Bill Text: NJ A403 | 2010-2011 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Requires creditor to provide mortgage payoff balance to borrower within five business days after request.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 5-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2011-05-19 - Reported out of Assembly Committee, 2nd Reading [A403 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2010-A403-Introduced.html
STATE OF NEW JERSEY
214th LEGISLATURE
PRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 2010 SESSION
Sponsored by:
Assemblyman PATRICK J. DIEGNAN, JR.
District 18 (Middlesex)
Assemblyman JOSEPH V. EGAN
District 17 (Middlesex and Somerset)
Co-Sponsored by:
Assemblymen Chivukula, Wisniewski and Assemblywoman Greenstein
SYNOPSIS
Requires creditor to provide mortgage payoff balance to borrower within five business days after request.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
Introduced Pending Technical Review by Legislative Counsel
An Act concerning mortgage payoff balances and amending P.L.2003, c.64.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. Section 4 of P.L.2003, c.64 (C.46:10B-25) is amended to read as follows:
4. a. No creditor making a home loan shall finance, directly or indirectly, any credit life, credit disability, credit unemployment or credit property insurance, or any other life or health insurance, or any payments directly or indirectly for any debt cancellation or suspension agreement or contract, except that insurance premiums or debt cancellation or suspension fees calculated and paid on a monthly basis shall not be considered financed by the creditor.
b. (Deleted by amendment, P.L.2004, c.84) [.]
c. No creditor shall recommend or encourage default on an existing loan or other debt prior to and in connection with the closing or planned closing of a home loan that refinances all or any portion of that existing loan or debt.
d. No creditor shall charge a late payment fee in relation to a home loan except according to the following rules:
(1) The late payment fee may not be in excess of 5% of the amount of the payment past due.
(2) The fee may only be assessed by a payment past due for 15 days or more.
(3) The fee may not be charged more than once with respect to a single late payment. If a late payment fee is deducted from a payment made on the loan, and such deduction causes a subsequent default on a subsequent payment, no late payment fee may be imposed for such default. If a late payment fee has been once imposed with respect to a particular late payment, no such fee shall be imposed with respect to any future payment which would have been timely and sufficient, but for the previous default.
(4) No fee shall be charged unless the creditor notifies the borrower within 45 days following the date the payment was due that a late payment fee has been imposed for a particular late payment. No late payment fee may be collected from any borrower if the borrower informs the creditor that nonpayment of an installment is in dispute and presents proof of payment within 45 days of receipt of the creditor's notice of the late fee.
(5) The creditor shall treat each and every payment as posted on the same date as it was received by the creditor, servicer, creditor's agent, or at the address provided to the borrower by the creditor, servicer, or the creditor's agent for making payments.
e. No home loan shall contain a provision that permits the creditor, in its sole discretion, to accelerate the indebtedness. This provision does not prohibit acceleration of the loan in good faith due to the borrower's failure to abide by the material terms of the loan.
f. No creditor shall charge a fee for informing or transmitting to any person the balance due to pay off a home loan or to provide a release upon prepayment. Payoff balances shall be provided within [seven] five business days after the creditor receives a written request.
(cf: P.L.2004, c.84, s.3)
2. This act shall take effect immediately.
STATEMENT
This bill provides that, as to a home loan under the "New Jersey Home Ownership Security Act of 2002," a creditor shall provide a borrower with the mortgage payoff balance within five business days after the creditor receives a written request.
