While many around the world are setting their calendars forward for the year 2023, residential mortgage loan owners and servicers may need to also look backward in time now that New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed the so-called “Foreclosure Abuse Prevention Act” (S5473) into law on December 30, 2022. The new law, which takes effect immediately, threatens to significantly constrain the ability of lenders, servicers and investors to efficiently prosecute foreclosure actions and potentially jeopardizes their ability to recover their mortgage debt with respect to not only foreclosures initiated after the law took effect but also foreclosure actions which were pending as of December 30. For mortgage industry participants, Mayer Brown’s Legal Update summarizes key provisions of the new law and notes how we expect industry groups and stakeholders to react in 2023.
