§ 2-4 — Prohibited acts and practices for licensees

It is a violation of this Act for a licensee subject to this Act to: (a) fail to maintain at least one full service office within the State of Illinois if required to do so pursuant to Section 3-4 of this Act; (b) fail to maintain staff reasonably adequate to meet the requirements of Section 3-4 of this Act; (c) fail to keep and maintain for 36 months the same written records as required by the federal Equal Credit Opportunity Act, and any other information required by regulations of the Secretary regarding any home mortgage in the course of the conduct of its residential mortgage business; (d) fail to file with the Secretary or Nationwide Multistate Licensing System and Registry as applicable, when due, any report or reports which it is required to file under any of the provisions of this Act; (e) engage, whether as principal or agent, in the practice of rejecting residential mortgage applications without reasonable cause, or varying terms or application procedures without reasonable cause, for home mortgages on real estate within any specific geographic area from the terms or procedures generally provided by the licensee within other geographic areas of the State; (f) engage in fraudulent home mortgage underwriting practices; (g) make payment, whether directly or indirectly, of any kind to any in house or fee appraiser of any government or private money lending agency with which an application for a home mortgage has been filed for the purpose of influencing the independent judgment of the appraiser with respect to the value of any real estate which is to be covered by such home mortgage; (h) fail to file tax returns (State and Federal) for the past 3 years or filed with the Secretary an accountant's or attorney's statement as to why no return was filed; (i) engage in any discrimination or redlining activities prohibited by Section 3-8 of this Act; (j) knowingly make any false promises likely to influence or persuade, or pursue a course of misrepresentation and false promises through agents, solicitors, advertising or otherwise; (k) knowingly misrepresent, circumvent or conceal, through whatever subterfuge or device, any of the material particulars or the nature thereof, regarding a transaction to which it is a party to the injury of another party thereto; (l) fail to disburse funds in accordance with its agreements; (m) commit a crime against the law of this State, any other state or of the United States, involving moral turpitude, fraudulent or dishonest dealing, and that no final judgment has been entered against it in a civil action upon grounds of fraud, misrepresentation or deceit which has not been previously reported to the Secretary; (n) fail to account or deliver to the owner upon request any personal property such as money, fund, deposit, check, draft, mortgage, other document or thing of value which it is not in law or equity entitled to retain under the circumstances; (o) engage in any conduct which would be cause for denial of a license; (p) become insolvent; (q) submit an application for a license under this Act which contains a material misstatement; (r) demonstrate by course of conduct, negligence or incompetence in performing any act for which it is required to hold a license under this Act; (s) fail to advise the Secretary in writing, or the Nationwide Multistate Licensing System and Registry, as applicable, of any changes to the information submitted on the most recent application for license or averments of record within 30 days of said change. The written notice must be signed in the same form as the application for license being amended; (t) fail to comply with the provisions of this Act, or with any lawful order, rule or regulation made or issued under the provisions of this Act; (u) fail to submit to periodic examination by the Secretary as required by this Act; (v) fail to advise the Secretary in writing of judgments entered against, and bankruptcy petitions by, the license applicant within 5 days of occurrence; (w) fail to advise the Secretary in writing within 30 days of any request made to a licensee under this Act to repurchase a loan in a manner that completely and clearly identifies to whom the request was made, the loans involved, and the reason therefor; (x) fail to advise the Secretary in writing within 30 days of any request from any entity to repurchase a loan in a manner that completely and clearly identifies to whom the request was made, the loans involved, and the reason for the request; (y) fail to at all times act in a manner consistent with subsections (a) and (b) of Section 1-2 of this Act; (z) knowingly hire or employ a mortgage loan originator who is not licensed with the Secretary as required under Section 7-1A of this Act; (aa) charge or collect advance payments from borrowers or homeowners for engaging in loan modification; or (bb) structure activities or contracts to evade provisions of this Act. A licensee who fails to comply with this Section or otherwise violates any of the provisions of this Section shall be subject to the penalties in Section 4-5 of this Act.

Legislative History

(Source: P.A. 100-1153, eff. 12-19-18.)