Action Alert: Ask Your State Legislators to Co-Sponsor MAAPL’s Foreclosure Bills for 2013!

As you may know, MAAPL has recently filed four new bills for the 2013 MA legislative session to help secure important rights and protections for homeowners facing foreclosure and eviction. Now we need your help to secure a good, solid number of co-sponsors for MAAPL’s legislation this session.

Critically important: We need you to call your State legislators by Friday, February 1st, the deadline for signing on as co-sponsors for the current legislative session!

Please contact your State legislators as soon as possible, and request that they sign on to the following bills:

An Act to Prevent Unnecessary Vacancies in Foreclosed Homes, the Senate version sponsored by Senator James Eldridge, docket number SD.1001; enables former homeowners to rent the property post-foreclosure until there is a new owner/occupant;

Act to Facilitate Alternatives to Foreclosure, our new pre-foreclosure mediation bill, Senate docket number SD.1278/House docket number HD.2780; Lead sponsor in the House is John Mahoney, lead sponsor in the Senate is Harriette Chandler;

An Act Relative to the Relief of (taxes on) Mortgage Debt, Senate docket number SD.908/House docket number HD.2625; lead sponsor in the House is Elizabeth Malia, lead sponsor in the Senate is Sal DiDomenico; brings state law in line with federal law so that the difference between the foreclosure sale amount and the mortgage debt cannot be taxed by the state; and

An Act to Amend the Foreclosure Statute to Require Judicial Foreclosure, Senate docket number SD.443/House docket number HD.1812, was filed once again, thankfully, by Representative Frank Smizik and Senator Thomas Kennedy.

These calls are urgent!

The State House system is not quickly updating the list of co-sponsors, so your legislator may have signed on as a co-sponsor even if they are not on the list yet – please ask them until they are listed.

Phone numbers: Call the State House switchboard and ask for your Senator’s or Representative’s office: 617-722-2350, or look their name up at www.malegislature.gov

Don’t know who your state Senator or Representative is? Go to www.WhereDoIVoteMA.com and type in your address.

Please remind our legislators that the foreclosure crisis is not over, and that the cumulative impact continues to harm our families, our neighborhoods, our communities, and our overall economy!

If you have any questions, please call Grace Ross at 617-291-5591 or Sue Parsons at 617-877-2930. Please let us know the results of your calls, and about any commitments you get from legislators to co-sponsor these bills.

These bills and their associated MAAPL Fact Sheets are posted on the MAAPL Web site. You can also refer your legislators to that link so they can learn more about each bill as they consider signing on.

It’s easy to be part of the solution – make a call today!


Update: The following MA Senators and Representatives have signed on as co-sponsors of MAAPL’s bills for the 2013 legislative session as of Thursday, January 31st. If you see your Senator’s or Representative’s name on this list, please thank them for their support of these important bills.

An Act to Prevent Unnecessary Vacancies in Foreclosed Homes
Lead sponsor: Senator James B. Eldridge
Sen. Gale D. Candaras
Rep. Michael D. Brady
Rep. Christine E. Canavan
Rep. Gloria L. Fox
Rep. Mary S. Keefe
Rep. Kay Khan
Rep. Tom Sannicandro
Rep. Benjamin Swan
Rep. Chris Walsh

An Act to Facilitate Alternatives to Foreclosure
Lead sponsors: Senator Harriette L. Chandler; Representatives John J. Mahoney, James J. O’Day, Mary S. Keefe
Rep. Denise Andrews
Rep. Christine E. Canavan
Rep. Christopher G. Fallon
Rep. John P. Fresolo
Rep. Jay R. Kaufman
Rep. Kay Khan
Rep. Denise Provost
Rep. Tom Sannicandro
Rep. Ellen Story
Rep. Benjamin Swan
Rep. Chris Walsh

An Act to Amend the Foreclosure Statute to Require Judicial Foreclosure
Lead sponsors: Senator Thomas P. Kennedy, Representative Frank I. Smizik
Rep. Stephen L. DiNatale
Rep. John P. Fresolo
Rep. Jay R. Kaufman
Rep. Kay Khan
Rep. Tom Sannicandro
Rep. Benjamin Swan
Rep. Martha M. Walz

An Act Relative to the Relief of Mortgage Debt
Lead sponsors: Senator Sal N. DiDomenico, Representative Elizabeth A. Malia
Rep. Denise Andrews
Rep. Kay Khan
Rep. Denise Provost

About MAAPL

The Mass. Alliance Against Predatory Lending (MAAPL) is a coalition of over 60 housing counseling agencies, legal services groups, social service agencies, and community-based social action groups that have joined together to address the foreclosure crisis in Massachusetts. MAAPL collects and distributes timely information on the foreclosure crisis and its effects to the public and to its member groups, drafts and supports legislation that provides important protections to homeowners and tenants facing foreclosure and eviction, documents the impact of the foreclosure crisis on local communities, networks with related organizations throughout the Commonwealth, and provides tools and information to help people navigate the legal system and advocate on their own behalf more effectively when challenging a foreclosure or eviction in court
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