Sen. Carney bill to clarify protections against foreclosure earns Legislature’s initial support

AUGUSTA – This week, the Maine Legislature voted to advance a bill from Sen. Anne Carney, D-Cape Elizabeth, to clarify protections against foreclosure in light of a decision by the Maine Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) in 2024. LD 1444, “An Act to Clarify the Application of Finch v. U.S. Bank, N.A.,” would prohibit a lender that lost a foreclosure case before 2024 due to their failure to comply with notice requirements from bringing a new foreclosure claim against the same homeowner.

“Becoming a homeowner is a major step forward towards long-term financial stability and security, but the challenges do not end there,” said Sen. Carney. “Protections against unjust foreclosures play an essential role in keeping hard-working Mainers in their homes through unanticipated financial hardship.”

Under Maine law, lenders are required to send notice to homeowners in default at least 35 days before filing a foreclosure, including an itemized list of the amount to be paid to cure the default. Notice of default requirements are one of the few protections from foreclosure available to Maine homeowners and, accordingly, have historically been strictly enforced. To deter repeated, unlawful foreclosures, a ruling by the Maine SJC in 2017 reaffirmed the precedent that prohibits a lender from bringing future foreclosure claims against a homeowner after failing to comply with notice requirements.

In 2024, however, the Maine SJC reversed course in Finch v. U.S. Bank, N.A., decoupling enforcement of notice compliance from banks’ right to bring foreclosure claims against a homeowner. This decision put prior cases, resolved under a different legal framework, in doubt, threatening to upend settled property rights.

“The Finch decision cast doubt on property rights decisions that were once considered final, leaving homeowners exposed to renewed threats of foreclosure,” continued Sen. Carney. “These homeowners deserve the protections they were entitled to under the law when their foreclosure cases were resolved years ago.”

As amended, LD 1444 seeks to ensure that homeowners whose cases were resolved before the 2024 decision continue to have the protections provided by the law in effect at the time of the foreclosure action. The bill aims to keep Mainers in their homes by ensuring homeowner rights are honored.

“Our concerns greatly increased in early 2024 when Attorney Cox advised us of the Maine Supreme Court decision in the Finch case and warned us that the mortgage servicer might try to use that as a basis to sue David again,” said Alison Jordan of Lisbon Falls in testimony before the Judiciary Committee, sharing her late husband’s story. “[I] hope you will vote to pass LD 1444 so that I and other Maine homeowners do not have to face these kinds of repeated foreclosure cases when the banks lose their cases.”

LD 1444 awaits a final vote in the Senate before going to the Governor’s desk.

Sen. Carney is serving her third term in the Maine Senate, representing South Portland, Cape Elizabeth and part of Scarborough. She serves as Senate Chair of the Judiciary Committee and the Joint Rules Committee and as a member of the Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Committee.

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