2023 Massachusetts General Laws › Part I - Administration of the Government › Title XX - Public Safety and Good Order › Chapter 140 - Licenses › Section 90a - Home Mortgages; Interest Rates; Definitions; Application

Section 90A. No person shall directly or indirectly charge, take or receive for a loan of more than fifteen hundred dollars secured wholly or partially by a mortgage of real estate having an assessed value of not over forty thousand dollars, having thereon a dwelling house with accommodations for six or less separate households and occupied in whole or in part at the time the loan is made as a home by any obligor on the mortgage debt or by any person granting or releasing any interest under said mortgage, a greater rate of interest than an amount equivalent to one and one half per cent a month computed on unpaid balances before default and for six months after continuing default and for a period after the expiration of six successive months of continuing default a greater rate of interest than a sum equivalent to one per cent a month computed on unpaid balances. The borrower shall have the right to anticipate his debt in whole or in part at any time without being required to pay a penalty to the lender therefor. The aggregate of the amount of money or value actually received or held at the time of the loan, plus the sum of all existing indebtedness of the borrower to the lender shall for the purposes of this section and sections ninety B to ninety D, inclusive, be deemed the amount of the loan. Except where the borrower agrees in writing to a different application of his payments, in cases where partial payments are made, the interest shall be calculated to the time of payment, and such payment shall first be applied to interest, and the balance thereafter remaining, if any, shall be applied to principal.
The maximum interest shall include all sums paid, directly or indirectly by or on behalf of the borrower to the lender for interest, brokerage, commissions, services, extension of loan, forbearance to enforce payment or otherwise for making or securing the loan, not including, however, sums the lender may require the borrower to pay or reimburse the lender for actual recording and foreclosure costs for reasonable legal charges incurred for the examination of the title and the marketability of the security for the loan, for the drafting of the security instruments or documents, and, when such services are utilized, for collecting the debt or realizing upon the security.
As used in this section and in sections ninety B to ninety D, inclusive, the following words shall have the following meanings:—
''Loan'', any loan of money or goods or forbearance of money or goods or choses in action; ''Note'', the instrument, other than the mortgage, evidencing or containing the debt secured by the mortgage or any extension or renewal of such instrument; ''Lender'', any person making a loan of more than fifteen hundred dollars secured by a mortgage as described in this section and shall include any legal successor to the rights of the lender; ''Borrower'', shall include any legal successor to the borrower's rights or obligations.
This section and sections ninety B to ninety D, inclusive, shall not apply to a loan secured by a first mortgage on real estate.