NRMLA requests WA Senate amend foreclosure bill to reflect reverse mortgage laws

Washington state established its foreclosure mediation program through the “Foreclosure Fairness Act,” legislation passed in 2011 which was signed into law by then-Gov. Christine Gregoire. The new bill aims to broaden foreclosure protections to those related to homeowners associations (HOAs), while standing up a new funding source for foreclosure prevention and ongoing mediation support.

Currently, the program is only open to borrowers who maintain a deed of trust in the property. Among the provisions of the new bill, the relevant section stipulates that “[a] foreclosure prevention fee of $80 shall be assessed for each residential mortgage loan originated, excepting only reverse mortgage loans issued to seniors over the age of 61,” it says.

But NRMLA points out that the age specification as written creates a crack in the reverse mortgage exemption, saying that reverse mortgage borrowers under Washington state law can be as young as 60 if they choose to enter into a proprietary product with a lower minimum age requirement.

This effectively covers the exemption for borrowers entering into a Federal Housing Administration (FHA)-sponsored Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM), but non-agency proprietary loans for their youngest borrowers would not be included in the exemption under the law. To that end, NRMLA has requested that the language be changed from age 61 to 59.

Currently, the Foreclosure Fairness Act is “silent regarding the eligibility of reverse mortgages for mediation,” according to program guidelines updated by the state’s department of commerce late last year. “The referring housing counselor or attorney should make a fact-specific determination regarding each particular reverse mortgage situation. Commerce will rely on the referrer’s determination that mediation is appropriate.”

State legislatures have already been very active on the reverse mortgage front in 2025, including through a bill in Hawaii seeking to establish a state-run reverse mortgage program, one in New York seeking to bolster required industry and loan disclosures as well as one in Oregon that NRMLA said could threaten the availability of proprietary loans within that state.

NRMLA’s dialogue with state legislators in Maryland also recently led to the withdrawal of a proposed bill that would have put the onus on lenders to cover some extra expenses tied to the HECM origination process.