Indiana Legislation, 2012: Part 1 Of 3 – Abandonment Of Mortgaged Property
March 23, 2012
The Indiana General Assembly’s 2012 session addressed three noteworthy issues related to Indiana Commercial Foreclosure Law. Today’s post is about House Bill 1238 and its amendment to Indiana Code § 32-29-7-3.
Three-month waiting period. Indiana has a post-complaint, three-month waiting period before sheriff’s sales can be requested. My July 30, 2010 post noted the exception to the three-month rule, which exception did not at the time apply to commercial properties – only residential.
The new I.C. § 32-29-7-3(a)(2). The amended statute, which becomes effective July 1, 2012, revises the exception to the three-month rule to read: “If the Court finds under I.C. 32-30-10.6 that the mortgaged real estate has been abandoned, a judgment or decree of sale may be executed on the date the judgment of foreclosure or decree of sale is entered, regardless of the date the mortgage is executed.” The new statute deletes the “residential” qualification and thus applies to commercial foreclosures now too. Moreover, the statute incorporates a brand new statute – I.C. § 32-30-10.6 – that creates a test and a procedure to determine whether the real estate has been abandoned.
I.C. § 32-30-10.6. This brand new statute is entitled “Determination of Abandonment for Property Subject to a Mortgage Foreclosure Action” and is quite lengthy. If foreclosing lenders or their counsel believe the subject real estate may be abandoned, then this new statute should be studied and followed, assuming there is interest in rushing to a sheriff’s sale. My partner Tom Dinwiddie, who helped draft the legislation, pointed out to me that, in practice, a Section 10.6 motion should be filed with the Complaint or, at the latest, with the Motion for Default Judgment in order to take advantage of the exception to the three-month rule.
Commercial application. As noted by one of my 2006 posts, Indiana’s judicial foreclosure process takes time. In my experience, the three-month waiting period rarely comes into play in commercial actions. Nevertheless, in instances where the commercial property is abandoned, this new legislation establishes a process that, in theory, permits lenders to get the property to a sheriff’s sale faster.