready homes in six communities in Baltimore, one in Laurel, and four in Clarksburg.

Beazer recently received a subpoena from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Western District of North Carolina requesting documents related to its mortgage origination services, president and chief executive officer Ian McCarthy said in a prepared statement.

Beazer also said in a release that it believes the document request was fueled by a series of Charlotte Observer articles.

The Observer reported March 20 that Beazer had a high rate of foreclosures in the Charlotte, N.C., area. Of the 2,900 Beazer homes built in Mecklenburg County between 1997 and 2006, more than 13 percent have been foreclosed on — at least 388 properties — while nationally, fewer than 3 percent of buyers lose homes to foreclosure, the paper said.

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Last January, the paper reported that Beazer loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration were failing in large numbers.

Based on internal investigation, Beazer said in a release, it has found no evidence to support the articles’ allegations.

A Department of Housing and Urban Development review showed in two cases Beazer failed to document if borrowers could afford mortgage loans and charged at least five borrowers several times the maximum loan fees, both instances against FHA rules, The Observer said.

Business Week reported March 27 that an FBI spokesman said the agency was launching an investigation into “fraud in general” at Beazer. In a written response, the company said Beazer has been in contact with the U.S. Attorney's Office, but “at this time, there have been no allegations of any wrongdoing.”

“We have further been told by the U.S. Attorney’s Office that the statements by the FBI and published by Business Week were not authorized and should not have been made,” the statement said.

In documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Beazer said it would “vigorously defend itself” against two class-action lawsuits “without merit” recently filed by Beazer stock purchasers and North Carolina residents.

The first suit alleges that Beazer Homes did not disclose facts about its lending practices, the SEC document said.

The second complaint alleges that Beazer used unfair trade practices to let low income purchasers qualify for loans they allegedly could not afford, the document said.

Local Beazer offices declined to comment.

kprahlad@baltimoreexaminer.com