Bay State Law That Screws Foreclosed Homeowners By Purporting To Clear So-Called "Ibanez Title Defects" Hit w/ 11th Hour Snag; Opponents' Legal Maneuver Seeks To Temporarily Suspend Statute & Subject It To Ballot Referendum In Repeal Effort

In Boston, Massachusetts, State House News Service reports:

• Days before a law limiting the timeframe for foreclosed property owners to file a title challenge is set to go into effect, opponents have taken the first step in an effort to have the law suspended and potentially repealed.
  
  The Massachusetts Alliance Against Predatory Lending filed a petition with Secretary of State William Galvin’s office last week seeking to have the law temporarily suspended and put on the ballot as a referendum, a power given to voters under the state constitution and featuring a multi-step process.
  
  Alliance coordinator Grace Ross told the News Service 18 homeowners and activists from Worcester, Shrewsbury, Boston, Springfield, Lancaster, Leicester, Amherst, Cambridge and Medford, signed the petition, which they brought to Galvin’s office last Thursday.
  
  “Even if it’s for a few months, it speaks to something profound about what it means to be a democracy,” Ross said of suspending the law.
  
  The law they are seeking to repeal, titled An Act Clearing Titles to Foreclosed Properties, is scheduled to go into effect on Dec. 31. Ross and a spokesman for Galvin’s office disagree over whether that will still happen, or if the suspension is immediate.
  
  The Massachusetts Constitution allows voters to request a suspension of and referendum on a recently passed law, a process that starts off with the filing of a petition signed by 10 voters.
  
  The petitioners must then gather additional signatures to have the law put before voters at the next state election.
  
  “It’s a constitutional provision that is rarely, if ever used,” Ross said. “It allows voters to suspend and eventually revoke the implementation of the law.”
  
  Brian McNiff, a spokesman for Galvin, confirmed Monday afternoon the petition had been filed and is under review.
  
  
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  Aimed at providing some legal assurances to homeowners who have purchased homes in foreclosure, the new law limits property title challenges to either three years after a foreclosure affidavit was filed or one year after the law goes into effect, whichever is later.
  
  The measure’s supporters have said that it will correct a situation in which new owners are left unable to refinance or sell their homes for lengthy periods during which the former owner can dispute the title. Opponents say the law strips recourse from people forced out of their homes in illegal foreclosures.
  
  “Taking away the rights of the first victim isn’t the answer here,” said John Shumacher, who signed onto the petition and is fighting what he describes as an illegal foreclosure on his family home on the Lancaster/Clinton line. “If you send an ambulance to a two-car accident, you don’t run over the people in the first car to get to the second car. That’s what this bill does. It runs over the first victim again.”
  
  Petitioners say the limited time period does not provide enough of a window to mount a title challenge.

For more, see Repeal bid creates new hurdle for foreclosure title law.

For earlier posts on the attempts by Massachusetts lawmakers and the state judiciary to de-claw the Ibanez ruling, see:

• Bay State Banksters & Title Insurers Rejoice, Screwed Over Foreclosed Massachusetts Homeowners Lament As Governor Signs Bill That Clears So-Called "Ibanez Title Defects" To Homes Sold In Void Foreclosures Three Years After Sale,
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• Banksters Dodge 'Ticking Time Bomb' Of Crappy Massachusetts Real Estate Titles; State High Court Says Lenders Failing To Strictly Comply w/ Conditions Precedent To Exercise Of Power Of Sale Will Result In Void (As Opposed To Voidable) Foreclosure Sales, But Refuses To Apply Ruling To Past Sales.