§454M-5 Additional duties of a mortgage servicer; good faith and fair dealing; disclosures; payments, accounting, and records; assignment of servicing rights. (a) A mortgage servicer licensed or acting under this chapter, has a duty of good faith and fair dealing in its communications, transactions, and course of dealings with each borrower in connection with the servicing of the borrower's mortgage loan.
(b) In addition to any other duties imposed by law, a mortgage servicer shall:
(c) A mortgage servicer shall comply with the following requirements concerning handling and processing of mortgage payments:
(d) A mortgage servicer shall comply with the following requirements concerning escrows for the payment of taxes and insurance:
Any mortgage servicer who violates any provision of this subsection shall be liable to the borrower: for any penalties, interest, or other charges levied by the taxing authority or insurance company as a result of any violation; any actual damages suffered by the borrower as a result of the violation, including any amount that would have been paid by an insurer for a casualty or liability claim had the insurance policy not been canceled for nonpayment by the mortgage servicer; and, in the case of any successful action to enforce the foregoing liability, the costs of the action together with reasonable attorney's fees as determined by the court.
(e) A mortgage servicer shall comply with the following requirements concerning statements of account:
(f) Except where inconsistent with the automatic stay provisions of the Bankruptcy Code with respect to a borrower in a pending bankruptcy proceeding, a mortgage servicer shall send a payment reminder notice to a borrower at the borrower's last known address no later than seventeen days after the payment becomes due and remains unpaid; provided that a mortgage servicer is not required to send a separate payment reminder notice for each consecutive month in which the mortgage loan continues to remain unpaid.
(g) A mortgage servicer shall provide a clear, understandable, and accurate statement of the total amount that is required to pay off the mortgage loan as of a specified date, within a reasonable time, but in any event no more than five business days after receipt of a request from the borrower or borrower's authorized representative. No borrower shall be charged a fee for being informed or receiving a payoff statement or for being provided with a release upon full prepayment; provided that a mortgage servicer may charge a reasonable fee for providing a payoff statement after five or more requests in any calendar year.
(h) A mortgage servicer shall comply with the following requirements concerning handling consumer complaints and inquiries:
(i) A mortgage servicer shall comply with the following requirements concerning fees:
(j) Each mortgage servicer licensee shall maintain adequate records of each residential mortgage loan transaction at the office named in the mortgage servicer license for seven years.
(k) Upon assignment of servicing rights on a residential mortgage loan, the mortgage servicer shall disclose to the borrower:
(l) At the time a servicer accepts assignment of servicing rights for a mortgage loan, the servicer shall disclose to the borrower all of the following:
(m) Where this chapter requires a person to comply with procedures, actions, standards, disclosures, notices, format, content, or other requirements of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act, the required compliance applies to any person subject to this chapter, whether or not the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act applies to that person or transaction. [L 2009, c 106, pt of §1; am L 2011, c 48, §10; am L 2012, c 182, §4; am L 2015, c 62, §5; am L 2016, c 122, §23]