2007 Legislative Review
House Bill 1355 and Senate Bill 2526, which would have allowed for
the exemption of certain entities' employees from our licensure statutes,
are both now non-issues. We strongly opposed this legislation
and took every possible opportunity to speak against its passage. Our
members, our Corporate Counsel, Steve Ecenia, and our lobbyist, Will
McKinley, worked long and hard to stop these bills. This is a
great example of government listening to the voice of the people.
House Bill 1125, and Senate Bill 1824 which are the bills that modify
the statutes under which we operate, F.S. 494, have passed through the
House and Senate respectively and now await the Governor’s signature. This
legislation was drafted at the request of our regulator to enhance disclosure
requirements and to modify some of the rules regarding how mortgage
broker schools operate. One of the driving forces behind this
legislation was the increase in consumer complaints caused by "bait
and switch tactics". Our regulators included us in the process
to make this legislation as workable as possible for the industry. The
legislation requires that a Mortgage Brokerage Contract be executed
in a timely manner following a broker's receipt of a credit application
and that the borrower be notified of changes that impact his or her
loan not less than three days prior to the loan closing. It also
requires that the Good Faith Estimate discloses who is to receive funds
from the transaction. Funds to be paid to the Brokerage Business
or to the Lender must specifically disclose the recipient. Funds
to other parties may be disclosed in generic terms, such as "Appraiser".
During the last House committee meeting, an amendment was made to House
Bill 1125 and the fraud bill, House Bill 349, was attached to it. Although
the fraud bill is a separate issue and will not become a part of F.S.
494, the amendment was made to move the fraud bill through the session. We
had successfully requested that the bill be renamed the “Real
Property Fraud Act” when it passed through committee in the Senate
(Senate Bill 352) since the act involved much more than just mortgage
fraud. The House version had entitled the bill as the “Mortgage
Fraud Act”. We requested that the title to the House Bill
be eliminated and this has been done, but the term mortgage fraud will
still appear in the act. All other changes requested by our committee,
attorney and lobbyist remain intact. Although the fraud bill was
passed via amending it to the F.S. 494 bill, it is important to remember
that it is not a part of F.S. 494. This bill impacts all fraud
related to real property transactions.
We have again asked if the term, Mortgage Fraud, can be replaced with
real property fraud and will keep you informed.
