Industry & Technology news compliments of Marianne Mathieu
Title Insurance Industry & Technology News 7/26/17
Compliments of Marianne Mathieu
Industry News
Real Property & Title Insurance Update: Week Ending July 7, 2017
JD Supra -
Real Property Update
Takings/Declaratory Relief
Foreclosure/Standing
Foreclosure/Intervention
Foreclosure/Allonge
Foreclosure/Standing
Foreclosure/Admissions
Foreclosure/Standing
Title Insurance Update
Title Insurance Coverage
Replacement Doctrine and Equitable Subrogation
Read More ...
What Real Estate Settlement Service and Other Consumer Financial Services Providers Need to Know About the CFPB’s Final Arbitration Rule
JD Supra - On July 10, 2017, in a surprise move, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB or Bureau) issued its long awaited final rule on arbitration(Final Arbitration Rule). This rule-making has been a lightning rod issue for the Bureau, and its Final Arbitration Rule is likely to face serious political and legal challenges in the weeks and months to come. 
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After investors build $1 million dam, Wisconsin says it owns lake
USA Today - Owners who spent nearly $1 million to rebuild a dam that creates Upper Spring Lake say the Department of Natural Resources now claims access to some of the shore, property it tried, but failed, to condemn in the 1960s.
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CFPB Loses Another RESPA Case
JD Supra - A federal district court recently ruled against the CFPB in a long-standing case under the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA) involving a Louisville, Kentucky law firm Borders & Borders, PLC (Borders).  In the case, CFPB v. Borders & Borders, PLC (Civil Action No. 3:13-CV-01047-CRS-DW), the court granted the summary judgment motion of Borders, finding that joint ventures related to Borders satisfied the statutory conditions of the RESPA section 8(c)(4) affiliated business arrangement exemption.  
NYDFS Updates FAQs to Clarify Cybersecurity Regulations
JD Supra - The New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) recently updated frequently asked questions (FAQs) about its cybersecurity regulations, 23 NYCRR 500, to address four new issues. NYDFS published its initial set of FAQs on April 24, 2017. 
Fast-Track Foreclosure Process Coming to Maryland, is Pennsylvania Next?
JD Supra - Pennsylvania now has two neighbors that have passed fast-track foreclosure bills and the Keystone State is considering adding its own as a method to avoid a backlog of blighted properties.
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Land Surveys and Why They’re Useful
Realty Biz News - A recent article in Realtor.com has outlined why land surveys are a good idea when buying a home, how they are made and what they can do for you. Simply put, a land survey is a little like a map of a property showing its legal boundaries.
Easy Easements
JD Supra - This two-part series is about four important cases that have been decided over the past year relating to the acquisition of easements. This Part 1 highlights two cases which explain key principles that can dictate whether or not an easement exists.
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Mini-CFPB? Pennsylvania attorney general launches consumer financial protection unit
Housing Wire - With the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau now entering its seventh year squarely in the crosshairs of the Republican Party, one state is taking matters into its own hands to ensure that its residents are protected from the unscrupulous practices of financial services companies, no matter what happens to the CFPB.
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An Oil Patch Morality Play – Part 1
JD Supra - You are selling properties. The buyer thinks you own the deep rights but you know your long-time partner owns them. You attend the closing. You don’t tell the buyer that he’s got the ownership wrong. You are protected by a contract. Do you fess up? What if it means $6.8 million?
Technology News
Are You Vulnerable to This Hacking Attack?
ALTA (American Land Title Association) Blog - Whether you believe the Democratic National Committee (DNC) was hacked by Russians or a four-hundred pound guy from New Jersey, there is little dispute in the Information Security community on the methodology used. 
Consumers Uneasy About Going Paperless
Realtor Mag - Many mortgage lenders are phasing out physical paperwork in favor of electronic documents. While that may make organization easier for consumers, they still find an element of peace of mind in physical documents, according to a new survey.
SoFi is using blockchain technology to change the way title insurance is done for home buyer 
Fortune - As lending startup SoFi expands from student loans to full-service banking, it is also venturing into one of the trendiest areas among big Wall Street banks at the moment: blockchain. Yet while Bitcoin, the original blockchain, commands the lion's share of attention—and also the biggest valuation of any cryptocurrency—SoFi sees much greater potential in its younger sister, Ethereum.

Photo: By Davidstankiewicz (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
Blockchain Startup Propy Aims to Revamp the Real Estate Industry
Coin Journal - California-based blockchain startup Propy is building a global peer-to-peer real estate exchange platform with decentralized title registry aimed at facilitating international real estate purchases.
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You’ve Got (E-)Mail! Can Your Survivors Access It After Your Death?
JD Supra - E-mail is seemingly omnipresent. Day in and day out, we use it in our business, social, and personal affairs. Yet, the improvements to the technology associated with e-mail have far outpaced the development of the law concerning our e-mail accounts and the rights that our survivors may have to access those accounts upon our deaths.
Get Off My Lawn (OK-Airspace): Legal Issues Raised By Drones Hovering Over Private Property
JD Supra - Hardly a week goes by that someone does not ask me “What can I do if a drone flies or hovers over my property?” or the converse, “What restrictions are there on my operation of a drone over private property?”.
In Other News
The Number That’s Illegal to Share
Now That I Know - There are lots of numbers out there — an infinite amount, in fact. We can talk about almost all of them without fear of getting in trouble — 0, 1, π, 24601, 8675309, etc. — but a few, well, those are problematic. Using them could result with you on the wrong end of a lawsuit, and potentially in prison.
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The “Commander-in-Tweet” and the First Amendment
JD Supra - Can you violate the First Amendment by blocking people from your Twitter account? According to the Knight First Amendment Institute, it’s possible if that account is @realDonaldTrump.
Work on Erie Canal began 200 years ago and changed history
The Daily Record - A few days after the first shovel was thrust into the central New York state dirt on July 4, 1817, to ceremoniously begin the building of the Erie Canal, the real work got started. A few dozen workers supplied with nothing more than shovels and draft animals started digging in both directions in Rome. 
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The headstones with unusual stories to tell
BBC News - Cemeteries offer a heady mix of history, beauty, nature and death to those who enjoy browsing around them. Burial grounds such as Highgate in north London, which host the graves of the rich and famous, draw thousands of visitors. But there are scores of other less well known but interesting graves around England.
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Title Agents Go Nationwide
For agents interested in growing their businesses by expanding into multiple states, we’re here to make the process simple and profitable.  We offer you one point of contact to streamline your options and solutions.

Marianne Mathieu, NTP
Vice President/National Agency Accounts
Fidelity National Title Group
347-987-0677