Title 34
Property

Chapter 25.2
Rhode Island Home Loan Protection Act

R.I. Gen. Laws § 34-25.2-5

§ 34-25.2-5. Prohibited acts and practices regarding home loans.

A home loan shall be subject to the following prohibited acts and practices.

(a) No creditor making a home loan shall finance, directly or indirectly, any credit life, credit disability, credit unemployment or credit property insurance, or any other life or health insurance, or any payments directly or indirectly for any debt cancellation or suspension agreement or contract, except that insurance premiums or debt cancellation or suspension fees calculated and paid in full on a monthly basis shall not be considered financed by the creditor.

(b) No creditor shall knowingly or intentionally engage in the unfair act or practice of flipping a home loan. “Flipping a home loan” is the making of a home loan to a borrower that refinances an existing home loan that was consummated within the prior sixty (60) months when the new loan does not have reasonable, tangible net benefit in accordance with subsection 34-25.2-4(q), to the borrower considering all of the circumstances, including, but not limited to, the terms of both the new and refinanced loans, the cost of the new loan, and the borrower’s circumstances.

(c) No creditor shall recommend or encourage default on an existing loan or other debt prior to and in connection the closing or planned closing of a home loan that refinances all or any portion of such existing loan or debt.

(d) No home loan may contain a provision that permits the creditor, in its sole discretion, to accelerate the indebtedness. This provision does not prohibit acceleration of the loan in good faith due to the borrower’s failure to abide by the material terms of the loan.

(e) No home loan may contain a provision that allows a party to require a borrower to assert any claim or defense in a forum that is less convenient, more, costly, or more dilatory for the resolution of a dispute than a judicial forum established in this state where the borrower may otherwise properly bring a claim or defense or limits in any way claim or defense the borrower may have.

History of Section.
P.L. 2006, ch. 569, § 1; P.L. 2006, ch. 573, § 1.