U.S. Supreme Court Ends the RESPA Section 8(b) Debate: It Takes Two to Tango
By: Holly Spencer Bunting, Phillip L. Schulman
The split in the federal Circuit Courts over the interpretation of Section 8(b) of RESPA has been resolved, and the result is that it takes two to tango for a Section 8(b) violation. In a decision made on May 24, 2012 in Freeman v. Quicken Loans, Inc., the U.S. Supreme Court held that a charge for settlement services must be divided between two or more persons to constitute a violation of Section 8(b). This is welcome news for settlement service providers, who can rest assured that their own prices, whether as part of a mark-up of a third-party fee or their own unilateral charges, cannot violate Section 8(b) of RESPA. Read More