While strategizing my plans to find sellers, I was informed having any contact with homeowners in pre-forclosure is illegal. It is a new law here in the state of WA. RCW 61.34: Distressed Property Conveyances (formerly Equity Skimming)
The Legislative Findings of RCW 61.34 are as follows:
"The legislature finds that persons are engaging in patterns of conduct which defraud innocent homeowners of their equity interest or other value in residential dwellings under the guise of a purchase of the owner's residence but which is in fact a device to convert the owner's equity interest or other value in the residence to an equity skimmer, who fails to make payments, diverts the equity or other value to the skimmer's benefit, and leaves the innocent homeowner with a resulting financial loss or debt."
Much of this law applies to owner-occupied preforeclosures including lease-backs, subject-to's and "saving" homeowners from foreclosure. A full description can found in the RCW itself on the Washington State Legislature website: http://apps.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=61.34&full=true#61.34.010
Attorneys tell us "the penalty for engaging in a "pattern" of equity skimming that is set forth in the Distressed Property Conveyances Act is found in RCW 9.94A, as a Class B Felony, Level II offense", which can include confinement in a state correctional institution, fine or both. We are also told that the law cannot be avoided by disclosures.
While strategizing my plans to find sellers, I was informed having any contact with homeowners in pre-forclosure is illegal. It is a new law here in the state of WA. RCW 61.34: Distressed Property Conveyances (formerly Equity Skimming)
The Legislative Findings of RCW 61.34 are as follows:
"The legislature finds that persons are engaging in patterns of conduct which defraud innocent homeowners of their equity interest or other value in residential dwellings under the guise of a purchase of the owner's residence but which is in fact a device to convert the owner's equity interest or other value in the residence to an equity skimmer, who fails to make payments, diverts the equity or other value to the skimmer's benefit, and leaves the innocent homeowner with a resulting financial loss or debt."
Much of this law applies to owner-occupied preforeclosures including lease-backs, subject-to's and "saving" homeowners from foreclosure. A full description can found in the RCW itself on the Washington State Legislature website: http://apps.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=61.34&full=true#61.34.010
Attorneys tell us "the penalty for engaging in a "pattern" of equity skimming that is set forth in the Distressed Property Conveyances Act is found in RCW 9.94A, as a Class B Felony, Level II offense", which can include confinement in a state correctional institution, fine or both. We are also told that the law cannot be avoided by disclosures.