The Berrien County Board of Commissioners will consider a resolution next week supporting two Michigan House bills intended to protect homeowners facing mortgage foreclosure, Corporate Counsel Attorney Hackworth told the board.

Hackworth said the bills would do two main things: prohibit third parties from acquiring a homeowner's rights to surplus proceeds generated at a foreclosure sale and prevent firms from buying a homeowner's right to redeem or remain in a property after a foreclosure. "So, any such agreement would be not enforceable. The surplus proceeds would be belong only to the homeowner who is facing foreclosure," Hackworth said. He also described a requirement that companies provide homeowners a notice of their rights before a property could be conveyed.

The measures, which Hackworth said were cosponsored by local state representatives Andrews and Paquette, are intended to close loopholes that allow firms to obtain homeowners'rights in exchange for small payments and to increase transparency. "As it is now, it's clear that homeowners are not aware of these rights in in all circumstances, and they end up conveying the property to a third party firm losing those rights without even necessarily knowing that they had them to begin with," Hackworth said.

Hackworth told the board that county departments, including the register of deeds, have seen the aftermath of these arrangements and that the sheriff'conducted auctions can produce surplus proceeds that belong to homeowners. He said in some cases third parties purchased the rights to those proceeds for a few hundred dollars and later sought collection. "Only I don't get a request from the homeowner. I get a request from a third party firm who bought the rights to that surplus from a homeowner for sometimes just a few $100," he said.

Board members asked Hackworth to help bring the bills to the attention of legislators in Lansing. Hackworth said the bills were introduced last week and had been referred to committee with no committee action reported yet. No vote on the board resolution occurred at this meeting; the item is scheduled for the full board agenda next week.

If adopted by the board, a county-resolution of support would be forwarded to state legislators, Hackworth said. The full text of the bills and any committee or floor actions were not supplied at this meeting.