Third Quarter 2024 Ohio Legislative Updates

There has been a recent flurry of activity within the 135th General Assembly of the Ohio Legislature, all in its infancy.
 
Beginning with House Bill No. 182, titled in short as, “Regards precomputed consumer installment loans,” and sponsored by Representatives Hillyer and Barhorst, the Bill seeks amend section1321 of the Revised Code regarding precomputed consumer installment loans.

​The Consumer Installment Loan Act (CILA), regulates loans that are for a term of at least six months, require equal monthly payments, have an interest rate less than a specified maximum, and cannot be refinanced within the first 120 days of the loan term. The CILA excludes specific transactions, such as secured transactions.
House Bill No. 182 affects the acceleration, conversion, interest rates, refinance charges, and immunity from violations of lending laws under specified circumstances. The Bill also permits recovery of reasonable attorney's fees incurred as a result of a suit or lawful activity to collect a loan or any lawful activity to realize on a security interest after default.
Most notably, much like the Fair Debt Collection Practices act does for debt collectors, the Bill protects a lender that makes an error in connection with a loan which would otherwise constitute a violation of ORC 1321 from liability for that violation if the lender establishes that the violation was not intentional and resulted from a bona fide error, notwithstanding the maintenance of procedures the lender reasonably adapts to avoid any such error, and takes certain steps to remedy the error.

House Bill No. 182 was introduced on May 22, 2023, and was reported as a substitute bill on December 5, 2024.
The text of the Bill in its current state can be found here.
 
Senate Bill No. 331, introduced on November 13, 2024, by Senator Blessing, “Regards recording liens and other real property instruments” and seeks to amend the Ohio Revised Code to require certain liens that are filed with the county recorder to state the last known address of the debtor that is not a post office box and to require a memorandum of trust or other qualifying instrument concerning real property to be recorded as well.
The text of the Bill in its current state can be found here.

Amended House Bill No. 375 relates to tax foreclosures and county land reutilization corporations and is sponsored by Representatives Demetriou and Patton. The Bill requires abandoned land to be forfeited to the state if unsold after the first sale to be forfeited to the state and disposed of as prescribed under the Forfeited Lands Law.
Additionally, the Bill alters the time at which land is presumed unoccupied and therefore abandoned if it is also tax delinquent, from the time the county auditor certifies the delinquent lands to the time the prosecutor files a complaint in foreclosure.
The Bill eliminates the ability of a secured creditor to file a pleading with the board of revision to preserve the person’s security interest and also eliminates the current presumption that the auditor’s valuation of the property is the fair market value, regardless of whether an independent appraisal has been filed; if  an  owner or lienholder files an appraisal, the relevant value becomes the actual fair market value.

The text of the Bill in its current state can be found here.

This post was prepared by Ellen L. Fornash, Esq.