Legislative News and Updates

Real estate investors, rehabbers and rental property owners are key participants in our community housing market and provide house for the 62% of Cincinnati residents who live in rental housing. It is essential that we be aware and involved in housing matters at the neighborhood, local and state levels. A portion of your Cincinnati REIA membership helps to fund the OREIA legislative efforts.

REIA is an active participant working with local government on housing matters.

We have fought unfair expensive rental property registration/ inspection programs.
We sued the City of Cincinnati over a Chronic Nuisance Law that leaves landlord criminally liable for the actions of tenants.
At the state level, the OREIA lobbyist has been successfully working on our behalf. Their efforts helped retain the property tax rollback that has saved all of us a lot of money.

Below is a report on recent activity by the OREIA Legislative Affairs program. All investors should be aware of these important initiative that directly impact our business.

ATTENTION:

The following information is extremely important!

HUD extends timeframe for comments regarding proposed SAFE Mortgage Licensing ACT Rules

HUD has proposed to eliminate ALL seller financing unless the seller lives in the home or becomes a licensed mortgage originator. The proposed HUD Rules interpreting the federal SAFE mortgage act can be viewed at www.regulations.gov Use the search parameter “HUD” and the keyword “safe”. Please review and comment regarding the impact of this broad interpretation of the law.

“In addition to establishing HUD’s responsibilities under the SAFE Act, through this rule, HUD proposes to clarify or interpret certain statutory provisions that pertain to the scope of the SAFE Act licensing requirements, and other requirements that pertain to the implementation, oversight, and enforcement responsibilities of the States. HUD solicits comment on the proposed clarifications and on the regulations proposed to be codified.”

How YOU can help:
We learned about the publishing of the rules very late in the process… and the deadline for comment is upon us. The deadline was originally today, February 16th, but was just extended to March 5th. We still desperately need for thousands of REIA members across the country to go on record with HUD on this issue. We will be working to try to affect this law in other legislative ways, but cannot hope to gain traction unless our members have clearly communicated that they are opposed to this portion of the rules. This is your chance to be counted on this issue.

PLEASE SUBMIT YOUR COMMENTS TO HUD! We have very little time to flood this system with comments.

Follow these simple steps:

1. Logon to www.regulations.gov You will see two white boxes for searching
2. On the left box labeled “Document Type”, pull the menu down and select “proposed rules”
3. On the right box labeled “Enter keyword or ID”, enter “safe mortgage”. Then, press search
4. Locate the blue search result “FR-5271-P-01 Safe Mortgage Licensing Act: HUD Responsibilities Under ….” To read the rules, click on this title. You will be taken to another page. You will see “views”. You can click on PDF file or another symbol which will show you the rule document online.
5. On the right of the screen, click on “submit comment”
6. Complete the form providing required information and your comments and then submit

What do you say?
Say what you feel, but say it politely! The message should include that you would like the definitions in the proposed rules to be changed so that private individuals can originate and service loans on properties they personally own. Some ideas from others:

• bank loans are not available on some types of properties
• the tight lending climate has made bank financing “out of reach” for many
• seller financing is an “age old” tradition based on private property rights
• these rules would prohibit even partial seller financing – i.e. a “seller second”
• according to HUD’s “Residential Finance Survey” in 2001, roughly 40% of all non-farm residential properties in the US are owned free and clear
• an estimated 6 million Americans own a property other than their own primary residence
• an estimated 4.5% of Americans own three or more properties, many purchased solely as investment properties
• 40% of non-owner occupied residences are mobile homes which are more difficult to sell with bank financing
• approximately 5% of homes in US are for sale or for lease… seller financing may be key to liquidating this inventory

The continued success of our industry as we know it is threatened by these proposed regulatory changes. Please do not hesitate to follow the steps above and make your voice heard.

To review the Proposed Rules, please visit the National REIA Library.

January 6, 2010

After a short Christmas recess, the General Assembly will soon be
back in session. January marks the half way point in the 128th General Assembly’s
session, so let’s look at their progress. After a year of budget battles
and searches for quick fixes, the Governor has signed into law NINE bills. In
looking at those nine pieces of legislation, six of them were budget related
bills. The other three bills that the Governor signed include a bill that allows
16 year olds to donate blood, a coal mining compliance law and a law changing
the term MRDD to a more politically correct term referring to the problem as developmentally disabled.
This is a state election year. Governor Strickland is up for re-election. In the legislature all 99 of the
House seats and half of the Senate seats are up for election. One of Ohio’s US Senate seats will see a
new Senator with the retirement of Senator Voinovich. The General Assembly’s legislative schedule will be
intertwined around the lawmakers’ needs to campaign for re-election. Considering this year between campaigning
and the year ending with a “Lame Duck” session, the next five months will be the most intense
time period for legislators to try to push through their agendas. The House during the first year of their twoyear
session introduced 401 bills passing 56 of them to the Senate for their consideration. Five of the bills
the House passed on are of particular interest to us. The Senate has seen 220 bills introduced while they
passed on 29 bills to the House with two of these bills being of interest to us. The seven are listed below.
HR 3 Mortgage Foreclosure Bill would grant a six month moratorium of the foreclosure judgment
and would allow a three year loan restructuring.
HR 9 Foreclosure Notification Bill This bill will require landlord’s who are in foreclosure to notify
their tenants of the foreclosure action and converting any leases into a month to month rentals.
HR 64 Deployment Bill would allow service members out of their leases or rental agreements if
they are deployed with no financial ramifications to the service member.
HR 167 The Domestic Violence bill would transfer the responsibility for care of the victims of
domestic violence from the social agencies to the landlord and the victims employers. This is a feel
good bill for the legislature that someone else has to pay for and would cost the State no money.
HR 313 Land Banking Bill would allow counties to acquire properties through an accelerated foreclosure
process and about to redefine “blighted” properties
SB 103 Estate & Trust Laws bill to clean up some problems in trust and probate laws.
SB 124 Transfer upon Death more estate planning legislation aimed at making it harder to avoid
probate by deeding real property Transfer upon Death.

The OREIA Fall Conference was a huge Success.
The Legislative Staff was able to Inform many Attendees.

December, 2009

KEEPING OUR MEMBERS INFORMED
Government Affairs Director Michelle Wells and Committee
member David Wagner share our concerns with Governor
Strickland about Ohio’s real estate investment market and the attack
our membership is under with some of the Ohio housing related bills
pending in the Ohio House and Ohio Senate.

The Ohio House and Senate introduced bi-partisan companion
bills H.B. 313 & S.B. 188 on County Landbank Use – To authorize a
county with a population greater than 100,000, or a population between
78,000 and 81,000, to organize a county land reutilization corporation,
to authorize a county treasurer of a county with such a corporation to utilize the alternative redemption
period in actions to foreclose abandoned lands, and to immunize a county land reutilization corporation
from liability for breach of a common law duty in connection with a parcel of land. OREIA Government
Affairs Director testified to the Ohio House Local Government/Public Administration Committee for an
hour educating the committee on the concept of a County Land Reutilization Corporation (CLRC) and the
previous bill S.B. 353 that passed last session allowing Cuyahoga County to form a CLRC as a ‘pilot’ program
and the many powers granted to the corporation. Michelle also presented eight concerns with HB
313, which would expand the new laws from SB 353 to many other counties in Ohio. Due to many meetings
and negotiations with Rep. Ujvagi and Madam Chair Chandler, during the committee hearing, Michelle
is please to announce that six of our eight concerns were met. Michelle will continue to work in the House
and with Senator Wagoner and Senator Gibbs to achieve our last two concerns. This is a great stride for
OREIA and our membership, as we are the only opponent on both bills and have been left with the
responsibility to protect our rights in the private real estate industry and also protect our rights as
private property owners. These negotiations will not only benefit our members, but preserve the rights of
all Ohioan homeowners as well.

The Ohio Budget shortfall and working towards a balanced budget. The Ohio House Bill 318 seeks to cover the $851 million shortfall caused by a court-ordered delay in Gov. Ted Strickland’s slots-at-racetracks proposal. A proposed Senate Republican plan has been prepared and is being considered by the full Senate Finance Committee. The Republican plan retains two-thirds of the governor’s proposal to delay a planned 4.2% personal income tax cut while including several other provisions designed to provide savings, and others that have no fiscal effect or even propose to spend money.

Among other things, the plan includes several items that were discussed in the Finance& Financial Institutions Committee only to be questioned by officials from the Strickland administration as either unfeasible or unreliable in terms of providing stable revenue during the current biennium. Those include oil and gas drilling in Salt Fork Park, SB 22 criminal sentencing reforms, and casino licensing fees. The new bill also proposes to implement task force recommendations for construction contracting law changes – a major policy shift that has yet to be considered as separate legislation. The new bill proposal would also call for several fund transfers, including $30 million from the Housing Trust Fund. At this point it appears there are no direct impacts to the real estate investment industry in this negotiations, however, we are monitoring the progress closely and will report any changes that may affect OREIA members.