Assemblyman Pedro Nava, D-Santa Barbara, announced Tuesday that his legislation to crack down on loan foreclosure scams was sent to the floor of the state Senate for consideration. The Senate Appropriations Committee on Monday sent the bill to the full Senate.

“California families face a barrage of solicitations making promises to modify their home loans while collecting advance fees for little or no result,” Nava said. “My legislation will end these scams and ban the collection of advance fees.”

Assembly Bill 764, the Homeowner Fraud Prevention Act, would ban the collection of all advance fees for modifying a loan. Violations would be subject to a fine of $20,000 for an individual and $60,000 for a corporation and up to one year in county jail. AB 764 also would ban false and misleading advertising by individuals and companies that offer loan modification services.

“Californians desperately need the protections of AB 764,” Norma Garcia of Consumers Union said. “According to recent figures, there are over 92,000 foreclosure properties in California which represents 1 in every 144 households. AB 764 will protect these homeowners from becoming easy prey to those who divert the homeowners away from legitimate sources of free help and charge them thousands of dollars in advance fees for promises that can’t be delivered.”

AB 764 is supported by several consumer and labor organizations, including the California Public Interest Research Group, the California Reinvestment Coalition, AARP, the Center for Responsible Lending and the California Labor Federation.

— John Mann is a spokesman for Assemblyman Pedro Nava, D-Santa Barbara.