Shannon,

You lucked out. You are in the Fourth Circuit. The Court in this Circuit appears to take a more liberal approach to RESPA Section 8(b) than in the Second Circuit.

Do yourself a favor, read the article I mentioned above. It will give you a basic understanding of the problem. Go to the ALTA web site. Click on Washington Update. Click on the 9/14/04 article entitled U S Second Circuit Court of Appeals Defers to Hud that Mark Ups May Violate Respa 8(b).

The trial court in the KRUSE Case relied on the ruling of the Fourth Circuit in part, and concluded that RESPA Section 8(b) did not apply to overcharges or mark ups. When the case went up on appeal the Second Circuit would not accept that ruling in its entirety, and took the position that RESPA Section 8(b) does not apply to overcharges for a settlement service's own services, but deferred to Hud's intepretation that RESPA Section 8(b) prohibited overcharges and mark ups for third party services.

There are other considerations beside RESPA though. While RESPA may or may not govern the issue, there may be other law that will. It would be best to find out the current state of affairs in your area. There may have been further activity on this issue since 9/14/04.

If this matter is subject to review by the U S Supreme Court,
the Court could overturn the Second Circuit and adopt the
4 th Circuit's interpretation, or rule against the 4th Circuit's position entirely. The question then becomes one of whether there are refunds due for overcharges. The whole situation is kind of a mess.