[Congressional Bills 107th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4627 Introduced in House (IH)]







107th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 4627

To amend the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act of 1974 to prohibit 
 certain unearned fees in connection with settlement services involved 
               in residential mortgage loan transactions.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              May 1, 2002

 Mr. Barrett of Wisconsin (for himself, Mr. Rush, and Ms. Schakowsky) 
 introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on 
                           Financial Services

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act of 1974 to prohibit 
 certain unearned fees in connection with settlement services involved 
               in residential mortgage loan transactions.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Real Estate Settlement Fairness 
Act''.

SEC. 2. PROHIBITION OF CERTAIN UNEARNED FEES.

    (a) In General.--Subsection (b) of section 8 of the Real Estate 
Settlement Procedures Act of 1974 (12 U.S.C. 2607(b)) is amended--
            (1) by inserting ``(1)'' after ``(b)''; and
            (2) by adding at the end the following new paragraph:
    ``(2) Prohibition of certain unearned fees.--
                    ``(A) In general.--No person shall, in connection 
                with a transaction involving a federally related 
                mortgage loan, make or receive a charge for a real 
                estate settlement service rendered by another person in 
                an amount that exceeds the amount paid for such service 
                to the person actually rendering such service.
                    ``(B) No splitting requirement.--Charges in excess 
                of the amount specified in subparagraph (A) shall 
                violate the prohibition under such subparagraph whether 
                such excess amount is retained by a single person or 
                split between two or more persons.''.
    (b) Regulations.--Not later than 90 days after the date of the 
enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development 
shall prescribe final regulations pursuant to section 19(a) of the Real 
Estate Settlement Procedures Act of 1974 (12 U.S.C. 2617(a)) to carry 
out the amendments made by subsection (a) of this section.
    (c) Effective Date.--The amendments made by subsection (a) shall be 
made on, and shall apply to charges made on and after, and the 
regulations prescribed pursuant to subsection (b) shall take effect 
upon, the expiration of the 270-day period beginning on the date of the 
enactment of this Act.
                                 <all>