Lawmakers Move to Extend Consumer Law to Mortgages

Ohio legislators, many of whom have been divided over a bill aimed at shutting down unscrupulous mortgage lenders, have now agreed to update the state's consumer protection law to ban some housing transactions, including "flipping." The agreement is a major step toward dislodging Senate Bill 185, a proposal that could be approved this week by a committee representing both Statehouse chambers.

But a major difference in the Senate and House versions of the bill still threatens to kill the legislation. Lawmakers are trying to agree on just how far mortgage brokers and nonbank lenders must go to assure a customer a good deal. Senate Bill 185 would for the first time bring the mortgage lending industry under the state's Consumer Sales Practices Act.

Read the text of SB 185: http://www.legislature.state.oh.us/bills.cfm?ID=126_SB_185