2008 Survey of RESPA Developments

Over the past year, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and state insurance regulators have continued to pursue enforcement activities under the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA) against settlement service providers and captive title reinsurance arrangements, even as the US General Accountability Office (GAO) was recommending legislative changes to RESPA in a report on practices in the title insurance industry. But the most significant RESPA developments resulted from litigation as courts decided cases on liability under the RESPA section 8(b) fee-splitting provisions, standing-to-sue issues, RESPA's statute of limitations, the proper measure of damages, affiliated business arrangements, and the secondary market exemption. An increasingly popular claim being filed against servicers is for failing to provide a timely and proper response to a borrower's "qualified written request" (QWR) for information, as required by section 6 of RESPA. In this regard, RESPA requires that servicers acknowledge receipt of a QWR in writing within twenty days and respond to the QWR in writing within sixty days after receipt.