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Industry experts weigh in on 'chilling effect' of CFPB Lighthouse Title fine
Posted Date: Friday, October 3, 2014
The broad language of the bureau’s consent order, which alleged that Lighthouse Title Inc. violated RESPA by “providing something of value to any person with an agreement or understanding that the person will refer real estate settlement services” didn’t just bring the Michigan title agency’s marketing service agreements to a screeching halt.
Immediately following the bureau’s announcement of the consent order on Sept. 30, phone lines across the country lit up.
Attorneys, title agents, real estate agents, mortgage brokers and other industry players speculated whether MSAs are deemed legal at all in the bureau’s eyes. What attracted the CFPB’s attention in this case? Can MSA contracts be considered “a thing of value” in and of themselves? Will the CFPB also go after the payees in Lighthouse Title’s MSAs? How can you ensure that your MSA is iron-clad? How will these developments impact affiliated businesses? Read on as we answer these questions and many more.
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TILA-RESPA rule may put AfBAs at competitive advantage
Posted Date: Tuesday, October 7, 2014
When the CFPB’s TILA-RESPA integrated disclosures rule takes effect next August, large-scale real estate firms with title insurance and mortgage units, or companies in affiliated business arrangements, may be in a unique competitive position over small companies with no affiliated partners. “I don’t think a Realtor can pick a name out of a phone book anymore. Those days are over,” said one industry leader.
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Rules for MSAs: Value, verify, comply
Posted Date: Thursday, October 9, 2014
Marketing Service Agreements may be a popular way to establish relationships in the settlement services industry, but as evidenced by the CFPB’s recent consent order targeting a Michigan title agency’s MSAs, regulators are taking a closer look at their impact on the marketplace. At the Real Estate Services Providers Council Inc.’s recent regulatory seminar, a panel of industry experts discussed the industry and regulatory landscape and offered best practices for structuring the relationship, engaging marketers in compliance activities, valuing services, verifying service performance, managing relationships and mitigating risk. Read on for the details of their presentation — a must-have for anyone currently engaged in MSAs or considering entering into them.
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Integrated mortgage disclosures: Are Realtors ready?
Posted Date: Friday, October 3, 2014
Since the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued its final rule on the integrated mortgage disclosure forms last November, the title insurance and settlement service industries have taken a leadership role in the educational efforts and preparation for the Aug. 1, 2015, forms rollout. But with 10 months left on the implementation clock, what are real estate agents and brokers doing to prepare for what one title industry leader has called a “sea change” in the way mortgage transactions are handled?
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Judge allows class action RESPA case to proceed
Posted Date: Thursday, September 25, 2014
Plaintiffs who have charged an appraisal company with RESPA violations will be allowed to proceed with a class-action suit, a federal judge ruled. Read on for all the details.
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Indiana takes aim at pro-se plaintiffs
Posted Date: Monday, October 6, 2014
As the U.S. court system continues to see a rise in litigation — including RESPA lawsuits — filed by self-represented plaintiffs, the Indiana Supreme Court is providing guidance to its state courts to “curtail abusive litigation practices.”
The order was issued in connection with a case in which a pro-se plaintiff filed a motion titled, “Appellant’s Verified Motion to Compel the Clerk of the Trial Court to Provide the Entire Record as Opposed to the Partial Record and to Extend Time for Brief to Be Filed Due to the Fact that the Appellant Does Not Have the Full Certified Record and the Record Needs to Be Complete and Fixed (Which Will Require Time) Because of the Clerk's Error in Providing Only a Partial Record or Alternatively to Relinquish Jurisdiction Back to the Trial Court by Mandating It to Fix the Record (the CCS) and to Provide the Court of Appeals and the Parties with the Corrected Full and Complete Fixed Record or Alternatively to Order the Clerk of this Court to Fix the CCS and to Provide the Complete Record or Alternatively to Allow the Appellant to Use His Own CCS Printed out by Him from the Odyssey Website.”
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Fearful Nigerian couple makes RESPA claim
Posted Date: Thursday, September 18, 2014
Saying they “continue to have mental and physical problems out of fear that they will be evicted from their home,” a Nigerian couple filed a RESPA claim against Bank of America and Nationstar Mortgage LLC after foreclosure proceedings on their home. Read on to see whether the court granted the couple relief.
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Court takes ‘dim view’ in key QWR case
Posted Date: Thursday, September 25, 2014
An Ohio federal court recently found that a couple properly submitted a qualified written request (QWR) to their loan servicer as provided by Section 2605 of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA), but also found that the loan servicer responded appropriately as required by the statute. Which party prevailed in this latest QWR RESPA dispute? Read on to find out.
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CFPB series gets down to nitty-gritty
Posted Date: Friday, October 3, 2014
The third installment of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s webinar series on the TILA-RESPA integrated mortgage loan disclosures rule talked about specifics of filling out the Loan Estimate form. Read on for some of their tips for complying with the new form.
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Lender cited with RESPA violations
Posted Date: Monday, September 29, 2014
A Texas-based company has been charged with RESPA violations stemming from 2007. Read on to find out the details of the case.
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Small changes proposed to Integrated Disclosure Rule
Posted Date: Tuesday, October 14, 2014
Although the deadline for implementation of the new TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosure Rule is Aug. 1, 2015, the regulations themselves are still undergoing a few tweaks. On Oct. 10, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau proposed a new rule that would modify and make technical amendments to the rule. Read on to find out what the bureau is proposing to change, and whether it will affect the Aug. 1 deadline.
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HMDA data shows originated loans down
Posted Date: Tuesday, October 14, 2014
Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data from 2013 was released by the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council, showing that loan originations declined from a year earlier, along with a decline in the number of institutions reporting data.
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Supreme Court entertaining another statutory standing case
Posted Date: Monday, October 13, 2014
The high court last week invited the Solicitor General to file an amicus curiaebrief in the case of Spokeo v. Robins, which concerns whether Congress may confer Article III standing upon a plaintiff who suffers no concrete harm other than a violation of a federal statute. If that question sounds familiar, it’s because it was the same argument presented in a RESPA case, First American Financial Corp. v. Edwards (2010). And the CFPB is keeping an eye on these developments, noting that “for the past few years, this issue of standing has been percolating in federal appellate courts in various consumer statutory contexts.” Read on for more details.
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Judge finds plaintiffs’ Section 2607 claim ‘threadbare’
Posted Date: Monday, October 13, 2014
A federal court in Maryland last month denied a motion by plaintiffs seeking to amend a complaint alleging their lender and loan servicer violated RESPA Section 2607. According to the court, the plaintiffs’ complaint fell short “because threadbare recitals of the elements of a cause of action, supported by mere conclusory statements, do not suffice to survive a motion to dismiss.”
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Could increase in flood insurance be a RESPA kickback?
Posted Date: Monday, October 13, 2014
An Ohio homeowner who was required to increase her flood insurance after the transfer of her mortgage servicing sued the new servicer, alleging, among other things, violations of RESPA for kickbacks and other things of value obtained by the servicer after forcing the homeowner to buy lender-placed flood insurance. Read on to see whether the court sided with the homeowner on the RESPA charges.
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Couple brings CFPB loan-servicer regulations into RESPA suit
Posted Date: Thursday, October 9, 2014
Could CFPB regulations concerning “error-resolution procedures” related to loan servicers have RESPA implications? One Colorado couple recently made the case for that argument. Read on to find out what one judge had to say about the maneuver.
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N.Y. court says plaintiff’s RESPA claim not barred by res judicata
Posted Date: Thursday, October 9, 2014
A New York district court ruled recently that a plaintiff’s Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act claim was not barred by res judicata, finding that New York’s res judicata rule “has a narrower effect on a defendant who then brings her claim in a separate action than it does on the plaintiff who brings successive claims that arise from the same transaction.”
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CFPB cites Flagstar for RESPA violations
Posted Date: Thursday, October 9, 2014
In its first enforcement action since adopting new mortgage servicing rules in January, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced a consent order with Michigan-based Flagstar Bank. In the order, the agency said Flagstar Bank violated RESPA servicing rules regarding loss-mitigation timelines.
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CFPB updates Readiness Guide
Posted Date: Thursday, October 9, 2014
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau released an update to its mortgage rules Readiness Guide that includes the new TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosure rule.
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Illinois plaintiff takes ‘shotgun approach’ to RESPA claim
Posted Date: Tuesday, October 7, 2014
In a complex case alleging “a large-scale conspiracy to illegally foreclose on her home,” a pro-se plaintiff filed suit against numerous companies — many of which were sued under incorrect names — seeking a variety of claims, including RESPA, without specifying to whom they were against. But did the plaintiff’s RESPA claim survive? Read on to find out.
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Maryland court weighs in on damages in QWR case
Posted Date: Monday, October 6, 2014
A couple whose house was foreclosed upon sued two defendants for RESPA violations for not responding to a trio of qualified written requests. Was the couple able to prove violations? Read on to find out.
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CFPB talks cash to close disclosures
Posted Date: Monday, October 6, 2014
In its third webinar on the TILA-RESPA integrated mortgage loan disclosures rule, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau answered questions about specific areas of the Loan Estimate form, including the calculating cash to close section. Read on for their guidance on this area and more.
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Is failure to respond to QWR enough for RESPA violation?
Posted Date: Friday, October 3, 2014
A plaintiff was able to prove that her loan servicer did not make a timely reply to her qualified written request. But was she able to prove that was a RESPA violation? Read on to find out.
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Maryland plaintiff alleges YSP kickbacks, ‘robo-signing’
Posted Date: Monday, September 29, 2014
A federal court in Maryland recently considered a 22-count complaint filed by a self-represented plaintiff, alleging that Bank of America Corp., and other parties to his mortgage loan transaction violated RESPA Section 2607 by engaging in a “deceptive yield spread premium (YSP) kickback trade practice.”
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Homeowner, real estate agent alleges RESPA violations
Posted Date: Monday, September 29, 2014
When a Virginia homeowner — and former real estate agent — twice fended off the foreclosure of her home, she went looking for misdeeds in the handling of her mortgage. According to the plaintiff, her mortgage lender and servicer not only failed to provide certain disclosures required by RESPA, but also engaged in conduct that resulted in “the destruction of her career and the housing market, generally.” But was the court persuaded? Read on to find out.
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Foreclosed plaintiff alleges ‘emotional trauma’ in Michigan RESPA case
Posted Date: Thursday, September 25, 2014
The plaintiff, filing a lawsuit pro se, claimed his lender violated unspecified provisions of RESPA and other state and federal laws when he lost his home to foreclosure, causing his family to “suffer from emotional trauma as a result of eviction.”
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Holder resigns attorney general post
Posted Date: Thursday, September 25, 2014
Just months after the attorney general announced record-breaking settlements with some of the nation’s largest banks and mortgage loan providers for alleged mortgage origination, servicing and foreclosure abuses, Eric H. Holder Jr. is leaving the U.S. Department of Justice.
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Court tosses out 'incomprehensible' pro-se RESPA case
Posted Date: Monday, September 22, 2014
A Georgia federal court tossed out a RESPA lawsuit filed against The Bank of New York Mellon and others after reviewing the plaintiffs’ pro-se pleadings and finding them “incomprehensible.” Read on to see why the case was incomprehensible.
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Wells Fargo’s ASC division prevails in QWR suit
Posted Date: Monday, September 22, 2014
An Illinois federal court has granted summary judgment to America’s Servicing Company, a division of Wells Fargo Home Mortgage Inc., in a case in which a plaintiff alleged the loan servicer violated Section 2605 of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA) by allegedly failing to properly respond to her qualified written request (QWR) for information on her mortgage loan. The plaintiff filed the lawsuit following the foreclosure of her home in Flossmoor, Ill. Wells Fargo, doing business as ASC, was the servicer for one of the plaintiff’s loans.
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Associations request written guidance on mortgage disclosure plans
Posted Date: Thursday, September 18, 2014
Webinars are good, but a group of industry associations says written guidance from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau would be better. Read on to find out what else the associations would like to see between now and Aug. 1.
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Push is on for QRM rule by year end
Posted Date: Thursday, September 18, 2014
The House Financial Services Committee pressed regulatory leaders at a recent hearing about the status of their qualified residential mortgage (QRM) rule. Read on to see what the agencies said.
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Firms partner to simplify RESPA compliance
Posted Date: Thursday, September 18, 2014
A financial services company and an LOS provider believe their new partnership can help customers maintain RESPA compliance more efficiently. Read on to see how.
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Court says debt letter may be subject to RESPA and FDCPA
Posted Date: Thursday, September 18, 2014
A debt collector says its communication with a customer over her mortgage servicing debt was required under RESPA. The customer claims it fell under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. Read on to see whether the court followed precedent on the issue.
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Timing is everything in S.C. RESPA suit
Posted Date: Monday, September 15, 2014
How long after experiencing trouble with the servicing of a mortgage loan and administration of escrow accounts do plaintiffs have to file a RESPA claim? Read on to find out whether one South Carolina couple met the appropriate statute of limitations for their claim alleging that their mortgage servicer failed to apply their escrow funds to pay taxes.
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