California foreclosure prevention bill is likely to advance

SACRAMENTO ? After six months of wrangling, California lawmakers put the finishing touches on what they hope will be compromise foreclosure-prevention legislation.

The measure is part of a larger Homeowner Bill of Rights package of bills sponsored by state Atty. Gen. Kamala D. Harris aimed at helping borrowers who are behind on mortgage payments avoid foreclosures. A draft of the bill was made public late Friday.

The bill would lock into California law many of the terms of a national foreclosure lawsuit settlement with five big banks.

California has been hit hard by a wave of foreclosures that started in the recession of 2007-09. Last year, 38 of the nation's 100 most foreclosure-prone ZIP Codes were in the state.

"The California Homeowner Bill of Rights will help ensure that struggling California borrowers with the means and desire to stay in their homes will have real access to a process that will allow them to do so," Harris said in a statement.

A two-house legislative conference committee is expected to approve the bill, SB 900, next week and send the package to the floors of both the state Assembly and Senate for final debates and votes.

Passage by the conference committee, which has four majority Democratic and two Republican members, is considered assured now that a key, business-friendly Democrat, Sen. Ron Calderon of Montebello, has signaled his support.

"I followed two key principles throughout the development of the conference committee report: fair treatment of borrowers and the need to keep California's economic recovery on track," Calderon said. "Losing a home to foreclosure is a heartbreak that should be avoided whenever and wherever possible. Californians can rest assured that the conference committee report tackles the most egregious behavior displayed throughout the foreclosure crisis."

The bill contains a number of provisions that have rankled bankers, mortgage servicers and their allies in the real estate industry.

One such provision would require mortgage loan servicers to give their borrowers a single point of contact instead of bouncing them around from office to office.

A second would limit banks' ability to begin a foreclosure process if the borrowers have filed documents requesting a loan modification that would lower their monthly payments.

A third would give homeowners the ability to sue servicers, under certain restrictions, alleging that they were wrongly foreclosed upon.

"I think this is a product that represents a lot of significant compromises but, at the end of the day, is a step forward," said Paul Leonard, director of the Center for Responsible Lending in Oakland.

Mortgage bankers declined to comment on the substance of the bill, saying they had not fully reviewed the 23-page document.

However, Dustin Hobbs, a spokesman for the California Mortgage Bankers Assn., said his group's members were disappointed that the Democrat-dominated committee is "rushing" to a vote, "giving interested parties and the public virtually no time to digest the information and provide substantial feedback."

marc.lifsher@latimes.com

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