New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed the Foreclosure Abuse Prevention Act on December 30, 2022. The new law, which takes effect immediately, threatens to significantly constrain the ability of lenders, servicers, and investors to foreclose and may jeopardize their recovery, including with regard to pending foreclosure actions.
Read more in Mayer Brown’s Legal Update.
Pay close attention to New Jersey Bill A793, the Community Wealth Preservation Act, which the New Jersey legislature passed at the end of June and sent to the Governor for consideration. While I’m not steeped in the intricacies of state foreclosure laws, it appears the Act would cap a holder’s bid at foreclosure sale…
Federal regulators and Congress continue to release new guidance and requirements to assist residential mortgage loan borrowers facing economic hardships due to the pandemic. But in light of the anticipated volume of requests and associated burden on servicers, they also are offering some regulatory relief. This alert contains a summary of relevant mortgage servicing requirements,…
The California legislature was active in 2018, enacting several new requirements and provisions applicable to the financial services industry. Those requirements include an important and comprehensive privacy regime (the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018, or CCPA), which establishes new protections for personal information that covered commercial enterprises collect. The CCPA becomes effective January 1,…
Foreign statutory trusts that acquire delinquent residential mortgage loans are NOT required to be licensed under the Maryland Collection Agency Licensing Act (the “Act”), based on an opinion released today by the Maryland Court of Appeals. The opinion reverses lower court rulings that called for such licensing. According to the opinion, the Act’s plain…
On November 7, Texas voters will have the opportunity to make some significant changes to the state’s homestead equity loan restrictions. As summarized below, Texas Proposition 2 will, if approved: (1) revise the strict fee limits for such loans; (2) add to the list of lenders that are authorized to make the loans; (3) eliminate the “once-a-home-equity-loan, always-a-home-equity-loan” rule; (4) allow borrowers to sign an affidavit of compliance regarding certain new refinancings of such loans; and (5) allow advances on lines of credit up to 80% loan-to-value (LTV) ratio.
The Texas Constitution imposes strict limits on the types of loans that validly may be secured by Texas homestead property. For home equity loans (other than purchase-money loans or rate/term refinances), the Texas Constitution imposes a long list of limitations and requirements, the violation of which invalidates the lien and can result in the forfeiture of principal and interest. A lender or holder has an opportunity to cure at least some of those violations. Since the limitations are part of the state constitution, relief can come only through legislative resolutions on which the public must then have the opportunity to vote.
Continue Reading Texas Voters Consider Big Changes to Home Equity Loan Restrictions
With all eyes on Washington, DC, and the press abuzz with each movement and action of the newly sworn-in President Trump, Maryland quietly published in the January 20, 2017 issue of the Maryland Register a highly-anticipated request for comment and proposed revisions to its regulations governing a wide range of mortgage finance licensing and practice…
New regulations will impose increased inspection, reporting, and maintenance obligations on mortgagees and servicers of defaulted residential mortgage loans in New York. You can learn more about the regulations of the New York Department of Financial Services for “zombie” properties in Mayer Brown’s latest Legal Update. The regulations become effective today, December 20, 2016.
On November 3, in a case that was closely watched by industry participants, the Florida Supreme Court held that a mortgagor’s default that occurs after the dismissal of a prior foreclosure action in which the loan payments were accelerated resets the five-year statute of limitations for filing a subsequent foreclosure suit. In Bartram v. U.S. Bank, N.A., the court explained that dismissal of the initial foreclosure action has the effect of returning the parties to their pre-foreclosure complaint status, where the mortgage remains an installment loan and the mortgagor has the right to continue to make installment payments without being obligated to pay the entire amount due under the note and mortgage.
Continue Reading Florida Supreme Court Holds that Each Default Resets the Statute of Limitations for Filing a Foreclosure Complaint
Until recently, Florida courts had not determined what happens to liens placed on a property between the time of final judgment of foreclosure and sale. On August 24, 2016, Florida’s Fourth Appellate District decided Ober v. Town of Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, which resolved the issue, holding that liens placed on the property after the final judgment of foreclosure but prior to judicial sale are not discharged by Florida’s lis pendens statute.
Continue Reading Florida Appeals Court Holds That Post-Foreclosure Judgment Liens Are Not Discharged At Sale
