UTA Testifies Before Oregon Senate

David Fennell, Esq., Routh Crabtree Olsen, testified on behalf of UTA on Tuesday, January 12th, during a hearing to assess the progress of Oregon’s Senate Bill 628. That bill, in its original form, would have forced trustees, at their expense, into a mandated mediation process with borrowers prior to a foreclosure sale. However, due to UTA’s lobbying efforts, through the work of our lobbyist, Drew Hagedorn, SB 628, as signed, required only that lenders provide an enhanced mediation notice to grantors and allowed grantors to petition lenders for a modification of their loan.

It is possible that the sponsor of the bill - and Chair of the relevant committee - Senator Suzanne Bonamici (D-17th District), intends to resurrect her efforts to force nonjudicial foreclosures into mandatory mediation. During testimony before the Senate Interim Committee on Consumer Protection and Public Affairs on January 12th, David Fennell testified that the law is too new to draw any conclusions as to its efficacy. Fennell noted that “Since the bill wasn’t effective until nearly October and since lenders have been delaying a lot of their foreclosure referrals as their compliance groups are taking, in many cases, months to catch up to the new law, there simply hasn’t been enough time or volume of files to ascertain whether the new law is making a difference.”

On January 12th, legislation was approved by the House Interim Committee on Consumer Protection for introduction in February. That bill, HB 3610, sponsored by Rep. Bill Garrard (R-Klamath Falls) specifies that not later than five days before a trustee conducts a foreclosure sale, they must file an affidavit of compliance with the requirement to meet with a grantor concerning their request for a loan modification.

Read a copy of UTA’s Testimony

Read HB 3610