The act defines “mortgage” broadly, covering deeds of trust, trust deeds, security deeds, indentures, and deeds to secure debt. The protection is bounded, though. It applies to a listed set of changes: extending the maturity date, cutting the interest rate, changing the rate structure or index in specified ways that don’t raise the rate, capitalizing unpaid interest, forgiving or reducing principal or interest, adjusting escrow or reserve requirements, adjusting insurance requirements, changing a condition for advancing funds, changing a financial covenant, and adjusting a payment amount or schedule that follows from any of those.
Step outside that list and the protection drops away. Releasing or adding property, releasing or replacing an obligor, or assigning the loan to another party are carved out. The act also leaves recording statutes, limitation periods, the statute of frauds, and tax-lien priority alone.
There’s a useful wrinkle for existing books. The rules apply to modifications made on or after the effective date no matter when the loan was written, so older mortgages already in a portfolio qualify.
The rest of HB 2636 lands mainly on real estate and insurance. It sets disclosure rules for residential property “wholesalers,” creates the Missouri Residential Sale Leaseback Protection Act with civil penalties up to $10,000 per violation, and bars insureds from assigning their property-insurance benefits.
One note on timing. The document is the version the legislature passed. It shows no gubernatorial action and no effective date, so confirm when the modification rules take effect before building them into your servicing process.