Title Insurance Coverage Narrowed For Properties Sold Through Foreclosure

To register for the upcoming live webinar, please Click Here

New York State is known for a lot things. Being lender friendly is not one of them. The foreclosure process (especially for home loans) is lengthy and laden with traps. It is also becoming quite onerous, as evidenced by the passage of a recent statute, which creates a significant new impediment to title insurance for home loan mortgages devolving through a foreclosure sale. The new statute, RPAPL § 1302-a, effective December 23, 2019, provides, in essence, that the defense of lack of standing is no longer waivable where the mortgage is categorized as a home loan, even though a defendant neglected to raise the defense in a pre-answer motion to dismiss or in a responsive pleading. If a defendant appeared, their ability to raise the defense continues to the moment when the hammer falls at the foreclosure auction sale. But if a defendant did not appear, then the ability to pursue the defense survives the foreclosure sale, lurking to assault the foreclosure sale title for what is a potentially uncertain duration. It is this unpredictable exposure which understandably makes title companies more than timorous to insure foreclosure sales, and which not, incidentally, creates problems for foreclosing lenders and foreclosure sale bidders.

To register for the upcoming live webinar, please Click Here