On May 17, 2010, Judge Lanphear of the Providence Superior Court found portions of Providence’s local foreclosure ordinance to have been preempted by state law. The court found that Providence’s attempt to bar foreclosure deeds from being recorded, where the lender had not complied with the city’s mediation requirement, violated the state-wide recording statute which requires all recorders of deeds to accept certain instruments for recording. The bar to recording was found to be disruptive of the state’s overall scheme of regulation of the conveyance of real estate and recording of instruments.

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