On Tuesday, March 1, NAR joined a coalition letter, with other Real Estate industry groups, to select members of the Leadership of the House of Representatives. The letter urged passage in the House of S.2393pdf, “Foreclosure Relief and Extension for Servicemembers Act of 2015.” S.2393, which passed unanimously in the Senate would restore and extend, to military personnel leaving active duty, the one-year protection from foreclosure provided under 2003’s Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA).
At the end of 2015, the one-year protection from foreclosure reverted back to ninety days and now mortgage servicers are very concerned they will have to reverse policy and communicate to military homeowners a change in their foreclosure protection in the next thirty days. If Congress does not act to extend the moratorium, lenders will be statutorily obligated to revert back to a ninety day moratorium as provided by the SCRA.
In 2012 Congress extended the SCRA protection against foreclosure for military personnel from three months to one-year post-military service. In 2014, the one-year protection was extended by the 113th Congress by unanimous consent. S.2393,extends the one-year protection from foreclosure through 2017.Previous extensions of the one-year protection have been supported by the American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW), Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), and Military Officers Association of American (MOAA).