New fees in foreclosures

Recent action in Springfield this morning. Senate Bill 3739 (Collins, D-Chicago; Lyons, D-Chicago) creates two new acts with two new fees to administer and fund foreclosure-counseling programs for consumers and to defray the costs of removing and securing abandoned residential property by municipalities. It does so by creating two new fees: (1) a $50 fee on a mortgage foreclosure complaint against residential property; and (2) a sliding fee to be paid by the purchaser of residential property at a judicial sale. The fee is calculated at $1 for each $1,000 or fraction thereof of the amount paid by the purchaser to the person conducting the sale. The fee is capped at $300, and there is an exception for mortgagees, judgment creditors, or other lienors acquiring the residential property by rights that arose before the judicial sale.