Legislation aimed at slowing residential foreclosures in California failed by a single vote in the state Senate on Wednesday, after Republicans balked at requiring lenders to talk personally with borrowers before they start the default process, the Los Angeles Times reports.
After the vote, Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata (D-Oakland) criticized the GOP lawmakers and vowed to bring back a similar bill in the spring.
“There are some things, albeit minor, that we can do in California to help those who are ensnared in the so-called sub-prime mortgage crisis,” Perata said. “There are enough reasons for us to try to slow this process down.”
He warned that 300,000 California homeowners face dramatically higher monthly payments on their adjustable-interest-rate mortgages this year.
The heavily lobbied bill is one of about a dozen measures working their way through the Legislature to deal with the worsening mortgage meltdown. Perata’s bill was the first of them to reach the Senate floor.
He emphasized Wednesday that the foreclosure risk facing homeowners is primarily a national problem and noted that the Bush administration had asked lenders to refinance loans or change terms for certain borrowers to keep them in their homes.
