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government affairs blog

OLD Gov't Affairs Blog
We stopped using this blog after the 2013 Florida Legislative Session and created a new Government Affairs Forum, which will allow us to better control distribution of information.  This one will be maintained as an archive. 

More formal bulletins, summaries of legislation, position papers and the like appear on the Government Affairs page

  • 07/11/2011 5:59 PM | Anonymous

    When Consumer Financial Protection Bureau architect Elizabeth Warren testifies before the House Oversight Committee on Thursday, Republicans will get one last chance to air public critiques of the CFPB before the new agency begins its work.

  • 07/11/2011 5:54 PM | Anonymous
    No one knows what the economy or the stock market will do over the next six months. But when your time horizon is 20 years, the outlook is actually a lot clearer. And right now, all the trends are lining up to make real estate a fantastic long-term buy.

    Read more: http://moneyland.time.com/2011/07/11/real-estate-the-buying-opportunity-of-a-lifetime/#ixzz1Rpu7Jgq0
  • 07/11/2011 5:48 PM | Anonymous
    The Department of Housing and Urban Development struck a $4.5 million settlement withFidelity National Financial over claims the title company paid real estate brokers kickbacks and referral fees in violation of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act.

  • 07/11/2011 5:46 PM | Anonymous

    Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) introduced a House resolution that would establish a temporary national foreclosure moratorium.

    Kaptur submitted H.R. 344 to the House Financial Services Committee on July 8, which called on President Obama to declare "a national residential mortgage foreclosure emergency" and encouraged individual states to enact the moratorium.


    more

  • 07/09/2011 3:13 PM | Anonymous
    Pictures of Rule Redrafting Committee have been Posted to FLTA's Facebook site.   You can view them here.
  • 07/08/2011 1:05 PM | Anonymous

    One significant change to the RESPA rule adopted in November 2008 and implemented in January 2010 was the introduction of “roll up” lines and aggregate line item totals on the HUD-1 Settlement Statement. This concept was designed to help consumers shop for settlement services by making it simpler to aggregate classes of charges. While HUD’s stated goal was improving consumer understanding of charges, roll ups have not been an effective tool for achieving this transparency and simplicity, and itemization of charges is a more logical solution, ALTA’s RESPA Task Force wrote in a paper addressing RESPA reform.

    More from ALTA

  • 07/08/2011 11:13 AM | Anonymous
    As one of its interim projects, the Florida Senate will be reconsidering the area of the law surrounding "Bad Faith" claims regarding insurance settlement practices.   

    While there has long been a duty for an insurer to act in good faith as to their insureds, Gwynne Young (Pres. Elect of the Florida Bar and active RPPTL Member) and Johanna Clark pointed out in a recent Florida Bar Article the relatively new practice of intentionally setting up a "Bad Faith" claim with unreasonable demands, conditions and other "tricks" in order to elevate a claim beyond policy limits.   

    A copy of their Bar Journal article can be read here.

    And here is the link to the Senate Project Summary.     It is part of a long document, so search for project 2012-132

    The title industry lobby team is evaluating whether we, as an industry, should provide the senate with specific examples of problems affecting the title insurers.
  • 07/08/2011 10:58 AM | Anonymous
    The Senate has announced a series of interim projects under consideration.   One of them will be addressing vexatious Litigation and so called SLAP suits (Strategic lawsuits against public participation).

    Here is a summary of the issues they plan to address:

    Vexatious Litigation
    DATE DUE: September 1, 2011 
    PROJECT NUMBER: 2012-212 


    During the 2011 legislative session, concern was raised that land use laws, regulations, and local land use ordinances were being abused by individuals or organizations that file lawsuits in bad faith for financial gain. Although s. 163.3184, F.S., requires good faith filing, there was interest in finding out whether the protections already in place for landowners could be strengthened without harming affected citizens’ access to courts.

  • 07/07/2011 3:51 PM | Anonymous

    Licensed Title Agents and Agencies in Florida
    as of July 1, 2011:

    License

    Lic. Type

    Appointed

    Not Appointed

    Resident Title Agent

    04-10

    2,626

    5,446

    Non-resident Title Agent

    94-13

    204

    570

    Total:

    2,830

    6,016

    Resident Title Agency

    04-12

    1,542

    1,710

    Non-resident Title Agency

    04-13

    192

    241

    Total

    1,734

    1,951


    Compliments of the Florida Department of Financial Services
  • 07/07/2011 3:17 PM | Anonymous

    Ray Wenger, as part of his continued outreach on behalf of the Department of Financial Services, suggested we remind our members that Florida Statutes §626.641 was revised last year to include subsection (3)(b):

    (3)(a) If any of an individual’s licenses as an agent or customer representative or the eligibility to hold such license or licenses has been revoked at two separate times, the department may not thereafter grant or issue any license under this code to such individual.

    (b) If a license as an agent or customer representative or the eligibility to hold such a license has been revoked resulting from the solicitation or sale of an insurance product to a person 65 years of age or older, the department may not thereafter grant or issue any license under this code to such individual.

    This statute DOES apply to title insurance agents and agencies. That means a title agent or agency who issues a title insurance policy on a person who is age 65 or older and the transaction is found to violate the Florida Statutes, could find that their license is revoked and they would not be eligible to reinstate that license because of this statute.

    This statute can dramatically increase the be extremely important to an agency specializing in reverse mortgage closings. 

    It will also apply if an agent or agency fails to respond to an administrative complaint against their license and the complaint includes an allegation involving a senior citizen.  The license may be revoked under the Florida Statutes and the statute above would prevent the license from EVER being reinstated.


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