Maryland Rules Update

The new Maryland Rules have been released which impose additional notice requirements in the event a foreclosure sale is cancelled. During the 2017 legislative session, the Maryland General Assembly passed House Bill 26 (HB26) to require that foreclosure sale notices be sent to any condominium association (COA) or homeowner’s association (HOA) which has recorded a lien against the subject property at least 30 days before the date of the proposed sale. The Bill also required that in the event of a cancellation of a foreclosure sale, the trustee must send a notice of cancellation to the record owner and to any COA or HOA to whom notice of the sale was sent, within 14 days of the cancellation. When it was passed, the statute only required the notice of cancellation to go to the record owner, and if applicable, to the COA or HOA. However, in the final version of the Rule implementing the statute, the Rules Committee has added to the requirement that notice of cancellation must be sent to the borrower(s), the record owner(s), holder of any subordinate interest (i.e. junior or judgment lienholders), and any COA or HOA that was sent a notice of sale. While this is not a significant change, this is a new requirement that must be accounted for both operationally and for compliance purposes. The effective date for this change is July 1, 2018.

For further discussions, please contact John Ansell, a Partner with Rosenberg & Associates, LLC. Rosenberg & Associates, LLC is a law firm specializing in foreclosure, bankruptcy, title, litigation, eviction & REO default legal services for servicers and lending institutions throughout Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia. Ansell can be reached at john.ansell@Rosenberg-Assoc.com.