Washington Amends Foreclosure Mediation Procedures

Foreclosure Mortgage Servicing Loss Mitigation

On March 31, Washington Governor Jay Inslee signed into law HB 2723, which amends the foreclosure mediation process established by the 2011 Foreclosure Fairness Act. The bill, which takes effect June 12, 2014, amends the meet-and-confer process to (i) require that notice of pre-foreclosure options a beneficiary or authorized agent is required to send to the borrower must be sent by first-class registered or certified mail, return receipt requested; (ii) require that in-person meetings must be held in the county where the property is located, unless the parties agree otherwise; and (iii) amend the "foreclosure loss mitigation form" to add options for describing or explaining meet-and-confer efforts. The bill also alters mediation provisions to (i) allow mediation upon agreement of the parties, even if the borrower failed to elect mediation in the required timeframe; (ii) require beneficiaries to disclose any investor restriction that prohibits the beneficiary from implementing a modification and not just the portion or excerpt of a pooling and servicing agreement that includes such a prohibition; and (iii) require mediation to take place in the county where the property is located.