HB437

Currently, RSA 479:28 pertaining to the limitation on undischarged mortgages only addresses private mortgages. RSA 479:29 states that 479:28 does not apply to institutional mortgages. This proposed legislation would amend 479:28 and repeal 479:29 so that the limitation would apply to all undischarged mortgages. Other New England states (Maine and MA in particular) and many states across the country have adopted laws on obsolete and ancient mortgages. Please support and pass HB 437 so NH will do the same. If passed, this would remove the unnecessary clouds currently existing on many real estate titles in NH and would save NH consumers the legal fees and delay incurred in quieting title to these obsolete mortgages. Thank you for your support.

I am one of the owners of Phenix Title Services and have been in the Title Business for over 20 years. I am in full support of this Bill as too often we have a mortgage that is well past its maturity where a discharge was never recorded. More often than not it was in a time when banks mailed the discharges directly to the borrower instead of the Registry. What this creates is a need to hire a discharge tracker or petition to quiet title if the bank in question is no longer in business and causes financial loss and frustration and anguish on behalf of the seller/borrower. In my 20 years, i have never come upon a mortgage that was 5 years past maturity date or 35 years old that still has money owed. This Bill simplifies the process and falls right in line with the Massachusetts standard that has yielded nothing but positive results for both banks, attorneys/title companies and sellers/borrowers that run into a mortgage that is well past maturity or 35 years.

The issue of undischarged mortgages has plagued banks, lawyers and title companies for years. Oftentimes, especially years ago, the mortgagee bank would send a discharge upon full payment to the mortgagor which was not recorded at the Registry of Deeds. Years later when a sale of the property is about to happen and no record of the discharge is located, initial steps include contacting the mortgagee bank or mortgage company (which may not even exist anymore) to get a new discharge and to request the mortgagor to try and locate the discharge. Also, many banks assign their mortgages adding another layer of bureaucratic confusion. And if the mortgagor can not satisfy the requirements of RSA 479:7-a , in particular providing the ‘full ‘payment statement’, it’s off to Superior Court to file a petition to quiet title - an expensive and time consuming task. The proposed legislation is a positive step to clear old mortgage title issues without significant cost and expense. I support this proposed legislation.

I support this bill because it helps to avoid unnecessary lawsuits and facilitates the quicker and more efficient transfer of property, without prejudice to mortgage holders who may have legitimate claims. This bill would also to at least some extent reduce the number of quiet title cases in the courts. I believe that other New England states have similar legislation, and that it is a good idea for New Hampshire to follow suit in this instance. Thank you for your attention.

I support this Bill because it will lessen the need for property owners to have to file a lengthy and expensive petition to quiet title actions with the courts for old mortgages which have been paid off but never had a discharge recorded. This will also lessen the case burdens of the courts.

I am writing in support of this Bill. I incurred the cost of having to hire an Attorney to Petition to Discharge a Mortgage because a mortgage I obtained in 1984 was not properly discharged by my mortgage holder. I obtained a mortgage from Colonial Mortgage Service Company Associates, Inc. d/b/a CMSC Mortgage Company who later became GMAC Mortgage, LLC, on July 19, 1984. In December of 1986 I refinanced that mortgage with a local mortgage company. The mortgage was released by Gateway Federal Savings and Loan Association by discharge dated December 10, 1987. Gateway Federal Savings and Loan Association had no connection to Colonial Mortgage Service Company Associates, Inc., so in order for the release to be effective, the mortgage needed to be assigned from Colonial Mortgage Service Company Associates, Inc to Gateway Federal Savings and Loan Association. No assignment was recorded with the Registry of Deeds, thereby making the mortgage discharge ineffective. A subsequent title search revealed the discrepancy and in trying to contact GMAC Mortgage, LLC, it was discovered the company was liquidated by the Bancruptcy Court in 2013 and because it was paid off in 1986, it wasn’t an asset of the Company at the time of the Bankruptcy, so there was no successor entity to execute and record the required assignment. The only resolution was to file a Petition to Quiet Title or Petition to Discharge Mortgage. The current cost to hire an Attorney to file such a petition ranges from $8,000 to $10,000. If this proposed Statute was in effect at the time of my mortgage, it would have been released by the operation of law on August 1, 2019 at no cost to me. Mine in not a unique story, any inquiry made to New Hampshire title companies or law firms specializing in residential real estate will reveal the number one title issue they face is undischarged or improperly released mortgages. I am asking the committee to support this bill as it will help reduce the cost of real estate closings for many of you constituents.

I am submitting this testimony in favor of the passage of HB 437. I am a recently retired Real Estate Attorney whose practice spanned over 45 years. For much of my professional career I specialized in correcting real estate title problems, primarily by filing Superior Court actions to resolve claims that impaired the marketability of the property owner's title. By far the existence of outstanding prior mortgages on a property owner's title was the single largest source of reasons why a consumers real estate title was unmarketable. I filed dozens of actions to have the Superior Court order that mortgages be declared discharged. The vast majority of those actions were for mortgages that were obsolete. As you know our current law renders a mortgage void after it has been on record for over 50 years and remains undischarged in the Registry of Deeds (with an agreed upon 50 year extension option). However, this 50 year time table does not apply to mortgages held by banks, trust companies, building and loan associations, and federal savings and loan associations whether as named mortgagee or assignee of record. Most of the obsolete mortgage actions that I filed were against these excepted entities from the 50 year rule. Yet, not once, did such entity or its successor appear and object to my request for discharge. However, the owner/consumer paid several thousands of dollars in fees and costs, including publication and guardian ad litem expenses to have the court declare the mortgage discharged. In the meantime, purchase and sale transactions were delayed or lost and countless mortgage applications were delayed. Had my efforts revealed even one obligation that remained outstanding I would share the circumstances that may give rise to such an issue. However, there were none. I wholly support this bill. I was prepared to appear and give live testimony to answer questions or expand on the above, but, unfortunately the hearing was scheduled while I was away.

As a transactional real estate attorney licensed and actively practicing in New Hampshire this bill, if passed, would provide tremendous relief to home owners in the state of NH dealing with undischarged and otherwise obsolete institutional mortgages. It's passage should be a priority for the house especially given the difficult housing market our state is facing.

This particular bill is important to ensure that real estate transactions can forward smoothly. It will save the consumer time and money during a home purchase by allowing a common title issue to be fixed quickly and easily rather than requiring the buyer or seller of the home to pay out additional funds to track down a discharge for an obsolete mortgage.

I believe this would be especially helpful in situations where mortgages have discharges recorded, but they are "defective" in that they are signed by someone other than the holder of record either because of a merger, assignment or some other matter that creates confusion on the record. It is often difficult and/or expensive to track down the correct mortgagee and obtain a discharge. This was especially problematic some years ago following the 2008-09 (?) recession when many lenders failed and they didn't seem to focus on the details title examiners are required to pay attention to. I believe there is now a whole industry focused on obtaining discharges from these errant banks. Thanks for reading this.

Dear Honorable Members of the House Commerce and Consumer Affairs Committee: I am a former state Senator from Plymouth and a longstanding real estate attorney and member of the New Hampshire Bar Association. Our law practice is primarily focused on representing buyers, sellers and lenders in various real estate transactions and closings. It has been our experience that old undischarged mortgages frequently delay closings, and can be time-consuming and costly to resolve. I fully support HB437. Thank you for noting my support for HB437. Hon Deb Reynolds Senate District 2 2006-2010

I have been in the field of real estate law for title closing companies since 1994. The issue of ancient undischarged mortgages or mortgages with faulty discharges is one of the most common title issues that delay closings. The cost for a seller or borrower to cure this title defect in order to move a sale forward can range from $350.00 to $8,000.00. The higher fee is when the lender is defunct and no one has authority to either sign a discharge or corrective document - i.e. GMAC Mortgage Corporation, which filed bankruptcy in several states and none of the Bankruptcy Trustees have been appointed by the courts to execute documents, and then the consumer has to file a Quiet Title Action which is extremely expensive.

Dear Representatives, I urge you to SUPPORT this bill. I am a first time home owner as of 2023. When we purchased our home, there was a TON of confusion about whether our title was "clean" due to improperly discharged mortgages and liens from multiple owners prior. The information from the seller's agent, our buyer's agent, and our mortgage lender were all different and with varying levels of concern for whether or not our home purchase would be sound. It took significant unforeseen legwork from all parties to make sure our purchase was safe and we were not inheriting issues. Ultimately it was a sound purchase and we are very happy in our home. Just wanted to briefly share our story after experiencing this first hand from the buyer's perspective. I am glad to see New Hampshire moving forward and aligning with other states on this issue, which will decrease confusion and barriers to buying/selling homes in our state. Thank you for your time.

I fully support this bill, as a real estate attorney who owns and operates a title company, too many times we spend a lot of time trying to clear up older mortgage issues when the records are so old they are impossible to track down and get resolved. This updated law will allow these matters to be dealt with in a more efficient and cost-effective manner. While this state is in the middle of a housing crisis the housing industry needs assistance to lower the cost and barriers of homeownership. Please support passing this bill.

I am an attorney licensed in New Hampshire and Massachusetts and have been primarily practicing in New Hampshire real estate matters for approximately seven years. I have seen a number of families trying to sell their New Hampshire properties to a willing buyer only to find that there is a cloud on title caused by an old undischarged (or improperly discharged) mortgage taken out many years ago, sometimes by a relative or just by a prior owner. Without this law, New Hampshire property owners have needed someone to track down the right division of the right entity which owns the rights to a mortgage taken out over thirty years before, only to be asked for details about loans that they had nothing to do with and have no documentation for. It has been a slow and frustrating process. This law would bring New Hampshire up to speed on this issue, which has been addressed by a number of other states in the Northeast. I also believe rights of the mortgage lenders are adequately protected under the terms of this bill. For those reasons I enthusiastically recommend its passage for the benefit of New Hampshire homeowners.

I support this consumer protection bill that will help consumers that are victims of lenders who can't manage their own chain of transfers for a mortgage, resulting in consumers forced to pay for and complete a quiet title to remove the cloud on their title due to the lenders poor recording keeping and management. This bill will also bring NH in line with our other New England states who have already adopted similar measures.

Good Morning: As a lawyer in private practice for over 37 years and as a Member of the NH Bar Association's Title Standard Subcommittee since 2004, I wholeheartedly support this Bill. I have been honored to help countless individuals clear up title issues on their properties over the years, which is frequently a very expensive process. This Bill will create a clear statutory process for removing "clouds on title" created by old undischarged mortgages; and thus help property owners clear such "clouds" in a far more efficient and inexpensive way. I urge you and your colleagues in the House and Senate to pass this Bill. Thank you for your time and attention and for your service to our State. Very truly yours, Christopher L. Boldt, Esq.

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