The Federal Trade Commission recently issued a statement announcing that it will forbear from enforcing most provisions of its Mortgage Assistance Relief Services (MARS) Rule against real estate brokers and their agents who assist financially distressed consumers in obtaining short sales from their lenders or servicers.
See the FTC’s statement here: FTC Enforcement Policy: Real Estate Professionals and the Mortgage Assistance Relief Services Rule
From the statement:
In recent months, a number of real estate brokers and agents (“real estate professionals”) and their representatives have contacted the Commission to question the applicability of certain provisions of the MARS Rule to real estate professionals who assist consumers in obtaining short sales. In particular, these persons have raised concerns about the accuracy and comprehensibility of the disclosures mandated by the Rule, and the unintended consequences that might result from application of the advance fee ban, in the context of a real estate professional assisting a consumer in negotiating or obtaining a short sale.
Until further notice, the Commission will forbear from taking any enforcement action for violation of the MARS Rule…against a real estate professional who provides “any service, plan, or program, offered or provided to the consumer in exchange for consideration, that is represented, expressly or by implication, to assist or attempt to assist the consumer [in] . . . [n]egotiating, [o]btaining or [a]rranging . . . [a] short sale of a dwelling.”
