New York’s foreclosure laws are “b🐼roken,” and it’sꦓ time to change them, the state’s top banking regulator said Tuesday.
Ben Lawsky♉, superintendent of the Department of Financial Services, slammed the state’s foreclosure laws for letting settlements drag on too long and being burdensome for mortgage holders.
He called upon lawmakers to ease the process.
The foreclosure process in the Empire State iꦿs about 900 days — twice the national average — and punishes struggling homeowners by racking up fees and making loan modifications more difficult, Lawsky said during a conference of mortgage bankersꩵ.
The “most significant” cause for the delays were mandatory — and in-person — settlement conferences that aren’t required to be in goꩵod faith, Lawsky saꩲid.
Right now, a mortgage lender or servicer can show up unprepared, or not at all, to a settlement conference, delaying the process, a𝐆nd get to collect more in interest and fees than if it had acted more quickly to complete the foreclosure, he said.
“The state’s foreclosure process is broken and badly in need of change,” he said in a stat♐ement. “This is not a flaw in the court system; it is a flaw in the law.”
Lawksy has built a reputation for toughness on mortgage servicers after investi🐽gatin𓆏g Ocwen Financial for two years.