Maryland Attorney General Announces Million Dollar Settlement with Title Insurance Company over RESPA Section 8 Violations Involving Joint Ventures: RESPA is Still on the State Radar
On January 14, 2026, the Maryland Attorney General announced a settlement with a Maryland-based title insurance company and its joint ventures that it formed with real estate agents and brokers, resolving alleged violations of RESPA Section 8, Maryland’s RESPA statute, and the Maryland Consumer Protection Act. Maryland alleged that the payments to the real estate agents and brokers who were members of the joint ventures were in exchange for referrals of title insurance business. The settlement requires the companies to pay $850,000 in restitution to Maryland consumers and make a $200,000 payment to the Maryland Attorney General’s office.
There are no specific facts outlined in the settlement document, but the document includes the companies’ assertion that the joint ventures complied with the affiliated business arrangement safe harbor under RESPA and the state laws. The settlement not only requires the payments notes above, but also requires the companies to dissolve all the joint venture companies and not create any new joint venture companies with real estate agents or brokers “for the purpose of making unlawful payments for referrals of Maryland consumers in connection with the offer and sale of title insurance.”
Because the settlement document does not set forth detailed factual allegations, we cannot glean exactly what the Maryland Attorney General found to violate RESPA Section 8. But joint ventures involving individual real estate agents has been an area of focus for state regulators and attorneys general recently. An important thing to note is that RESPA Section 8 is still on the radar of the states. Even with the CFPB being effectively sidelined over the past year, there is still RESPA risk. Joint ventures/affiliated business arrangements in the mortgage and real estate space is an active area of supervision and enforcement for the states. We have seen clients face tough RESPA questions in exams. Especially if you are in one of the states that have initiated RESPA enforcement actions recently (for example, DC, Pennsylvania, Maryland), it may be prudent for your organization to conduct a RESPA review to ensure or improve compliance.
Please email me at rich@garrishorn.com if you would like to discuss the issues in this post.
