Maine Updates Mortgage Servicer Definition

The Maine legislature recently enacted Senate Paper 334 (SP 334), which, in part, updates the definition of “mortgage servicer” under Maine’s existing statute regarding a mortgage servicer’s duty of good faith.  The changes made by the bill will take effect 90 days after the adjournment of Maine’s current legislative session.

The updated language broadens the definition of a “mortgage servicer” to cover a person who services an obligation by taking any one of the six listed actions that are defined as “servicing” in the statute.  The listed actions include, in part, receiving a periodic payment from an obligor under the terms of an obligation, evaluating or communicating with an obligor for loss mitigation purposes, and making a payment to an obligor under a HECM or reverse mortgage.  Additionally, SP 334 revises the definition of “obligation” to include a mortgage deed even if the debt secured by the mortgage deed has been discharged in bankruptcy.