Bill > H2240

This bill aims to provide clearer legal grounds for judges to determine ownership in eviction cases, particularly when a property has been foreclosed upon. It proposes to add the word "lawfully" to an existing law concerning evictions, and then defines what "lawfully foreclosed" means. This definition specifies that a foreclosure is lawful only if it strictly followed the mortgage's power of sale and relevant state laws (chapter 244 of the General Laws), and was conducted by an entity that owned both the loan (promissory note) and the mortgage at the time of foreclosure. It also requires that if the foreclosing entity is part of a trust, the transfer of the loan and mortgage into that trust must have complied strictly with the trust's terms. Furthermore, the bill states that a foreclosure is not lawful if there are any prior transfers in the mortgage's ownership history that are completely invalid from the start or are later ruled invalid by a court due to issues like fraud, coercion, or contract breaches. However, there's an exception: a foreclosure can still be considered lawful if the buyer at the foreclosure sale is a "bona fide purchaser" – meaning they bought the property in good faith without knowing about any problems, and they have no connection to the entity that originally held the mortgage or loan, and the foreclosure process itself was otherwise conducted correctly with no invalid transfers in the ownership history. This clarification is intended to address potential disputes over property ownership that can arise during eviction proceedings.