GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA

SESSION 1997

H	1 

HOUSE BILL 1125

Short Title:  Mortgage Lenders.	(Public)

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Sponsors: Representatives Miner; Barbee, Church, Culpepper, Hardaway, Hardy, Justus, and Nichols.

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Referred to:  Commerce, if favorable, Finance.

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April 21, 1997

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT TO REVISE THE CLASSIFICATION OF LENDERS WHO MAY CONTRACT FOR THE PAYMENT OF CHARGES IN CERTAIN CIRCUMSTANCES.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
Section 1.  G.S. 24-1.1A(a) reads as rewritten:
"(a)	Notwithstanding any other provision of this Chapter, parties to a home loan may contract in writing as follows:
(1)	Where the principal amount is ten thousand dollars ($10,000) or more the parties may contract for the payment of interest as agreed upon by the parties;
(2)	Where the principal amount is less than ten thousand dollars ($10,000) the parties may contract for the payment of interest as agreed upon by the parties, if the lender is either (i) approved as a mortgagee by the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, the Federal Housing Administration, the Veterans Administration, a national mortgage association or any federal agency; or (ii) a local or foreign bank, savings and loan association or service corporation wholly owned by one or more savings and loan associations and permitted by law to make home loans, credit union or insurance company or a mortgage banker registered pursuant to G.S. 53-233 who is under the common control with a bank, savings and loan association, or insurance company; or (iii) a State or federal agency;
(3)	Where the principal amount is less than ten thousand dollars ($10,000) and the lender is not a lender described in the preceding subdivision (2) the parties may contract for the payment of interest not in excess of sixteen percent (16%) per annum.
(4)	Notwithstanding any other provision of law, except as provided in subdivision (2) of this subsection, where the lender is an affiliate operating in the same office or subsidiary operating in the same office of a licensee under the North Carolina Consumer Finance Act, the lender may charge interest to be computed only on the following basis: monthly on the outstanding principal balance at a rate not to exceed the rate provided in this subdivision.
On the fifteenth day of each month, the Commissioner of Banks shall announce and publish the maximum rate of interest permitted by this subdivision. Such rate shall be the latest published noncompetitive rate for U.S. Treasury bills with a six-month maturity as of the fifteenth day of the month plus six percent (6%), rounded upward or downward, as the case may be, to the nearest one-half of one percent (1/2 of 1%) or fifteen percent (15%), whichever is greater. If there is no nearest one-half of one percent (1/2 of 1%), the Commissioner shall round downward to the lower one-half of one percent (1/2 of 1%). The rate so announced shall be the maximum rate permitted for the term of loans made under this section during the following calendar month when the parties to such loans have agreed that the rate of interest to be charged by the lender and paid by the borrower shall not vary or be adjusted during the term of the loan. The parties to a loan made under this section may agree to a rate of interest which shall vary or be adjusted during the term of the loan in which case the maximum rate of interest permitted on such loans during a month during the term of the loan shall be the rate announced by the Commissioner in the preceding calendar month.
An affiliate operating in the same office or subsidiary operating in the same office of a licensee under the North Carolina Consumer Finance Act may not make a home loan for a term in excess of six (6) months which provides for a balloon payment.  For purposes of this subdivision, a balloon payment means any scheduled payment that is more than twice as large as the average of earlier scheduled payments.  This subsection does not apply to equity lines of credit as defined in G.S. 45-81."
Section 2.  G.S. 24-10(h) reads as rewritten:
"(h)	A lender described in G.S. 24-1.1A(a)(2), or any subsidiary or affiliate thereof organized under the laws of this State or the United States, may charge a party to a loan secured by real property a reasonable fee as may be agreed upon by the parties for an appraisal performed by an employee of the bank, savings and loan association, savings bank, or credit union, or any subsidiary or affiliate thereof.  Upon the request of the borrower, the lender shall provide at no additional charge to the borrower a copy of any appraisal for which the lender has collected a fee under this subsection.  Provision of the copy of an appraisal shall not be construed to create or imply any warranty which does not otherwise exist by the lender as to the accuracy of the appraisal."
Section 3.  This act becomes effective October 1, 1997, and applies to contracts entered into on or after that date.