LANSING – State Representative Marc Corriveau (D-Northville) today voted to create the Home Foreclosure Prevention Act, which requires lenders to make homeowners aware of programs and resources available to them to help avoid foreclosure. The act is another piece of a comprehensive plan attacking the subprime mortgage crisis in Michigan.
"This plan is yet another tool we can use to enable Michigan homeowners who are struggling to hang on to their homes in this tough economy," Corriveau said. "Foreclosures aren't just about the pain that individual families go through; they hurt whole neighborhoods, communities and business districts. We must do everything we can to prevent more homeowners from sliding into foreclosure."
The Home Foreclosure Prevention Act requires the Office of Financial and Insurance Regulation (OFIR) to establish the Michigan Home Foreclosure Prevention Program, which will seek solutions to avoid foreclosures for certain subprime loans. The Act also requires lenders to send a written notice to borrowers at least 45 days before initiating a foreclosure. That notice must include options available to homeowners to help keep them in their homes.
Corriveau and his colleagues previously passed the Michigan Home Loan Protection Act, which bans predatory lending practices such as making loans without requiring borrowers to prove their ability to repay them, and the "Save the Dream" package, which establishes programs to allow homeowners saddled with risky adjustable-rate mortgages and those who have missed mortgage payments to refinance and secure a fixed-rate loan.
Corriveau and his colleagues' dedication to ending the foreclosure crisis in Michigan is already producing results – foreclosure filings in October were down 15 percent from a year ago. [1]
"Too many families have gone without the information they need to prevent a possible foreclosure, and this plan will help fix that," Corriveau said. "The more we empower homeowners to take control of their situation and find solutions that enable them to keep their homes, the stronger our communities and our economy will be."