Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley has filed two pieces of legislation pertaining to urban blight issues.

An Act Regarding Community Leadership, Neighborhood Revitalization and Urban Violence Protection, filed by Attorney General Coakley, along with Senator James Timilty and Representative Barry Finegold, is designed to address the problem of abandoned properties that result from foreclosures, and the negative impacts they have on the Commonwealth’s neighborhoods and economy.  It includes:

• Creation of:
  (a) A state-wide second hand metals registry, known as the Massachusetts Second
  Hand Metals Registry (SHMR).
  (b) A two-year pilot program establishing a statewide vacant and foreclosed property
  registry, known as the Massachusetts Abandoned Property Registry (MAP), housed
  within the Attorney General’s Office; and
• Requirement of all property owners, including: lenders, trustees and service companies, to
  register and properly maintain vacant and foreclosed properties.
• Establishment of registration requirements for identifying vacant and foreclosed properties and
  the property managers.
• Establishment of a fee and penalty structure to ensure compliance with MAP.

An Act to Require Commercially Reasonable Efforts to Avoid Foreclosure, filed with Senator Susan Tucker and Representative Steven Walsh, would mandate loan modifications in certain circumstances. It includes:

• Requirement that creditors undertake commercially reasonable steps to avoid foreclosure, thereby ensuring that creditors maximize the value of their loans and at the same time, protect homeowners by avoiding unnecessary foreclosures.
• Applies to mortgage loans securing homes that are owneroccupied, not investor properties or second homes.
• Applies to loans with certain risky features, such as interest only loans, payment option adjustable rate mortgage (ARM) loans, loans with short term introductory interest rates, or high Loan to Value or Debt to Income loans.
• Requirement that a creditor holding a qualified mortgage loan, secured by an owner occupied residence, must, prior to foreclosure, take the following commercially reasonable steps to avoid foreclosure:
  (1) Analyze the borrower’s monthly payment;
  (2) Analyze, according to a “net present value test”, whether offering the borrower a loan modification at the affordable monthly mortgage payment is more valuable to the creditor than the losses it will incur upon foreclosure; and
  (3) Take into account the interests of the creditor, investors and taxpayers, in the event the creditor has received federal or state money.
• Creditors will be deemed to be in compliance with this legislation if they offer an affordable loan modification whenever it is shown that under the net present value test, a loan modification is more profitable than foreclosure.
• In those instances where a loan modification is more profitable to the creditor, the creditor must identify what an affordable monthly payment would include, and in an effort to achieve it: reduce the interest rate, reduce the principal amount owed, or increase in amortization period within the limits proscribed in the legislation.

To view the online Press Release, including links to the text of the the AG's speech announcing the legislation, Legislative summaries and full bill texts, please click here

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Safeguard Properties is the largest privately held field services company in the country. Located in Cleveland, Ohio and founded in 1990 by Robert Klein, Safeguard has grown from a regional preservation company with a few employees and a handful of contractors performing services in the Midwest, to a national company with over 500 employees. Safeguard is supported by a nationwide network of subcontractors able to perform any requested superintendence, preservation, and maintenance functions, as well as numerous ancillary services in the U.S., the Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico.