Ohio Considers Foreclosure Legislation

The Ohio Legislature has introduced several bills aimed at fighting the foreclosure crisis in the state. Ohio has one of the highest foreclosure rates in the country. Residential foreclosures in the Buckeye State were ranked the 10th highest in the nation in RealtyTrac's latest ""market report"":http://www.realtytrac.com/ContentManagement/pressrelease.aspxxChannelID=9&ItemID=5822&accnt=64847, with one in every 452 homes receiving a foreclosure filing in January.
Ohio ""House Bill 3"":http://www.legislature.state.oh.us/BillText128/128_HB_3_I_N.html, introduced by Reps. Mike Foley (D-District 14) and Steve Driehaus (D-District 1), proposes to amend certain, as yet unspecified, sections of the Ohio Revised Code to provide homeowner assistance for mortgage foreclosures. Government officials say the bill will likely include provisions on a statewide foreclosure moratorium.
Critics of broad-based foreclosure suspensions, however, argue that moratoriums are an ineffective tool that only delays the inevitable, further swelling housing inventories with a glut of REOs after the fact and taking an amassed chunk out of already falling property values. In Massachusetts, as an example, lawmakers instituted a three-month statewide foreclosure moratorium last May. As mandated, filings in the Bay State dropped over the summer, but immediately shot up, by 465 percent, in September after the suspension was lifted.
But Rep. Foley told the _""Cleveland Plain Dealer"":http://www.cleveland.com/news/_, that one thing to consider is the flood of empty homes littering the communities across the state. ""We've got vacant properties all over the place in this state that are killing neighborhoods,"" Foley said. ""The longer we can keep people in their homes and give them a chance to take advantage of recovery dollars that may be coming in seems like a good thing to me.""
Other measures being considered include ""House Bill 9"":http://www.legislature.state.oh.us/BillText128/128_HB_9_I_N.html and ""Senate Bill 13"":http://www.legislature.state.oh.us/BillText128/128_SB_13_I_N.html, which would amend various sections of the Ohio Revised Code addressing tenants' rights in the foreclosure process. Provisions within these bills would require court clerks to give residents a written notice of the foreclosure within seven days of the summons being issued, along with a foreclosure assistance publication prepared by the state's director of commerce. Landlords would also be ordered to notify tenants of foreclosure within 30 days of receiving a summons and provide them with a written notice of sale at least 21 days before the foreclosure sale date. Also addressed are statutes of the rental agreement and the possibility of extending the rental option after foreclosure.
""Senate Bill No. 46"":http://www.legislature.state.oh.us/BillText128/128_SB_46_I_N.html would enact a new section of the Ohio Revised Code to further protect tenants faced with foreclosure. SB 46 would prohibit landlords from requiring a tenant to vacate a foreclosed residential property any earlier than 90 days following a court's confirmation of the sale of the home.
And ""SB 53"":http://www.legislature.state.oh.us/BillText128/128_SB_53_I_N.html would require Ohio's director of commerce to establish a statewide residential foreclosure tracking system and submit an annual report on residential foreclosure filings and sales in each county. The report would be posted on a public Web site and include, for each county and for the state, the number of foreclosure filings made by mortgage holders, the number of properties foreclosed by a mortgage holder for which a court confirmed a sale by the sheriff at auction, and the types of residential properties that are the subject of these foreclosure filings and sales.