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NEW YORK
GOV. SIGNS
FORECLOSURE
PROTECTION
BILL
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo recently
signed a bill intended to protect defendants
in foreclosure court. e bill, sponsored by
Assemblymember Helene Weinstein and
State Sen. Brian Kavanagh, which amends
Article 13 in Real Property Actions &
Proceedings and allows defendants more
leeway to bring up the defense of "standing"
in foreclosure court, Kings County Politics
reports.
New York has some of the highest
delinquency and foreclosure rates in the
county, concentrated in New York City.
According to data from LendingTree in
November 2019, the New York-Newark-
New Jersey metro had the highest serious
delinquency rate of 2.6%. e metro also had
the highest overall foreclosure rate at 1.3%.
Additionally, New York has some of the
longest foreclosure timelines in the country, at
an average of 1,103 days.
"More homeowners will rightfully keep
their homes, now that the governor has signed
my bill into law," Weinstein said.
According to Kings County Politics, the
law previously stated that if a defendant didn't
know who actually owned their mortgage and
wanted to challenge their plaintiff 's standing
to sue to foreclosure, they could only do so
within 30 days.
"In reality, many homeowners do not even
understand the suit papers served against
them, and/or do not hire a lawyer until it is
too late to raise lack of standing as a defense.
e law was in need of a significant alteration
to permit this defense to be raised at any time
in the litigation," Weinstein said.
Alongside foreclosures, New York has also
been searching for ways to reduce zombie
properties in the state. In December, New
York also took a stab at zombie properties
when Gov. Cuomo signed legislation granting
local cities more power in fighting against
zombie properties, according to a news
affiliate out of Albany, New York.
e law will authorize local governments
to compel mortgage lenders to "fast
track" foreclosure properties or release the
abandoned property to allow for resolution on
a local level.
Journal
