On February 20, 2023 the new Foreclosure Abuse Prevention Act was signed by New York Governor Kathy Hochul. Here are some significant aspects of this new law;
- A motion to discontinue a foreclosure lawsuit will no longer be able to reset the six year statute of limitations to bring a new foreclosure lawsuit. Under this new statute, legal action by the holder of the note. (e.g., the bank) to discontinue the lawsuit does not extend the statute of limitations for bring a foreclosure lawsuit. The holder of the loan is time barred from foreclosing the mortgage after six years from the date the loan was initially accelerated. The new law changes “the election of remedies” law in the State of New York. It now states, once the foreclosure action is barred by the statute of limitations, a loan owner or servicer is prohibited from bringing any other lawsuit to recover the same part of the mortgage debt. This includes preventing the financial institution from bringing another foreclosure lawsuit and/or an action to recover a personal judgment against the borrower on the promissory note.
- In cases where the homeowner brings a quiet title action or in response to a homeowner’s or borrower’s statute of limitations defense in a foreclosure law suit, the statute of limitations still expires even when the lender did not validly accelerate the loan. Under this new law in New York, the loan owner or servicer would be permitted to assert that the acceleration was invalid only if a prior foreclosure action was dismissed based on a court ruling which ruled that the original acceleration of the mortgage is not valid for statute of limitation purposes.
- This new law applies RETROACTIVELY to any foreclosure lawsuit action filed before December 30, 2022, for which a final judgment and order of sale has not been enforced.
Changing Foreclosure Rules
Financial institutions and their attorneys have been getting away with starting foreclosure lawsuits, withdrawing the foreclosure lawsuits, and then starting them all over again and continually renewing the six year statute limitations. Now homeowners have a sword to fight foreclosure lawsuits which they didn’t have in the past!
The law office of Schlissel DeCorpo have been defending homeowners regarding mortgage issues for more than three decades. They can be reached at 516-561-6645, 718-350-2802, 631-319-8262 and 914-998-0080 or emailed at Elliot@sdnylaw.com.
