Loan Modification & Foreclosure Consulting Outfits Flout New Nevada Law Requiring Licensing & Bonding

In Las Vegas, Nevada, the Las Vegas Sun reports:

• Compliance with a new law aimed at regulating mortgage modification and foreclosure prevention, a runaway industry rife with scammers, is off to a slow start, causing concern for those on the front lines. Only 50 companies statewide have applied for the state’s new licenses for loan modification and foreclosure consultant services. That number represents as little as one-tenth of the businesses offering one or both of the services targeted by the new law, says Joseph L. Waltuch, commissioner of the Mortgage Lending Division of the state’s Business and Industry Department.

• After an extension was granted to allow each applicant to post the required $75,000 surety bond, only 18 have done so, and none has completed the process for obtaining the licenses, Waltuch adds. Consumer advocates and others are eyeing that slow uptake and worrying that it indicates the law will fail to meet its main goals: regulation of a fast-growing industry and, more important, deterrence of fraud.

For more, see Mortgage scammers haven’t felt law’s effect.