Short sales…everybody has them on their mind these days. The incidents of short sales are going to be more volumnious in areas where the real housing bubble burst. Florida has a real demand. Indiana’s is not quire as common. The reason…ot that many people in Indiana ended up losing 25% or more of the value of their homes. Short sales in Indiana should, by reason, be easier to accomplish because in all likelihood they do not involve as much money.
I am not sure how many people who get involved in short sales in Indiana are aware that last year consumer protection legislation was signed into law by Governor Daniels. Indiana H>B> 1176 contains provisions that became law in July 2009 requiring mortgage servicers to acknowledge and respond to short sales within certain time frames.
This law requires creditors, servicers, or creditors agents must acknowledge written short sale offers within 10 business days and the servicer must accept or reject a borrower-submitted offer no later than 30 days after receipt of the offer. If you enjoy reading the actual law, here is a link to the language.
I have read this and could dribble on about questions that come to mind for me and no amount of research I am able to do seems to provide answers. The two primary questions is the requirement that the written offer qualifies as a “qualified written request” under RESPA (Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act”. The second is does this law allow for counter offers in the post 30 day period. It would seem not.
I will update this blog as I discover these answers. It may be that, like many laws, they have been left to interpretation and ultimatly the courts to decide. Nevertheless, the most important thing to know is how to file a complaint if your short sale request is ignored in Indiana. There is an on-line complaint form that can be filed with the Indiana Department of Financial Institutions (DFI). The DFI uses the complaints to track and establish patterns with certain lenders and use regulatory authority to investigate the complaint. Additionally, the Homeowner Protection Unit of the Indiana Attorney General has enforcement authority over the complaints. When completing the form, the complaints should be filed with the DFI, and the field that the Homeowner Protection Unit should investigate marked (Field #18 on the Indiana complaint).
So, in your experience, has the implementation of this law helped?
Tags: Indiana, short sales
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