SAMPLE LETTER: OPPOSE HB 5935

ATG AGENTS: SAMPLE TEXT FOR EMAIL TO YOUR REPRESENTATIVES. COPY/PASTE ALL OR ANY PORTION, REVIEW AND CUSTOMIZE, THEN SEND VIA EMAIL.

Dear Representative_______,

I am writing to urge you to oppose House Bill 5935 (R-Ives). The bill seeks to change the decades-old practice in Illinois that allows consumers to receive title insurance services from their real estate lawyers as a logical and complementary service when the lawyer is representing them in the purchase or sale of a home.

Since 1964, Illinois consumers have had the benefit of receiving title examination and title assurance from their real estate lawyers. That practice has ensured that consumers receive the benefit of legal counsel when engaging in the largest transaction of a lifetime, the sale or purchase of a home.

In states where lawyers do not participate in the real estate process, uninformed consumers have no advocate in the real estate process, pay higher fees at closing, and are more often required to engage in post-closing title disputes long after the money has changed hands.

House Bill 5935 would have a devastating impact on small business as it would destroy the business of more than 4,000 attorney title agents in Illinois. Most of these agents are solo practitioners or small law firms that rely on the revenue from title insurance agency to support their practice and their families.

Consumers need legal representation in real estate closings. This bill will hurt Illinois consumers and destroy small business. Please oppose House Bill 5935.

Sincerely....

HB 5935 Amends the Title Insurance Act. Provides that the Secretary of Financial and Professional Regulation may refuse to grant and may suspend or revoke a certificate of authority, registration, or license issued under the Act or impose a fine if the Secretary determines that the holder of or applicant for a certificate of authority, registration, or license is both a holder of a registration as a title insurance agent and an attorney and has acted as the attorney for any party to a real property transaction in which the person has also acted as a registered title insurance agent. Effective immediately.

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