Bills of Interest in This Year's Legislative Session

Dear Members,

This blog posting is mostly about giving you an update on some bills of interest in this year's legislative session. We are half way through the session so soon enough we will be giving you a final report of what passed and is awaiting action by the Governor.

Also, some additional news on commercial training here at The Fund and RON FAQs.

So here goes……..

Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act (CS/HB 349 and CS/CS/SB 580). This uniform law (with Florida tweaks) establishes special partition procedures if the property falls within the statutory definition of "heirs property." The intent of the law is to prescribe a process meant to yield a more appropriate value to be shared amongst the co-tenants, rather than a public sale/auction situation. Here is a link to the current version of the House bill:
https://www.thefund.com/TheFund/media/General-Counsel/CS-HB-349-Un-Part-of-Heirs-Prop-Act.pdf

Construction Liens (CS/CS/HB 283 and CS/SB 868) If you practice in the area of construction liens (other than pretty simple, single family residential construction loans), then you need to review these changes. For those of you who don't do much other than record Notices of Commencement, they have tweaked the form NOC once again so you will need to begin using this new form if the bill passes and when it goes into effect. There are changes in the process for terminating a NOC mid-construction. No longer does construction have to cease before you can record a termination but there are some new notice requirements that likely create some challenges. I haven't figured it all out yet but we will make sure we get some clarity before the new law goes into effect. Here is a link to the current version of the Senate bill: https://www.thefund.com/TheFund/media/General-Counsel-2/CS-SB-868-Construction-Liens.pdf

Vacation Rentals (CS/HB 1011 and CS/SB 1128), This is a hotly debated issue but the gist is that the proposed law pre-empts regulation of "vacation rentals" to the State (licensing and regulation!). No clear path to passage is evident at the moment so we are just watching this one. Here is a link to the current version of the House bill:
https://www.thefund.com/TheFund/media/General-Counsel-3/CS-HB-1011-Vacation-Rentals.pdf

Fund Commercial Training. In response to Fund members seeking education on how to handle commercial transactions, The Fund is rolling-out Fund Commercial Training, a 2.5-day accredited training session here at Fund Headquarters. The March class has already sold out! The next class has been scheduled for June 9-11. If you are interested or have questions, reach out to our Legal Education Manager Michael Rothman at mrothman@thefund.com. Or give Michael a call.

Remote Online Notarization. We have developed some FAQs on RON (I love speaking in a secret code!) and they are now posted on our Digital Closing page on the Fund Website. Here's a link. https://www.thefund.com/information-center/pdf/digital-closings/ron-faq-final-02-05-2020.aspx

All for now.

Let me know how we can help you.

Melissa Jay Murphy
Executive Vice President, Chief Legal Officer,
General Counsel and Secretary