LIEB BLOG

Legal Analysts

Friday, October 31, 2014

Short Sales Incentivized

On October 30, 2014, Supplemental Directive 14-04 was issued by Treasury.

2 major changes for those considering a short sale or deed-in-lieu are offered by this Directive.

FIRST - Relocation assistance available to the property owner, who occupies the property as a principal residence and is required to vacate as a condition of the short sale or deed-in-lieu, will be eligible for $10,000 as opposed to $3,000 for transactions that close on or after February 1, 2015.

SECOND - Perhaps most importantly, for transactions closing on or after February 1, 2015, the gross sales proceeds that may be paid to a subordinate mortgage lien holder (e.g. 2nd mortgage) used to be capped at $8,500, but now there is no cap requirement. Instead, servicers can create their own cap provided its not less than $12,000.

To explain the second change above, a first mortgagee may approve a short sale, but the second mortgagee may deny it because there is no fair market value to support a payment to the mortgagee (i.e. the house is underwater as to the second mortgage). This change permits the first mortgagee to pay the second mortgagee (out of their monies from the short sale) to approve the short sale and extends what was a cap of $8,500 in payment to a minimum new cap of $12,000 and potentially no cap at all.

Many deals die because of the second lienholder - this Supplemental Directive should save a lot of deals.

Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Ocwen Mortgages May Get a Reprieve from Foreclosure

On October 21, 2014 the New York State Department of Financial Services sent correspondence to Ocwen's General Counsel raising issue "with Ocwen's systems and processes".

The issue presented by NYS DFS deals squarely with Ocwen engaging in bad faith negotiations to modify mortgages. 

Borrowers in New York should be arming their applications for violations of CPLR 3408's good faith negotiation requirement as they review this correspondence and asking the Courts to sanction Ocwen should they have experienced the issues highlighted in the correspondence.

Of note are the record keeping inaccuracies attributed to Ocwen by NYS DFS, which impact RPAPL 1303 and 1304 as well as issues with standing and, in particularly, the attorney verification requirements embodied CPLR 3012-b. How can a Court trust their applications to foreclose in light of this correspondence?

The correspondence claims that "these issues remain unresolved today". This is very concerning. 

Real Estate Roundtable: Best Advice for Buyers Now

What's the single piece of advice you'd give any prospective buyer right now?

Andrew Lieb along with a select group of industry insiders on the East End share advice to prospective buyers on Dan's Papers. Click here to learn more.