Rocket Mortgage sued United Wholesale Mortgage for at least $100 million in May, accusing UWM of violating a non-solicitation agreement tied to mortgage-servicing rights that Mr. Cooper Group bought from UWM in 2024, according to The Detroit News and Crain’s Detroit Business, both of which reviewed the complaint. The breach-of-contract suit, filed May 14 in the Commercial Division of the New York Supreme Court, is the latest flashpoint in the long-running rivalry between Rocket chairman Dan Gilbert and UWM chief executive Mat Ishbia, leaders of the two largest U.S. mortgage lenders.
Rocket alleges UWM ran a campaign to win back refinances on loans whose servicing rights Mr. Cooper had purchased from UWM in three bulk deals between January and June 2024, worth a combined $773 million, despite agreeing not to solicit those borrowers. Mr. Cooper held servicing rights on roughly 182,000 loans with about $65 billion in unpaid principal balance under those deals; it became part of Rocket when Rocket completed its acquisition of Mr. Cooper in October 2025.
Rocket points to three UWM initiatives it says targeted the protected loans: a September 2024 program called Refi75 offering a 0.75-percentage-point rate discount, an AI-driven borrower-outreach tool called KEEP, and a March 2025 promotion called Refi Shield 100 offering a full percentage point off. Rocket claims prepayment rates on the affected loan pools ran roughly 2.5 times higher than comparable pools and is seeking at least $100 million in damages, according to The Detroit News and Crain’s Detroit Business. These are allegations made in Rocket’s complaint; UWM disputes them.
UWM has called the lawsuit “baseless and opportunistic” and said in a statement that it appears “engineered for headlines,” according to The Detroit News and Crain’s Detroit Business. A company spokesperson said: “Rocket has long operated on the premise that it owns the consumer relationship — not the broker. This is precisely the conduct we have consistently cautioned the broker community about. We will defend this matter vigorously.” UWM has also noted the suit came shortly after a former Rocket wholesale executive joined UWM’s broker network as a partner, though it has not presented evidence linking the two events.
What it means
The core facts of the case are independently confirmed: Rocket sued UWM in May for at least $100 million, alleging UWM breached a non-solicitation covenant tied to the Mr. Cooper servicing portfolio, in a complaint filed in New York’s Commercial Division. The Detroit News and Crain’s Detroit Business both reviewed and reported on that complaint. Every allegation about UWM’s conduct is Rocket’s claim, not an established fact, and UWM disputes the suit’s merits and motives, calling it baseless.
What to watch
UWM has said it will “defend this matter vigorously.” If the case proceeds — whether past an eventual motion to dismiss or otherwise — discovery would put internal records on both sides’ refinance-marketing programs into the case file. The dispute is the latest flashpoint in the years-long rivalry between Gilbert and Ishbia, whose companies compete head-to-head in both direct-to-consumer and wholesale-broker mortgage lending, at a time when mortgage rates remain elevated and lenders are fighting harder over a smaller pool of refinance business, even as loan performance data shows overall borrower defaults trending down.
