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South Carolina Supreme Court weighs in on UPL case
Posted Date: Monday, July 24, 2017
The Supreme Court of South Carolina recently handed down a decision on a matter in its original jurisdiction to determine whether a mortgage originator and national title and settlement service provider engaged in the unauthorized practice of law when engaging in a series of mortgage refinances. Read on for more details.
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Law firm wins case in CFPB suit for RESPA violations
Posted Date: Monday, July 17, 2017
The law firm Borders & Borders was granted summary judgment in a case brought by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau alleging it violated RESPA when it worked with its affiliated settlement providers. Read on for more details.
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Failure to rescind foreclosure deed leads to dispute
Posted Date: Wednesday, June 21, 2017
After rescuing his home from foreclosure and continuing to make payments on a modified loan, a Missouri man sought to sell the property. When his Realtor informed him that he was not the record owner of the property, he sued his mortgage servicer and the holder of the deed. Read on for more details.
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Property purchasers sue settlement agent for negligent misrepresentation
Posted Date: Wednesday, July 5, 2017
When a couple purchased property to be developed in Tennessee, their settlement agent informed them that all prior liens would be taken care of and that they were purchasing title insurance as part of the transaction. Title insurance was never purchased on their behalf and though the settlement agent made efforts to pay off the existing mortgage on the property, those efforts failed and the property eventually went into foreclosure. The couple sued the settlement agent for, among other things, negligent misrepresentation and violations of the Tennessee Consumer Protection Act. Read on for more details.
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Title company, insurance provider dispute coverage
Posted Date: Monday, June 26, 2017
A professional liability insurer seeks a declaratory judgment that it is not required to indemnify a title company insured due to a prior-knowledge exclusion in the policy. Read on for more details.
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Resolution to establish Blockchain task force passes Illinois General Assembly
Posted Date: Monday, July 10, 2017
The Illinois General Assembly has passed a joint resolution to establish a Blockchain task force. The task force will be charged with studying how and if the state, county and municipal governments can benefit from a transaction to a Blockchain-based system for recordkeeping and service delivery. Read on for more details.
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Lien agent legislation ratified in North Carolina
Posted Date: Monday, July 10, 2017
The North Carolina General Assembly ratified legislation that make various changes to the statute governing lien agents, providing for the cancellation and renewal of a notice to a lien agent. Read on to learn more.
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New release of security interest law passed in Hawaii
Posted Date: Wednesday, July 19, 2017
Hawaii Gov. David Ige signed legislation that requires mortgagees and their assignees to provide to a mortgagor, upon satisfaction of the mortgage and discharge of the debt, a reassignment or release of the security interest in leases and rents that served as an additional security for the mortgage. Read on for more details.
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Colorado insurance commissioner gets new role
Posted Date: Monday, July 17, 2017
Gov. John Hickenlooper announced Marguerite Salazar as the new executive director of the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies. Salazar is currently Colorado’s Insurance Commissioner. Read on for more details.
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Realtor convicted of forgery
Posted Date: Wednesday, July 12, 2017
A former Realtor from Sisters, Ore., pled guilty and was convicted in Deschutes County Circuit Court of the felony crime of forgery. Read on for more details.
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Underwriter executives talk tough topics, future of industry
Posted Date: Monday, July 31, 2017
The industry has gone through some massive changes in the past several years, with more changes to come. During the National Settlement Services Summit in San Antonio, executives from four title insurers talked about tough topics like cybersecurity and eClosings, as well as their thoughts on the future of the industry.
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Foreclosure sale buyers sue after lien discovery
Posted Date: Monday, July 31, 2017
After purchasing property at a foreclosure sale, a couple received a request of payment on a previously unknown to them first lien on the property. They went to the lender that sold the property, who filed a claim with its title insurer. When the title insurer refused to indemnify or defend the bank, the bank assigned its rights to the couple, who filed suit against the title insurer for breach of contract. Read on for more details.
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Hawaii purchase leads to conveyance dispute
Posted Date: Monday, July 31, 2017
In a case involving property bought by a non-profit ecclesiastical organization, two individuals and the organization sued First American Title and Stewart Title for failing to defend their property rights when the property was foreclosed upon and sold by the overseer of the Popular Assembly of Revitalize, a Gospel of Believers. Read on for details of the case.
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Buyers sue brokers, settlement companies over kickbacks, arbitration
Posted Date: Wednesday, July 26, 2017
California homebuyers sued the real estate brokers and settlement companies that assisted them in the sale of their homes, alleging the entities violated their fiduciary duty by failing to disclose alleged kickbacks paid by the service providers to the brokers in connection with the sale. The defendants filed motions to compel arbitration. Read on for more details.
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Bank sues closing entities for not covering tax lien
Posted Date: Wednesday, July 26, 2017
After paying the state of Texas to remove a tax lien against a seller that was recorded after the sale of the property, a bank filed suit against the closing entities, making claims for negligence, breach of contract and fraud. Read on for more details.
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New York DFS releases cybersecurity regulation FAQs
Posted Date: Wednesday, July 26, 2017
In preparation for implementation of the new financial services cybersecurity regulations, the New York Department of Financial Regulations released a series of questions covered entities have been frequently asking. Read on for more details.
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Middle district of Florida settles reverse mortgage fraud case
Posted Date: Wednesday, July 26, 2017
Acting U.S. Attorney W. Stephen Muldrow announces a civil settlement with Alexander Olympus Zarris that resolves alleged violations of the False Claims Act and the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act of 1989 through reverse mortgage transactions engineered by Zarris at a Tarpon Springs condominium complex. Zarris will pay $475,000 to address the damage his conduct caused to a lending program overseen by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Read on for more details.
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D.C. man sentenced for forged mortgage satisfaction scam
Posted Date: Wednesday, July 26, 2017
A Washington, D.C., man was sentenced to time in prison and ordered to pay restitution to a national title insurer for his involvement in a real estate scheme involving forged mortgage satisfaction documents. Read on for more details.
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Property owner sues agent over missed mortgage in title search
Posted Date: Monday, July 24, 2017
After discovering a mortgage and lis pendens recorded in the property records of his home while attempting to sell it, a homeowner in New Jersey filed suit for negligence against the title agent who issued the title commitment. The title agent had contracted with an abstract company to conduct a search of the title before issuing the title commitment and had received no information about the liens on the property. Read on for more details.
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Pennsylvania Attorney General creates Consumer Financial Protection Unit
Posted Date: Monday, July 24, 2017
Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro announced he is creating a Consumer Financial Protection Unit to better protect Pennsylvania consumers from financial scams, and appointing an experienced consumer protection attorney to lead the initiative. Read on for more details.
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New Jersey adopts short sale bill
Posted Date: Monday, July 24, 2017
The New Jersey State Legislature adopted a bill that establishes a process for the consideration of officers from short sale buyers during residential mortgage foreclosures. Read on for more details.
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California man pleads guilty to wire fraud, money laundering
Posted Date: Monday, July 24, 2017
A Lafayette, Calif., man pleaded guilty to wire fraud and money laundering charges in connection with a scheme to use sham companies and collusive lawsuits to create the appearance that mortgage liens had been invalidated. Read on for more details.
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Building owner sues title insurer over demolished building
Posted Date: Wednesday, July 19, 2017
The owner of a multiunit residential building in Chicago filed suit against her title insurer, alleging that the title insurer failed to timely remove defects on the property’s title, including an unpaid mortgage from the prior owner and building code violations, leading to the eventual demolition of the building. Read on for more details.
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Banks dispute priority of mortgages
Posted Date: Wednesday, July 19, 2017
Two banks disputed the priority of their liens against property in Arizona. In addressing the dispute, the court addressed the doctrines of replacement and equitable subrogation as they apply to lien rights. Read on for more details.
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California judge details third-party beneficiary status
Posted Date: Monday, July 17, 2017
A California homebuyer who was refinancing her home later found out her previous loan was not fully paid off at the time of her refinancing. In turn, she sued the title company for “purposely or negligently” failing to verify the proper payoff amount. The California district judge took a detailed look at whether the plaintiff was a third-party beneficiary to lender’s closing instruction in which she was not a party. Read on for the details and see which cases the court found controlling.
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Utah court tackles timing of inception of loss
Posted Date: Monday, July 17, 2017
A Utah man sued First American for, among other things, breach of contract, after his interest in parcels of land was found to be invalid in a quiet title action. The district court in Utah was tasked with determining the inception of loss, an area in which the state code language of the term had not been precisely defined through case law in the context of title insurance. Read on for details of how the district court determined inception of loss, and whether the man’s claim was time-barred.
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Attorney sentenced for conspiracy against distressed homeowners
Posted Date: Monday, July 17, 2017
A Maryland attorney was sentenced to time in prison for conspiring in a long-running fraud scheme that targeted distressed homeowners throughout Connecticut. Bradford Barneys was an attorney licensed to practice in Connecticut and has an office in Bridgeport. Read on for more details.
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Party contests reopening of completed foreclosure
Posted Date: Wednesday, July 12, 2017
After a foreclosure had been entirely completed and the property sold, a party sought to reopen the foreclosure in order to extinguish the interests of parties who had been omitted inadvertently from the original action. One of the previously omitted parties sought to dismiss the case against it. Read on for more details.
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Bank seeks judgment that debtor knew of mortgage
Posted Date: Wednesday, July 12, 2017
In a bankruptcy filing, a bank filed a motion for partial summary judgment to find that the debtor had actual or constructive knowledge about a mortgage on property his company bought. Read on for more details.
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Unclear title leads to dispute in foreclosure suit
Posted Date: Wednesday, July 12, 2017
After a series of transactions in which two of three joint tenants refinanced property in Illinois, the lender filed a complaint to foreclose on its mortgage. The mortgagors moved to dismiss the complaint and filed a third-party suit against their title insurer. Read on for more details.
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Must title insurer defend claim after conveyance?
Posted Date: Monday, July 10, 2017
A national title insurer sued an insured couple, seeking a declaration that it had no duty to defend in a quiet title dispute with the couple’s neighbor because the couple had previously conveyed the property. The couple argued that they maintained an interest in the property and were still insured. Read on for more details.
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Title insurer, FDIC dispute coverage under CPL
Posted Date: Monday, July 10, 2017
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., as receiver for Amtrust Bank, sued a national underwriter for coverage under two closing protection letters. Read on for more details.
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Maryland woman convicted of mail, wire fraud
Posted Date: Monday, July 10, 2017
A federal jury convicted a Hyattsville, Md., woman on one count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and five counts of mail fraud arising from a scheme to defraud victims through a foreclosure rescue fraud scam.
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