Gov't Affairs Blog

2/21/12 Update    Today SB 938 was approved by the Senate Budget committee without the title industry's amendments.   We'll continue to work on protecting the existing surety bond, and make other changes but things are not looking promising on this bill. 

a. Eliminate the current $35,000 surety bond requirement 

b. Provide that only licensed agents could solicit for the sale of insurance

c. Require continuing education to be taken in a 7 hour course (which could be broken up over multiple days) from a single provider. 

We have been working with DFS in an attempt to address concerns with these provisions and believe we have reached agreement on language to preserve the current $35,000 bond -- which is important to the protecting the public, and softening the prohibition on unlicensed persons communicating with Realtors and other referral sources.    We are still working on a solution to the 7 hour block CE requirement. 

In the meantime, these bills have been progressing.   both bills have one remaining committee stop.   

2/8/12.8:45 am Update : This morning discussion was running long and the House Economic Affairs committee "Temporarily Passed" HB 213. this is a procedural move that keeps the bill alive, and but will require a later hearing and approval of the committee. This late in the process, this is not a positive thing. 1/27/12 FLTA members spent many months working with Florida Rep. Kathleen Passidomo (R-Naples) -- herself a Board Certified Real Estate Attorney -- on legislation to address some of the foreclosure problems facing Florida.   Her bill included a clear duty on the part of the lender to provide unconditional estoppels within 15 days, to actually return the original note, and to provide a degree of protection to the innocent purchaser of foreclosed property. 

2/16/12 Update:   Congratulations to Rep. George Moraitis!  Today the Florida House of Representatives unanimously passed the title industry Data Call bill, HB 643.  The linked public records exemption has not yet been heard by the full house but has passed all committees.  The Senate companions  SB 1404 & SB 1406 have one remaining committee stop. 

2/15/12 Update:   HB 643 has been approved by all committees, placed on the special order calendar and had its second reading today and is on the agenda for a floor vote tomorrow.   The companion public records exemption is is also on the special order calendar and has been read twice. 

2/9/12 Update:   SB 1404 was reported favorably by the Senate Judiciary Committee this afternoon after amendments conforming it to the house version were made. Next and final committee stop is the Senate Budget Committee.

2/8/12 Update: This morning both HB 643 and 645 were reported favorably by the House Economic Affairs committee with two negative votes. This was the final committee stop for the public records exemption of HB 645, which will now move to the house floor.

Yesterday the Senate government operations committee approved the Senate public records exemption SB1406.

2/3/12 Update: This morning, HB 643 was recommended favorably by the Rulemaking and Regulation Subcommittee.   It has one remaining committee stop before the House economic affairs committee.

The Senate companion, SB 1050 was approved by the judiciary committee today, and moved immediately onto the Senate special order calendar.

The Senate companion, SB 1202, has one more committee stop. 

Thanks to the generous support of a number of our underwriters, we were able to engage Ken Bell, former supreme court justice, and a great dirt lawyer in his own right to file a "Friend of the Court" brief with the Florida Supreme Court in Pino v. Bank of New York.

More detail and a copy of the brief can be found here.

Update 2/2/12 

SB 1050 is on the agenda for the Senate Banking and Insurance Committee for 2/7/12 at 1:30.   After this, it will have one additional committee stop in Senate Judiciary.

HB 505/SB 1050 attempts to address this issue by requiring lenders to provide a payoff amount and per diem estoppel (but no other detail) when presented with a request from or on behalf of the current owner of the property. The request must include a copy of the instrument vesting title in the new owner. 

Today, HB 505 unanimously passed its second committee of reference, and has one more committee stop with the Economic Affairs Committee (Chaired by FLTA 2011 Legislator of the Year Dorothy Hukill).

HB 1331 was reported favorably by the House Criminal Justice subcommittee today.