Search: MERS

After The Empty Nest: Continuing Care Retirement Communities (CCRCs), Modern Senior Living For Baby Boomers

by Rich Vetstein 05.21.2013 Massachusetts Real Estate Law

Guest Post By:  Philip B. Posner, Esq.,  Part independent living, part assisted living and part skilled nursing home, a Continuing Care Retirement Community (CCRC) offers a tiered approach to the aging process, accommodating residents’ changing needs. Upon entering, healthy adults can reside independently in single-family homes, apartments or condominiums. When assistance with everyday activities becomes [...]

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Tenant Paralyzed In Tragic Backyard Kiddie Pool Accident Gets New Trial From SJC

by Rich Vetstein 05.16.2013 Insurance

Landlords Could Be Held Responsible for Tenant Paralyzed Jumping from Trampoline into Kiddie Pool I don’t write a lot about premises liability in this blog, but this tragic case out of my hometown of Framingham may be a classic example of the saying that “hard cases make bad law.“ The Supreme Judicial Court has granted a [...]

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The First Circuit Strikes Again in Culhane v. Aurora Servicing! Grants Borrowers Legal Standing To Challenge Mortgage Assignments, But Upholds MERS System

by Rich Vetstein 02.16.2013 Foreclosure

We introduce this subject with a riddle: What entity is not a bank but claims to hold title to approximately half of all the mortgaged homes in the country? The answer is MERS. –Circuit Judge Bruce Seyla in Culhane v. Aurora Loan Servicing of Nebraska, For the second time in a week, the U.S. Court of [...]

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Email Disclaimers: Toothless, Useful, Or A Little Of Both?

by Rich Vetstein 02.02.2013 Commercial Real Estate

A Simple Email Disclaimer Cannot Hurt & Can Only Help Boilerplate email disclaimers at the bottom of messages are so ubiquitous that most of us hardly notice them anymore. They certainly take up a lot of text space and can be annoying to some, but are they legally effective or just plain toothless? In the [...]

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Check Before You Cut! Massachusetts Illegal Tree Cutting Carries Substantial Civil Penalties

by Rich Vetstein 01.27.2013 Adverse Possession

Triple Damage Penalty for Willful Cutting Of Neighbor’s Trees  We may be in the middle of winter here in Massachusetts, but homeowners and utility companies are still out there chopping down trees. I always advise property owners who intend to cut trees near boundary lines to consult a survey or plot plan to ensure that [...]

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Breaking: Massachusetts SJC Issues Another Important Foreclosure Ruling In HSBC Bank v. Matt

by Rich Vetstein 01.14.2013 Foreclosure

Legal Standing For Mortgage Lender/Servicer Must Be Established To Start Foreclosure Today the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has issued what I believe to be another very important ruling involving foreclosures in the case of HSBC Bank v. Matt (embedded below). This case is the latest piece in the trilogy of recent landmark foreclosure opinions, starting with [...]

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Late To The Party Again? CFPB Issues New “Ability To Repay” Mortgage Rule

by Rich Vetstein 01.10.2013 Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

New Rule Aims To Prevent Predatory Lending The new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has just issued what it deems “one of its most important rules to date.” It’s called the Ability To Repay Rule. The rule will ensure that a borrower should be able to afford their mortgage payment. Sounds like common sense, right? Yes [...]

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Cleaning Up After Hurricane Sandy: Homeowner’s Insurance Coverage & Downed Trees

by Rich Vetstein 10.30.2012 Condominium Law

Massachusetts Homeowner’s Insurance Coverage for Hurricane Damage Although Massachusetts was spared a direct hit by Hurricane Sandy, there are widespread reports of flooding and property damage. Whether the damage to your home from Hurricane Sandy is covered by your homeowner’s insurance policy depends on the source of the damage. Typically, damage caused by wind, downed [...]

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Massachusetts SJC To Decide Three Important Foreclosure Cases This Fall Term

by Rich Vetstein 09.26.2012 Foreclosure

Court Will Consider Mortgage Servicer/MERS Standing and Statutory Foreclosure Affidavits The Supreme Judicial Court has a busy Fall Term with several important foreclosure cases on the docket. Here’s a quick summary. HSBC Bank v. Jodi Matt (SJC-11101) The SJC is considering whether a mortgage servicer holding a securitized mortgage has standing to even begin a [...]

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Somerset Woman Drops Dead After Neighbor Cuts Her Trees, Wrongful Death Lawsuit Ensues

by Rich Vetstein 07.05.2012 Boundaries

69 Year Old Woman Found Dead After Neighbor’s Handyman Cuts 30-foot Arborvitaes; Estate Recovers $150,000 Wrongful Death Settlement In a tragic case out of Somerset, Massachusetts reported by Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly, a woman’s estate has recovered a $150,000 wrongful death settlement after she dropped dead when her neighbor cut down a row of trees which [...]

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Averting The Apocalypse: Foreclosing Lenders Avoid Disaster and Given More Options To Foreclose In Eaton v. Fannie Mae Case

by Rich Vetstein 06.22.2012 Fannie Mae

Score One For Lenders and Mortgage Servicers In Long-Awaited Eaton v. Fannie Mae Case The Massachusetts real estate community has been waiting 8 long months for a decision from the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) in the much anticipated Eaton v. Federal National Mortgage Association (link) case. The decision came down June 22, and now [...]

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Breaking: SJC Rules For Lenders and MERS In Eaton v. Fannie Mae Case

by Rich Vetstein 06.22.2012 Fannie Mae

Huge Sigh of Relief For Mortgage and Foreclosure Industry The much awaited opinion by the SJC in Eaton v. Fannie Mae has just been released, and it is a huge Maalox for the banking and real estate community. Case embedded below. I have written a more detailed analysis here but here are the highlights: Although [...]

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Why The Big Stink? Restroom Access Legislation Would Give Relief To Bowel Disease Sufferers

by Rich Vetstein 06.16.2012 Massachusetts Real Estate Law

Update (8/3/12): Restroom Access Bill Signed Into Law Retailers Regrettably Opposed to Law For Restroom Access To Crohn’s, Colitis Sufferers I heard about this bill on the radio yesterday, and at first I was caught up in the bathroom-humor word play by the DJ. But when I did some more research on Crohn’s Disease and [...]

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Because I Said So! Satisfying Rigorous Loan Documentation Requirements Key To Mortgage Approval

by Rich Vetstein 03.28.2012 Fannie Mae
Thumbnail image for Because I Said So! Satisfying Rigorous Loan Documentation Requirements Key To Mortgage Approval

Borrowers, Shut Up, Listen, And Do What Your Lender Asks–Even If It’s The Third Time They’ve Asked For The Same Documentation! When I was a kid, my dad would often answer my questions with “because I said so,” and it would drive me crazy! Now it’s prudent advice to borrowers says Mark Greene at Forbes.com. [...]

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Cash Is Just As Good As Money: Massachusetts Cash Real Estate Purchase Advisory

by Rich Vetstein 03.21.2012 Closings

Tips For Massachusetts Real Estate Cash Buyers & Sellers As Yogi Berra once humorously said, “cash is just as good as money.” This is especially true in real estate transactions where a cash buyer is often perceived as better and less risky than a mortgage financed buyer. (Please note that we often encourage buyers to [...]

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Massachusetts Registries of Deeds Planning Class Action Against MERS To Recoup Recording Fees

by Rich Vetstein 02.15.2012 Liens
Thumbnail image for Massachusetts Registries of Deeds Planning Class Action Against MERS To Recoup Recording Fees

Banker and Tradesman is reporting that Bristol, Plymouth and Norfolk County Registrars of Deeds plan to file a class action suit against Mortgage Electronic Registration System (MERS), aiming to recoup land recording fees they believe they are owed. B&T reporter Colleen Sullivan reports that: The counties are being represented by Bernstein Liebhard LLP, a New [...]

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Breaking News: Massachusetts Joins National Foreclosure Abuse Settlement

by Rich Vetstein 02.09.2012 Foreclosure
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Updated (2.9.12 6:30pm) In the largest national settlement since the tobacco litigation, the Boston Globe is reporting that Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley is expected today to sign on to a settlement brokered by attorneys general nationwide with five major US lenders over the banks’ role in the country’s foreclosure crisis. As we wrote about [...]

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The SmarterBorrowing.com Weekly Massachusetts Mortgage Rate Advisory (Feb. 7, 2012)

by Brian Cavanaugh 02.07.2012 Fannie Mae
Thumbnail image for The SmarterBorrowing.com Weekly Massachusetts Mortgage Rate Advisory (Feb. 7, 2012)

by Brian Cavanaugh, Senior Mortgage Banker, RMS Mortgage and SmarterBorrowing.com Overall, despite being a fairly light week in terms of economic releases and relate events, it is still relatively crucial for the mortgage market. We saw the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury Note spike higher Friday as a result of the stronger than expected [...]

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2012 Massachusetts Real Estate Market Survey

by Marc Canner 01.22.2012 Massachusetts Property Values

January in the real estate industry is typically the time for the new year market outlook. For this coming year many of us have seen the template on the macro-economic data which most impacts the real estate industry: 8.5 % unemployment in the latest report, 30 year mortgage rates at record lows at or below [...]

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Federal Judges Read Law Blogs (Including This One!)

by Rich Vetstein 01.18.2012 Massachusetts Real Estate Law

I just wanted to pass along a neat story from a colleague evidencing the growing trend of judges turning to law blogs in their research of opinions. Federal Judge William Young spoke yesterday at a real estate bar association meeting about his recent and somewhat controversial opinion in Culhane v. Aurora Loan Servicers which considered [...]

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