Legislative Developments

A bipartisan group of representatives introduced the bipartisan Establishing Risks to Security (ENABLERS) Act, designed to close loopholes that kleptocrats from around the world use to launder money in the United States. Among other things, it would require the Treasury secretary to promulgate a rule requiring domestic title insurance companies to report to the secretary information on the beneficial owners of entitles that purchase or sell residential or commercial real estate in transactions in which the domestic title insurance company is involved.

The Massachusetts General Court is considering legislation to authorize the town of Nantucket, Mass., to impose a real estate transfer fee for affordable and workforce housing.

The North Carolina General Assembly is considering legislation that would allow remote electronic notarization.

The General Court of New Hampshire adopted legislation that, among other things adopts the revised uniform law on notarial acts and the uniform real property electronic recording act. The majority of these provisions will go into effect Feb. 6, 2022.

The California Legislature passed legislation regarding discriminatory restrictions in real property. The bill now goes to Gov. Gavin Newsom for his signature.

Several new bills recently signed into law by Governor Parson revise provisions for producer license renewals and provide opportunities toward continuing education credits for insurance professionals.

The New York Legislature adopted legislation making affirmative allegation provisions applicable to foreclosures of residential mortgages covering one-to-four family dwellings. The bill goes into effect Jan. 1, 2022.

The chair of the Senate Finance Committee introduced the Decent, Affordable, Safe Housing for All (DASH) Act, designed to make a generational investment to house all people experiencing homelessness, tackle the housing affordability crisis and expand homeownership opportunities for young people by creating a new down payment tax credit for first-time home buyers.

The Texas Legislature adopted legislation to create a work group on blockchain matters concerning the state. The bill goes into effect Sept. 1.

The Texas Legislature adopted legislation relating to the availability of personal information of current or former federal prosecutors or public defenders. It restricts that information from public information in areas not dealing with land records.