FEMA Alert
August 13, 2021
FEMA issued a Presidential Major Disaster Declaration for areas in Montana affected by straight-line winds that took place June 10, 2021. The following counties have been approved for assistance:
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FEMA Declared Disaster Montana: ZIP Code List
Montana Straight-Line Winds (DR-4608)
Additional Resources
FEMA’s web site
FEMA’s Disaster Declaration Process
Safeguard Properties Industry Alerts
VA’s Policy Regarding Natural Disasters
Disaster Alert
August 16, 2021
Source: WESH NBC 2
NOTE: This has not yet been declared a FEMA Disaster.
MIAMI — Tropical Depression Grace was approaching the southern coast of the Dominican Republic early Monday morning, and flash flooding is possible across the Dominican Republic and Haiti as the day progresses, according to the National Hurricane Center.
As of 11 a.m. Monday, the system had maximum sustained winds of 35 mph. Grace was 85 miles southeast of Port au Prince, Haiti, and 430 miles east of Montego Bay, Jamaica.
For full report, please click the source link above.
Investor Update
August 13, 2021
Source: FHFA
Washington, D.C. – Today, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) released reports providing the results of the 2020 and 2021 annual stress tests Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (the Enterprises) are required to conduct under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank Act). The Dodd-Frank Act, as amended in 2019, requires certain financial institutions that are regulated by a federal financial regulatory agency with more than $250 billion in assets to conduct annual stress tests to determine whether they can absorb losses as a result of severely adverse economic conditions. The report, Dodd-Frank Act Stress Tests – Severely Adverse Scenario, provides updated information on possible ranges of future financial results of the Enterprises under severely adverse economic conditions.
Dodd-Frank Act 2021 Stress Tests – Severely Adverse Scenario
2021 Summary Instructions and Guidance
Dodd-Frank Act 2020 Stress Tests – Severely Adverse Scenario
Industry Update
August 13, 2021
Source: The Hill
A federal judge in Washington, D.C., on Friday rejected a request from a group of landlords to block the Biden administration’s renewed eviction moratorium.
The ruling by U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich, a Trump appointee, leaves intact the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) extended freeze on evictions, which is set to run until early October.
The development comes after Friedrich ruled in May that a previous version of the CDC’s eviction suspension was an illegal exercise of the agency’s authority, though she agreed at that time to delay enforcement of her decision, citing the risk to public health if evictions were allowed to proceed.
The ensuing months have seen a flurry of political and court activity related to the eviction freeze as the delta variant of the coronavirus has spread through some of the most eviction-vulnerable communities in the U.S. The moratorium has faced numerous court challenges, leading to a patchwork of interpretations nationwide on its lawfulness.
To view full article, please click the source link above.
Industry Update
August 5, 2021
Source: The Hill
The Supreme Court on Thursday temporarily blocked part of an eviction moratorium put in place by New York state amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The order was unsigned but appeared to break along familiar ideological lines over the dissent of the court’s three liberals.
The ruling temporarily lifts part of New York’s policy, which had precluded landlords from challenging a tenant’s self-certified claim of financial hardship, an attestation that had automatically paused eviction proceedings under the policy. But the order does not interfere with a tenant’s ability to mount a so-called hardship defense in an eviction court proceeding.
The court’s unsigned order will remain in place while a legal challenge plays out in a New York-based federal appeals court. In it, the majority wrote that the New York policy appeared to violate landlords’ due process right to a hearing in the face of a tenant’s claimed inability to pay rent.
“This scheme violates the Court’s longstanding teaching that ordinarily ‘no man can be a judge in his own case’ consistent with the Due Process Clause,” they wrote.
The application, filed by a group of five New York property owners and a landlords’ association, was submitted to Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who handles emergency matters arising from New York and who referred the matter to the rest of the justices.
To view full article, please click the source link above.
Investor Update
August 12, 2021
Source: Fannie Mae
This Announcement includes updates to the following :
▪ Investor Reporting Manual*: incorporates changes previously communicated regarding payment deferral gross servicing
fee and guaranty fee reimbursement, and foreclosure P&I advance reimbursement.
▪ IRS Reporting: extends the mandatory effective date of the IRS reporting changes that were previously announced.
View the list of impacted topics.
*Policy change not applicable to reverse mortgage loans.
To access full announcement, please click the source link above.
Updated 8/18/21: Media outlets are reporting structural damage stemming from tornadic activity in Georgia and South Carolina.
The Weather Channel: Fred Spreads Flooding Rain, Isolated Tornado Threats Into Mid-Atlantic, Northeast
WRBL.com: Tornado Touches Down Near Americus
WYFF NBC 4: EF1 tornado touches down in Mauldin, South Carolina, as Fred moved through the area
Approximate reported areas sustaining structural damage:
– Americus (Sumter County, 31709, 31719)
– Canton (Haywood County, 28716)
– Mauldin (Greenville County, 29607, 29662, 29681)
NOTE: This has NOT yet been declared a FEMA Major Disaster.
Updated 8/17/21: FEMA issued an Emergency Declaration for areas in Florida affected by Tropical Storm Fred.
Florida Tropical Storm Fred (EM-3562)
Associated County ZIP Code List
Updated 8/18/21: North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper issued a state of emergency due to impacts from Tropical Storm Fred.
Executive Order 227
Associated County ZIP Code List (Statewide)
Updated 8/16/21: AccuWeather published a report offering the latest forecast information for Tropical Storm Fred, which is expected to make landfall in Florida within the next several hours.
Fickle Tropical Storm Fred bears down on Gulf Coast
Updated 8/13/21: Florida Governor Ron DeSantis issued a state of emergency for 23 counties in anticipation of impacts from Tropical Storm Fred.
Governor DeSantis Issues an Executive Order Regarding Tropical Depression Fred
Associated County ZIP Code List
Updated 8/13/21: The Weather Channel published a report offering the latest forecast information for Tropical Depression Fred, which is expected to make landfall in Florida within the next 24 hours.
Tropical Storm Warnings Issued For Florida Keys as Fred Brings Heavy Rain to Parts of Cuba
Updated 8/11/21: CNN published a report providing the latest on Tropical Storm Fred, which has formed in the Atlantic Ocean.
Tropical Storm Fred Forms in the Caribbean, with the US in Its Path
Disaster Alert
August 10, 2021
Source: CNN
NOTE: This has not yet been declared a FEMA Disaster.
(CNN) — Tropical Storm Fred is expected to form Tuesday, prompting tropical storm watches and warnings across the northern Caribbean.
If it forms, Fred will be the sixth named storm of the 2021 Atlantic hurricane season and will make its way to the southern US this weekend. The disturbance is currently a potential tropical cyclone and the National Hurricane Center is forecasting it to strengthen into a tropical storm Tuesday afternoon or evening.
“Satellite imagery shows that the disturbance has become better organized since yesterday,” the National Hurricane Center said Tuesday morning.
The system is moving west-northwestward at 18 mph with sustained winds of 35 mph. As it continues to progress through the Caribbean, the potential cyclone will bring the threat of flooding, mudslides, and dangerous winds to the islands in the region.
“Tropical storm conditions are expected in portions of the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico beginning this afternoon, and in the Dominican Republic by Wednesday. Tropical storm conditions are possible in northern Haiti and the southeastern Bahamas by late Wednesday,” the NHC said.
Tropical storm warnings are in effect for Puerto Rico, including Culebra and Vieques, the US Virgin Islands, and parts of the Dominican Republic on Tuesday. Tropical storm watches include Martinique and Guadeloupe, Saba and St. Eustatius, the Dominican Republic on the north coast from Cabo Frances Viejo to the border of Haiti, parts of Haiti, Turks and Caicos and the southeastern Bahamas, according to the NHC.
For full report, please click the source link above.
Industry Update
August 5, 2021
Source: DS News
Additional Resource:
Diaz Anselom & Associates P.A. (Illinois Supreme Court Finds Fifty Dollar “Add-On” Foreclosure Filing Fee Unconstitutional)
*Original article
Editor’s note: This article initially appeared in the newsletter of Diaz Anselmo and Associates, a member of The Five Star Institute’s Legal League 100 group.
The Illinois Supreme Court accepted jurisdiction and consolidated two appeals to consider the constitutionality of section 15-1504-1 of the Illinois Code of Civil Procedure (“Code”) and sections 7.30 and 7.31 of the Illinois Housing Development Act (“Act”).i Walker v. Chasteen, 2021 IL 126086 (IL June 17, 2021). The Code created a $50 add-on filing fee to be paid by foreclosure plaintiffs upon filing a foreclosure complaint while the Act created programs to be funded by the fee.ii The $50 fee was earmarked for the Foreclosure Program Prevention Fund which funded programs aimed at preventing foreclosure through counseling and education and funded grants used to maintain and improve abandoned properties.iii
The appellants were foreclosure plaintiffs who were required to pay the $50 fee but challenged the constitutionality of the fee claiming it violated the equal protection, due process, uniformity, and ‘free access’ clauses of the Illinois Constitution of 1970.iv The plaintiffs “sought declaratory and injunctive relief and a return of all filing fees paid pursuant to section 15-1504.1.” The defendants (all Illinois circuit court clerks and the State of Illinois through the Attorney General) argued the statutes were constitutional and even if not “that the voluntary payment doctrine precluded plaintiffs’ claims because they did not pay the filing fee ‘under protest.’”
The circuit court considered the issues on cross-motions for summary judgment and found in favor of the plaintiffs. The court concluded the statutes were “facially unconstitutional” in violation of the “free access, equal protection, due process, and uniformity clauses of the Illinois Constitution…” The court also concluded the voluntary payment doctrine did not apply because the plaintiff’s paid the $50 filing fee under duress. The Attorney General and the clerks from two counties (Cook County and Will County) appealed the permanent injunction which enjoined the circuit courts from charging the filing fee and enforcing the statutes.
The Illinois Supreme Court accepted jurisdiction and first considered whether the voluntary payment doctrine applied; explaining, if it applied, then the constitutionality of the $50 fee would not be considered.v Under the voluntary payment doctrine, one who voluntarily pays money “with knowledge of the facts” cannot later recover that money “on the ground that the claim was illegal.” The Court reasoned that plaintiffs did not have a real choice not to pay “since they would have lost a substantial right” – access to the court system – if they opted not to pay the fee.vi The Court concluded “that duress necessarily and inherently exists in court-filing fee cases.”
To view full article, please click the source link above.
Industry Update
August 6, 2021
Source: DS News
Rep. Maxine Waters, Chairwoman of the House Financial Services Committee, has issued two letters to federal agencies and banking regulators urging them to strengthen foreclosure and mortgage servicing protections for borrowers to provide greater oversight to prevent unnecessary foreclosures during the pandemic.
Rep. Waters’ first letter, written to the Honorable Marcia L. Fudge, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD); the Honorable Thomas J. Vilsack, Secretary from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA); and the Honorable Denis R. McDonough, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), calls on federal housing agencies to protect the nation’s homeowners.
“I write to highlight the gap in foreclosure protections beginning on August 1, the day after the federal foreclosure moratorium expired and August 31, when CFPB’s foreclosure protections rule come into effect,” wrote Chairwoman Waters. “The month-long gap in protections leaves communities vulnerable to foreclosure, especially Black and Latinx homeowners who have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic-induced economic downturn. Therefore, it is important for your agencies to take additional steps to prevent unnecessary foreclosures during this critical time.”
To view full article, please click the source link above.
