Mortgages and deeds of trust: foreclosure.

(1) Existing law prescribes foreclosure procedures, including, among other things, procedures for recording a notice of default, recording a notice of sale, and conducting a foreclosure sale. This bill would define a mortgage servicer, and would, commencing July 1, 2013, require a mortgage servicer to establish a single point of contact when a borrower on a residential mortgage or deed of trust is 60 or more days delinquent, has had a notice of default recorded, or is seeking a loan modification or other loss mitigation, as specified. The bill would impose various obligations on the single point of contact in connection with loan modification or other loss mitigation options. (2) Existing law imposes various requirements that must be satisfied prior to exercising a power of sale under a mortgage or deed of trust, including, among other things, recording a notice of default. This bill would prohibit an entity from recording a notice of default or otherwise initiating foreclosure procedures unless the entity is the holder of the beneficial interest under the deed of trust, and would prohibit an entity acting as an agent from doing so without specific direction from the actual owner of the beneficial interest under the deed of trust. (3) Existing law authorizes the recording by the county recorder of various documents. This bill would provide that a document that contains factual assertions that are not accurate, are incomplete, or are unsupported by competent, reliable evidence, or a document that has not been reviewed by its signer to substantiate the factual assertions contained in the document is a robosigned document. The bill would provide that any entity that records a robosigned document, or files a robosigned document in a court relative to a foreclosure proceeding is liable for a civil penalty of $10,000 for each robosigned document. The bill would authorize specified governmental entities to enforce the civil penalty, and would authorize the Department of Real Estate, the Department of Corporations, and the Department of Financial Institutions to enforce the civil penalty provisions against their respective licensees. (4) The bill would authorize a borrower to seek an injunction of a pending trustee's sale, if a notice of sale has been recorded and the borrower reasonably believes that the mortgagee, trustee, beneficiary, or authorized agent failed to comply with specified requirements. The bill would authorize the greater of actual damages or $10,000 in statutory damages if there is a failure to comply with specified requirements by the mortgagee, trustee, beneficiary, or authorized agent and the property is sold at a foreclosure sale. The bill would authorize the greater of treble damages or $50,000 in statutory damages if the failure to comply is found to be intentional or reckless or resulted from willful misconduct, as specified. (5) Existing law provides that where the power to sell real property is given to a mortgagee or other encumbrancer, in an instrument intended to secure the payment of money, the power is part of the security and vests with any person who by assignment becomes entitled to payment of the money. This bill would expand these provisions to include a power to sell real property given to a trustee or a beneficiary of a deed of trust in an instrument intended to secure the payment of money. (6) The bill would repeal duplicate provisions of law.