Fair Lending Shake-Ups: CFPB Vacates Townstone Settlement, FHFA Ends GSEs' Special Purpose Credit Programs — The Consumer Finance Podcast
The Latest on Junk Fees and New York's Foreclosure Abuse Prevention Act — The Consumer Finance Podcast
The Latest on HUD's Disparate Impact Rule - The Consumer Finance Podcast
Title Insurance and Your Transaction
Law Brief®: Robert Wolf, Alexander Tiktin and Richard Schoenstein Discuss the Continuing Foreclosure/Eviction Moratorium
Credit Eco to Go Podcast - Not a Normal Mortgage Crisis: How the Mortgage Industry Weathered the Pandemic
Not a Normal Mortgage Crisis: How the Mortgage Industry Weathered the Pandemic
On May 20, 2025, the New York Court of Appeals agreed to hear constitutional challenges to one aspect of New York’s Foreclosure Abuse Prevention Act (FAPA). ...more
In the ever-evolving world of mortgage lending, a scenario often arises where a borrower refinances their existing mortgage with a new lender, but the payoff funds tendered by the new lender are less than the full amount...more
Arsenis v. M&T Bank is a tale of two cases. The bank brought an action against Ms. Arsenis to foreclosure on a mortgage loan in New Jersey Superior Court. Through a combination of defenses and counterclaims in the foreclosure...more
In a less-than-thousand-word opinion, the Fourth District Court of Appeal of Florida put foreclosure cases across Florida in jeopardy. Namely, in all foreclosure cases in which a borrower is deceased, unless the legal...more
Recently, the United States Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit held that a mortgage servicer’s failure to provide a required disclosure informing borrowers of their three-day right to rescind the loan under the Truth in...more
The New York Court of Appeals’ decision last week, Freedom Mortgage Corp v. Engel, contains two “reliable and objective rules permitting consistent application of the statute of limitations.” What are those rules? ...more
It is no surprise to anyone involved in consumer lending that laws designed to protect consumers from inception of the loan relationship through collection of the loan following default vary greatly from state to state and...more
Shareholder Derivative Lawsuit Aungst v. Light, 9th Dist. Summit No. 29349, 2020-Ohio-3347 In this appeal, the Ninth Appellate District affirmed the trial court’s decision, finding that when a shareholder’s derivative...more
The Second Circuit recently certified two questions to the New York Court of Appeals regarding the requisite proof needed for borrowers to dispute the lender's compliance with New York Real Property Procedures and Acts...more
In Futuri Real Estate, Inc. v. Atlantic Trustee Servs., LLC, borrowers Milton and Armida Cortez (the “Borrowers”) obtained three loans secured by separate deeds of trust on their residence: (A) a $415,000 deed of trust in...more
Borrowers looking to invalidate a foreclosure sale often come up with interesting theories. One frequent strategy is to attack the validity of a prior assignment of the underlying note and deed of trust. As explained in...more
A recent decision by the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit offers some vindication for mortgage companies still facing “repurchase” demands made by the banks to which they sold residential mortgages in the...more
Alabama’s materialman’s lien statute (specifically, Ala. Code § 35-11-211) was intended to provide construction lenders priority over materialmen as to debts relating to construction projects, and this intent was recently...more
Alabama’s materialman’s lien statute (specifically, Ala. Code § 35-11-211) was drafted with the intent of providing construction lenders priority over materialmen as to debts relating to construction projects. This intent was...more
In Jones v. Brand Law Firm, P.A. (In re Belmonte), Case No. 18-2098-bk (2d Cir. July 25, 2019), the Second Circuit affirmed both the bankruptcy court and district court decisions that found the Trustee was not barred by 11...more
Does the death of the borrower automatically accelerate a reverse mortgage? In a decision that is good news for reverse mortgage lenders, a recent New York appellate court answered no....more
Under California’s “tender rule,” a borrower suing to halt or unwind a wrongful foreclosure sale generally must allege that it tendered the amounts due on the loan before the sale. The rationale underlying the tender rule is...more
Lenders who prevail on claims arising from a deed of trust can always recover their attorney fees from the losing party as long as the deed of trust says something about fee recovery, right? It’s not that simple....more
The Eleventh Circuit recently rejected a defense to foreclosure based on a federal statute governing insurance of reverse mortgages by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (“HUD”). HUD administers a...more
The Sixth Circuit has issued another opinion regarding loan modifications, following its opinion two weeks ago in Segrist v. Bank of New York Mellon (2018 WL 3773785, August 9, 2018), on which I earlier wrote. Now, in...more
In a case with potentially broad implications, the Sixth Circuit becomes the first federal circuit court to hold that the Truth in Lending Act provides no right to rescind a loan modification agreement entered into with a...more
When a foreclosure sale generates more money than needed to pay off the lien, the excess proceeds usually go first to creditors in the order of their priority, and second to the owner after creditors are paid in full. So, in...more
A recent appeal to the Fourth Circuit may shed light on whether Virginia borrowers can assert federal mortgage servicing requirements as a defense to foreclosure when the mortgage instrument pre-dates the federal requirement....more
In Idaho, it has long been understood that a secured creditor that has foreclosed a mortgage may be able to also get a judgment against the debtor for the remainder of the debt, if the proceeds of the foreclosure sale are not...more
In Helman v. Bank of America, 15-13672, 2017 WL 1350728 (11th Cir. April 12, 2017) the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeal clarified important issues regarding the use of periodic mortgage statements after a bankruptcy...more