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82 e legislation, which was introduced by Councilwoman Cherelle Parker of the 9th District, states that a homeowner who is in a payment agreement for real estate taxes on their home shall be deemed not delinquent on his or her real estate taxes. "I know all too well the scourge that reverse mortgages have been on certain neighborhoods in the city. Unfortunately, it has been quite com- mon for reverse mortgage lenders to swoop in and pay off any remaining real estate tax balance of homeowners even if they are in a payment plan and not delinquent, and then use this as an impetus to foreclose on these homeowners," Parker said in a statement. is amendment comes at a time when reverse mortgage volumes have been on the rise across the country. Federal Housing Admin- istration-approved reverse mortgage lenders logged in 6,313 endorsements in January 2018 according to recent data from Reverse Market Insight (RMI), Inc. For comparison's sake, RMI reported 4,765 reverse mortgage endorse- ments in December 2017; 4,837 in June 2017; and 4,426 in February 2017. A recent opinion in the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court also clarified a sticking point regarding a mortgagee's right to foreclose, in spite of some unclear wording in the original mortgage paperwork. e case was brought against James B. Nutter Company by three reverse mortgage borrowers, all of whom had secured home equity conversion mortgages (reverse mortgages) in 2007 and 2008. Julie Mo- ran, Esq., Senior Executive Counsel for the law firm Orlans PC, a Legal League 100 member, handled the case for the plaintiff. Moran told DS News, "e Supreme Judicial Court reminded the parties that contractual language is deemed ambiguous and therefore construed against the drafter if it is susceptible of multiple meanings and the circumstances sur- rounding it don't indicate its intended meaning. However, here the Court concluded that under Massachusetts foreclosure law there is no power of sale except the statutory power and no reason- able borrower would have expected a lender to enter into a reverse mortgage without retaining this right. We are very pleased with this outcome, which we believe will have applicability to other types of mortgages containing similar language." Zero-Interest Mortgages to Fight Student Debt e Federal Reserve Bank of New York recently reported that student loan debt had increased by $21 billion in Q 4 2017. U.S. student debt currently totals around $1.4 trillion, with the average student in 2017 owing $37,172. Student loan debt is an obstacle that hampers many Americans trying to build a financially stable life and career, whether it's preventing debt holders from paying their bills, stockpiling retirement savings, or even acquiring a home. But one Pennsylvania lawmaker has an outside-the-box solution to the home part of that equation: zero- interest mortgages to help fight student debt. As reported by e Legal Intelligencer, State Rep. Jake Wheatley Jr. (D-Allegheny) has announced he will be proposing legisla- tion designed to both combat student loan debt and help those buried under that debt become homeowners. Wheatley's proposed legislation would allow individuals with student loan debt to acquire "a zero-interest mortgage rate to be used against the buyer's student loan debt" if they purchase a home through the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency's (PHFA) real-estate owned portfolio. According to the agency's website, the PHFA "works to provide affordable homeown- ership and rental apartment options for senior adults, low- and moderate-income families, and people with special housing needs," as well as promoting economic development within the state of Pennsylvania. Since its creation in 1972, the PHFA has generated more than $13.5 billion of funding for nearly 170,935 single-family home mortgage loans and saved the homes of more than 49,150 families from foreclosure. Rep. Wheatley says that the zero-interest mortgages would be provided by the PHFA, which would, in turn, receive revenue from the sale of the home. According to Rep. Wheatley, this would cost the state nothing. If the legislation were to pass, the program would likely find no shortage of interested appli- cants. According to an April 2017 report by the Pennsylvania Independent Fiscal Office, Penn- sylvania ranks second in the nation for highest amounts of student debt, with college graduates in the state owing an average of $34,798. In August 2017, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau reported that nearly half of school borrowers are bogged down with at least $20,000 of student debt—double what it was 10 years ago. Also last summer, the Fed released a study showing that as much as 35 percent of the decline in young American homeownership from 2007 to 2015 was due to the higher student debt loads. With many homeowners already having to navigate increasing prices and limited availability, finding ways to address the student debt crisis could be key to getting more people into homes and out of the rental market. date never changed. is issue gets further compounded by trying to determine which notice would need to be re-sent: Act 6 Notice or Act 91 Notice? If required to tender new notices, there is an obvious cost and delay inherent in that process, which would seem rather needless in in- stances where the loan due date never changed." Hladik continued, "In this Taggart case, the intermediate appellate court held that in instances where the foreclosure case was not voluntarily dismissed (i.e., it was dismissed by court order), there is no need to send new notices. In a previous decision in Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. v. Spivak, the same appellate court held that in instances where a foreclosure case was voluntarily dismissed, new notices were in fact required. Now the Pennsylvania Supreme Court will rule conclusively on the necessity of new notices after a dismissal. is an issue that the industry needs to be aware of, and one that the industry ought to consider appearing through an amicus brief to let the state's high court understand and appreciate the industry's perspective." Bradley J. Osborne is an attorney for Richard M. Squire & Associates, LLC. When asked to comment on the Pennsylvania case, Osborne told DS News, "While it seems like common sense that a lender or servicer must send out a new notice of intention foreclose after each of its own voluntary dismissals—generally for the loan being brought current through reinstatement or other loss mitigation mechanism—the line is blurred where there is a servicing transfer and the new servicer chooses to discontinue suit to pursue non-litigation options." "Servicers should be aware and use a general rule of sending new notices prior to initiating any new foreclosure action where there was a prior lender or servicer," Osborne continued. "is would alleviate concerns of a negative litigation outcome specifically by breaking the argument that the borrower lacked notice of the default and lacked knowledge of the lender's/servicer's identity prior to foreclosure." Philadelphia Addresses Reverse Mortgage Foreclosures e Philadelphia City Council recently in- troduced a bill to help prevent reverse mortgage foreclosures when a homeowner is in a payment agreement for real estate taxes on their homes. As a requirement for a reverse mortgage, borrowers must remain current on their real estate taxes. e amendment to the Philadel- phia code now provides further clarification to lenders on a homeowner's payment status.

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