Good afternoon —
Bill Burding, past president of the American Land Title Association and executive vice president and general counsel for Orange Coast Title Company, wrote an article for HousingWire last week that looked at the issue of racially restrictive covenants.
"Racially restrictive covenants were not only mutual agreements between property owners in a neighborhood not to sell to certain people, but were also agreements enforced through the cooperation of real estate boards and neighborhood associations," Burding writes.
Despite legislation dating back to 1948 that makes these covenants legally unenforceable, they were privately enforced for many years through those neighborhood associations. And they still lurk in the public land records of many states even today, creating extra steps for title companies that uncover them in a title search.
Now there might be federal help for the widespread problem through the Mapping Housing Discrimination Act, introduced in July. Read the whole story here.
Last week, I talked about the Biden administration's sharp focus on regulation, including the fact that the CFPB just hired dozens of enforcement attorneys. Then on Friday, the bureau announced it hired two veteran regulators to lead its enforcement and supervision divisions.
In this charged atmosphere, it makes sense to shore up your compliance, particularly around RESPA. To that end, check out our Houses in Motion podcast on the topic — RESPA for dummies — featuring Holly Spencer Bunting, a compliance attorney at Mayer Brown.
Until next week —
Sarah Wheeler
HousingWire Editor in Chief
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