ILSA amendment bill makes way to US Senate

Legislation seen as cutting red tape for condo developers

Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand
Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand

A bill that exempts condos from filing and registration requirements mandated by the controversial Interstate Land Sales Full Disclosure Act (ILSA) has made its way to the United States Senate. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY), on behalf of himself, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and Sen. Dean Heller (R-NV), introduced the bill, known as S 2101, on March 10.

Under the bill, (click here for a PDF of full text), developers of new condos or time-shares with at least 99 units will no longer have to register their buildings with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The bipartisan bill was read twice during the second session of the 113th Congress and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. If approved, it will go to the White House to be signed into law.

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The bill unanimously passed in the U.S. House of Representatives in September, a move that was hailed as a big victory for condominium developers.

The ILSA law was first passed in 1968, and was seldom used in New York City until the 2008 market crash, when it became a pet exit strategy for condo buyers looking to get out of their deposits, spawning a cottage industry of federal litigation, as TRD reported. Buyers were able to overturn contracts even when developers made seemingly trivial ILSA filing errors.