Maryland lawmakers have approved a set of bills aimed at controlling the housing crisis by increasing oversight of the mortgage industry and introducing new measures to help at-risk homeowners, reports the Washington Post.
The emergency legislation, part of Gov. Martin O'Malley's legislation package, passed in the state's General Assembly, and the governor is expected to sign some of the bills immediately.
According to the article, among the measures in the Maryland legislation are changes to make operators of certain mortgage-fraud schemes subject to criminal prosecution, extensions of the standard foreclosure time frame from 15 to 150 days, and prohibition of prepayment penalties and transactions that force unwitting homeowners to sign their houses over to third parties.