NRMLA sent a letter to New York Assemblyman David I. Weprin in response to legislation (Assembly Bill 5877) that he introduced that would impact reverse mortgage companies.
Among other things, AB 5877 would repeal Section 280-a of the New York Real Property Law and amend Section 280 of the New York Real Property Law. Among the changes to Section 280 proposed by Assemblyman Weprin, AB 5877 would raise the minimum age to obtain a reverse mortgage from 60 to 62 and disallow any fees from being charged for the processing of a reverse mortgage until a lender receives a signed counseling certificate.
In its letter, NRMLA said it supports repealing Section 280-a and making certain revisions to Section 280, but the association asked Assemblyman Weprin to consider lowering the minimum borrower age to 55 to accommodate younger homeowners who may wish to obtain a proprietary reverse mortgage.
NRMLA also recommended amending the bill to clarify that prior to receiving the counseling certificate from the borrower, lenders may use AVMs to perform a preliminary estimation of the value of the real estate that will serve as security for the reverse mortgage loan, order a credit report to perform a preliminary credit review of the borrower’s financing obligations and order a preliminary title search, as long as the borrower is not charged for those services if the borrower does not proceed to close on the reverse mortgage loan.
NRMLA will continue to monitor AB 5877 and report any news to the membership.
