By McCalla Raymer Pierce The Florida Supreme Court issued the much anticipated opinion in Bartram v. U.S. Bank, N.A on November 3, 2016, providing long awaited guidance as to the statute of limitations on successive mortgage foreclosure actions, post dismissal. ...

By Jamie Sternberg, Esq., Jessica Weisman, Esq., and Lynn Dover, Esq., Kimball, Tirey & St. John LLP Proposition 64 legalized recreational use of marijuana in California. Under the new law, (codified in California Health and Safety Code §11362 et seq.), people ...

A glimmer of hope for owners of tenant occupied foreclosed properties as a Cook County Trial Court found the Keep Chicago Renting Ordinance is preempted by the Illinois Rent Control Preemption Act and ruled in favor of the mortgagee who ...

Dr. Katherine Qin explains how home financial derivatives can be used to leverage and speculate on the market. Why are losses in financial derivatives typically very large?

Earlier this year, the Maryland legislature passed House Bill 920/Senate Bill 509 in order to establish rules of practice and procedure for quiet title actions. After recognizing a lack of direction under Maryland common law, the Maryland Land Title Association (MLTA) proposed and lobbied for the legislation, with the support of other related organizations. The MLTA recognized that the undefined process, or lack thereof, caused major problems in how quiet title actions were being litigated and issues with the resulting judgments. The new rules, codified in Title 14, Subtitle 6 of the Maryland Real Property Code, took effect on October 1, 2016, and establish a uniform process for quiet title actions and result in stronger, reliable judgments.

Despite strong landlord and association opposition, on September 13, 2016, Governor Jerry Brown signed California Assembly Bill (AB) 2819. This bill, amending California Code of Civil Procedure §1161.2, and adding new California Code of Civil Procedure §1167.1, will dramatically interfere with a Landlord’s ability to speedily and effectively conclude an unlawful detainer proceeding and additionally impact a landlord’s ability to obtain an applicant’s prior unlawful detainer (UD) history.

Certain borrower-friendly amendments to the Illinois Mortgage Foreclosure Law (“IMFL”)—added at the beginning of the recent foreclosure crisis—were scheduled to sunset (i.e., automatically repeal) in 2016 or early 2017. For instance, Illinois’ statutory requirement for the mailing of a Grace Period Notice (“GPN”) before initiating a foreclosure suit was first enacted in April 2009. See 735 ILCS 5/15-1502.5. For those familiar with Illinois foreclosure law, the GPN is similar to a notice of default—lenders and servicers must and do send them before initiating foreclosure proceedings, but borrowers rarely, if ever, “receive” such notices based on the popularity of foreclosure defenses based on the GPN.

Featured in the November issue of DS News, George Fitzgerald of Black Knight discusses how technology can aid decision making in the loss mitigation process.

Confusion over the scope of homeowner association and condo association super liens can leave servicers with incorrect assumptions about how the rules will affect their lien position. Damon Paxon, VP of Operations at LRES, addresses the questions he receives the most—such as the differences between HOA and COA liens, how the rules vary by state, and more.

Tim Rath of Safeguard Properties discusses what it takes to build an effective third-party vendor recruitment system.