Title Now

Join General Counsel Melissa Murphy, Deputy General Counsel Shannon Widman, and Underwriting Manager Colleen Sachs to discuss the new provision and how you should implement it in your practice. We will also review the statutory definition of Closing Services Fees.   

Need specific resources to help guide your agent and broker referral sources after the NAR Settlement?  You spoke, we listened.   Take a deeper dive into the new Realtor© compensation forms and practice changes, plus special resources available to you on TheFund.com.  Join Fund General Counsel Melissa Murphy along with Deputy General Counsel Shannon Widman for a ONE-HOUR conversation.

Are you interested in how real estate agents are dealing with the new compensation rules?

Join Melissa Murphy and Commercial Underwriting Manager Cynthia Raleigh for a quick, informative overview of the fantastic support The Fund provides Members on commercial transactions. Learn about the types of transactions we support, the role of the underwriting attorney, available services from our commercial paralegals, and other ways we can help you close commercial transactions smoothly and successfully.

Have questions about the NAR settlement? Buyer representation agreements? MLS changes? How will these changes impact your practice?

Join Fund General Counsel Melissa Murphy and Representative Will Robinson (who is also a Fund Member!) for a commentary about the good, the bad and the ugly of the 2024 legislative session. 

Join Fund General Counsel Melissa Murphy and Legal Education Attorney Kara Scott for a discussion of the new law, including an examination of which legal entities are subject to the Corporate Transparency Act, those that are exempt, and how to file a Beneficial Ownership Information Report (BOIR).

Good afternoon, and welcome. I'm Melissa Murphy with The Fund and I have the pleasure of hosting these Popup Webinars that we have from time to time. And we always strive to deal with issues that are of current concern to Fund Members and real estate practitioners. Sometimes it's breaking news. Sometimes we, revisit topics that we covered a year ago.But often those topics deserve a new look. So new legislation is always a great topic for these webinars and today is no exception.But before we get to my guest, a brief reminder that we push the audio from this webinar out on our podcast, which is also conveniently called Title Now. And you can get that wherever you get any of your podcasts to which you subscribe. So please go there and subscribe to Title Now. It's free just like these webinars. And it really is a great way for you to listen to the material again. And it's a really easy way for you to share this content with your colleagues.So what are we gonna talk about today? Mortgage payoffs.And despite the title to this webinar. This is really an exciting topic. We were sort of teasing each other before the webinar started that I don't know how sexy or exciting this topic is, but we have over two hundred people registered for it. So, obviously, there's some interest in it. Because there is a new law in Florida. It's not effective until October 1st, but it makes some pretty significant changes in the process for both requesting a payoff, how the lender sends it back to you, and it changes sort of the dynamics of whether you can rely on that payoff.And as we all know, dealing with mortgage payoffs is a daily task for closing agents.And over the past several years, it's become more and more difficult to rely on the payoff letter that you get from a lender because you close.You send them the money and they often send you that money back and say, "Oops, we made a mistake on our payoff.""You know, get us that additional money and we'll satisfy the mortgage."And in the meantime, interest is accruing against that full mortgage balance. So it's a big problem.So to address this issue, we took the legislative route and worked with various stakeholders to come up with a bill that we thought would provide some redress.And we, we're very, very lucky to have a legislator who's a real estate practitioner and a member of the fund. He supported our effort and he sponsored the bill. So Rep. Tom Fabricio is my guest today. Rep, thank you so much for talking with us today.Melissa, thank you so much for, inviting me on to the webinar. A long time fan, first time participant.And, and this is, you know, I gotta tell you getting a bill passed through the Florida legislature is it may not be as easy as, as one may think, and it took a lot of a lot of folks to help us get it done. You were one that really worked on crafting this idea, and working on getting it to work and and and whatnot. So you you you certainly are owed a a debt of gratitude on this. But also, Scott Merrick from the Florida Land Title Association was quite instrumental in helping us get this done. And we also have to thank our Senate sponsor, Senator Danny Burgess, who worked on it, also an attorney.Speaker Paul Renner, Speaker of the House, at the Florida legislature helped us quite a bit. As well as Senate President, Senator Passidomo, who did. And, of course, we can't forget Governor DeSantis for signing this bill into law. So a lot of hands, to get, to get the, 120 in the House and the 40 in the Senate to get this passed and then off across the Governor's desk. But it's good law, and we're really, really excited to see it become enacted now in October.Well, and the history of how this law came to be is is interesting to me. And I wanna share that with our listeners because not this past legislative session but the legislative session before that. So in 2022, so actually in the Fall of 2021, out of the blue, you gave me a call and introduced yourself to me.And I started chatting about the things I'm working on, and I mentioned something about mortgage payoff reform. And that is when you said "Melissa, I would be very interested in helping with that bill. I will see if I can sponsor it."That's right.So we we went through the effort of drafting the bill. And and that was kind of challenging that first go around. What were the kinds of things that we encountered that first time around?Sure. Yeah. Yeah. This this bill like many other bills, but this bill in particular, was a multi year process. Sometimes through the legislature, a bill is initially filed And, we get it to hearings, and we talk to, folks on the other side, and, and, you know, we hear from folks in the public and and other entities.And so one of the things that we worked on the first year the bill was run was engaging with the Florida Bankers Association and the members and the the members of that entity. And we worked with the bankers to make sure that all parties to these estoppel letters to these mortgage payoff letters that their rights would be preserved appropriately. And we worked quite extensively with them we for an entire legislative session. Unfortunately, that first year, like it happens oftentimes, the bill didn't make it all the way across the finish line.And it died before the end of session. But, to the credit of the Florida Bankers Association, in particular, my dear friend, Kenneth Pratt, we are able they agreed to certain terms during that first year, and they they complied with her, and they conform to that agreement and we came back this last legislative session exactly where we left off, and we were able to get that bill all the way across the finish line. So we work with a lot of different folks. We are lucky to work with, the correct folks, that had the industry knowledge and the exact technical knowledge know how to be able to craft this legislation so that it's good law across the board for all parties, involved in the mortgage payoffs.Exactly. And I think you've pretty much just said why you were so willing to back this bill because you felt like it appropriately adjusted the rights between the parties. So kudos to you for picking a great bill to attach your name to.So in addition to addressing, you know, the adjustment of those rights and the annoying way in which lenders were conditioning their payoffs and and certainly making them less and reliable.This bill really set out in detail.The requirements for both requesting a payoff and the sending of the payoff by the lender. And I wanna make sure that our listeners are aware of these new very technical requirements.So we're gonna include information about that in conversation today in addition to talking about the more important substantive issues of conditional language. And the lender's obligation to release the lien. So before we get into that, I want our listeners to know that if they have any questions, that they would, like to post to us. Just use the question bar over on the right hand side of your screen. We have Michael Rothman, behind the scenes with us today who's gonna be monitoring those questions and sharing those, with me and the Rep. at the end of our remarks. And we will try to answer your questions here live. If we run out of time, we'll respond afterwards.We've also included a copy of the new law in the handouts. And you can click on that and download it. It's over again on the right hand panel of your screen. And, the Rep. and I are following the order of the bill in our conversation today so that you can follow along if you want rather than pinging around from one topic to the next. So I am gonna start us off with, a summary of the new procedural requirements for ordering of mortgage payoff. Now, as you've already alluded, Tom, they are mortgage payoffs are referred to as a estoppel letters in the new law, which is a good thing because with these changes in the law, they now are truly a estoppel letters.But just because I'm old and used to referring to them as mortgage payoffs, I'm gonna call them mortgage payoffs.So one of the changes that we made this year is that the lender must send the mortgage payoff to the request or within 10 days of the request. We got that reduced from 14 days to 10 days because the reality is in today's environment, the lenders don't need 14 days to send you a payout. So we reduce that down to ten days and if the request comes from someone other than the mortgage or which is certainly the situation with closings. The request must include a copy of the instrument showing that person's title or other lawful authorization.Then the lender must notify the more you're sure that this third party has requested the payoff. I think those are great changes. The reduction in time and requiring the lender to notify their borrower that somebody has requested a payoff.I think you're gonna address the next issue.Yes.So the second issue that was addressed in the bill, touches on section 701.041c.And it's that a lender may not qualify and this is the heart of it. A lender may not qualify, reserve the right to change or condition or disclaim the reliance of others on the information provided in an estoppel letter. And any attempt to do so, is void and unenforceable. Of course, there's an exception for mortgages that are in foreclosure a lis penden is recorded or suggestion of bankruptcy filed.And, you know, this goes to the heart of making these mortgage payoff letters in effect estoppel letters as we all learned, estoppel letters would should be in law school. The lender has the right to correct a payoff provided in it, provided it is received by the requester by 3:00 PM in such person's time zone at least 1 business day before a payment is issued. In reliant on the previously issued estoppel letter. This was, a matter that was negotiated extensively with the bankers about what 3:00 pm is, which time zone it would be, and all those fun things that went back and forth.But the point here is, you k

Join Melissa Murphy, Fund General Counsel, and Chris Morton from the American Land Title Association for a discussion on the current “lay of the land” regarding the use of alternative title products by the GSEs.

Tune in to learn the case for closing with CASi and how they can save you time and money on closings. CASi services include assistance with secure digital closings/RON signings, settlement statement drafting/balancing, policy drafting and back office support Melissa's guest will be Andrew Dinnerstein of Closing Attorney Support

Think you know what’s covered by the title insurance policy?  Think again!  Tune in to Melissa’s discussion with The Fund's George Perez, Senior Manager of Claims, Risk Analysis and Member Compliance, on claims coverage issues that often surprise Fund Members. 

Cut staff time – and come to the table fully prepared – by letting ACS draft and assemble everything you need. Tune in to learn how Attorneys’ Closing Services has helped real estate attorneys like you and your team confidently handle residential and commercial real estate closings from the initial draft to the final closing package. Melissa’s guest will be Ron Conte of Attorneys' Closing Services.