Posted by Regal/NC on 3/21/07 7:34am
Msg #181009

NC Folks: Senate Bill 764

Folks,
Please contact your local representative regarding this proposed
Bill. It can be viewed on the North Carolina Bar Association site:
ncbar.org

Reply by MistarellaFL on 3/21/07 7:35am
Msg #181010

Is that the bill they are trying to pass to make NC an att'y only state?

Reply by Regal/NC on 3/21/07 7:43am
Msg #181014

YES! n/m

Reply by NCLisa on 3/21/07 11:39am
Msg #181085

This is something the NC Bar Association is trying to do, not the NC State Bar. They are 2 very different organizations. The State Bar allowed us to go non-attorney closings in 2003, so the RE attorney members of the Assoc. got together to try to get legislature passed. The Assoc, doesn't hold a lot of weight, and there are a lot of attorneys that don't belong to it.

Sorry I didn't get back to you yesterday Bobby, but I had 9 closings between yesterday and this morning, so I didn't get to answer any email.

Reply by Lynn Lowry on 3/21/07 4:03pm
Msg #181161

Lisa - Re: NC Folks: Senate Bill 764


Lisa, you wrote in another post, "This legislation is not going to pass" - why do you think that it will not? I hope that you are right, as it will be a catastrophe for me. We recently purchased a new house because of the addition of what I make to the household income.

The Bill reads in part, "A person or entity shall not act in the capacity of a settlement agent or provide settlement services and a lender, seller, purchaser, or borrower may not contract with any person or entity to act in the capacity of a settlement agent or for the provision of settlement services . . ." Does this mean that an out-of-state title company will not be able to prepare any documents for a loan closing in NC?

Perhaps the foregoing and language like, "Failure to comply with the provisions of this Act shall govern the validity or enforceability of any document, including a deed or any loan document, executed and delivered at any settlement occurring after October 1, 1996" will make Senators, other than the sponsors, realize that the bill is unrealistic.

Using the list of NC State Senators at http://www.ncga.state.nc.us/gascripts/members/memberList.pl?sChamber=Senate and the link to their email, it would be pretty easy to send them all a message.

Reply by NCLisa on 3/21/07 7:52pm
Msg #181203

NC closings

They want to stop anyone but a licensed NC attorney from closing a NC property. No more outside TC's, nothing. Attorneys won't even be able to witness only closings. Transcontinental used ot hire only attorneys in NC to do their closings. They also want to close down all settlement companies even if owned by an attorney.

In your letters remind them that this is giving jobs to far more people than just attorneys. That if settlement companies and title companies are allowed to continue to do closings that more and more jobs will be created that pay far better than attorneys tend to pay staff. That eventually title companies will funnel money into county governments to help maintain online title/public record databases. That the state will make more money off notary commissions, etc.

And remember, lets get our current SOS out of office as soon as we can!

Reply by Lynn Lowry on 3/21/07 8:19pm
Msg #181211

Re: NC closings

I think that we need to get the word out to all Title Cos that we work with and Source of Ttle that not only signing agents will be put out of business, but THEY WILL BE as to business in NC. We need to get them and large out-of-state lenders to write the NC senators.

Reply by Lynn Lowry on 3/21/07 4:11pm
Msg #181162

One more thing . . .

. . . it will be bad news if the NC Secretary of State gets behind the bill as she does not believe that notaries should act as loan signing agents because, in her opinion, too often they engage in the unauthorized practice of law.