Date:    October 3, 2003

To:       All Clients

From:  David Gorenstein, President

Re:       1) TP-584 Schedule D - Mortgage Foreclosure Actions

2) Additional Changes in Mortgage Recording Tax Rates (Not NYC)

3) Representing Clients During Divorce and Bankruptcy 

1) TP-584 Schedule D - Mortgage Foreclosure Actions. 

The New York State Department of Taxation and Finance has reversed itself on the requirement that the foreclosed owner of the property must sign Schedule D of the TP-584 when the property is being conveyed by the referee in a mortgage foreclosure action. 

For all deeds made by a referee in a MORTGAGE FORECLOSURE ACTION, Schedule D of the TP-584 is to be signed by the referee, who is to sign the bottom of Schedule D on page 4 of the TP-584, provided that the box that states “The transferor/seller is a mortgagor conveying the mortgaged property to a mortgagee in foreclosure, or in lieu of foreclosure with no additional consideration” has been checked. 

If the referee does not sign the bottom of Schedule D on page 4 and check the required box, the deed cannot be recorded and you cannot close the title. 

The information that we received from the Department of Taxation and Finance appears to be very specific to mortgage foreclosure actions. Until we hear otherwise from the Department of Taxation and Finance, in any action (other than a mortgage foreclosure action) in which a court-appointed individual has been appointed to execute the deed (examples include but are not limited to, where a referee is appointed to execute a deed on behalf of a recalcitrant party, or where the sheriff has executed the deed in a sheriff’s sale), the TP-584 Schedule D must be signed by the actual owner(s) of the property whose interest is being transferred. This provision does not apply to executors or administrators appointed by the court to handle the affairs of an estate or to trustees appointed for a testamentary or lifetime trust.

2) Additional Changes in Mortgage Recording Tax Rates (Not NYC) 

3) Representing Clients During Divorce and Bankruptcy
For those of you who have not read this article in the NYSBA Real Property Law Journal Summer 2003/volumn31/No.2, I thought you might find it interesting and informative.