The Homebuyers Privacy Protection Act was signed into law September 5, 2025 and enacted March 5, 2026.

This bipartisan legislation’s goal is to protect homebuyers’ personal financial information.

What has been happening?

In recent years, if a homebuyer had their credit pulled for a mortgage application, it could trigger MANY phone calls, texts and emails from companies trying to get that homebuyers’ business.

Called a “Trigger Lead,” this is where one of the three major credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian or TransUnion) would be allowed to sell information that a consumer is considering a mortgage application.

This would happen WITHOUT the consumer’s explicit consent.

I have had multiple homebuyers get inundated with calls, texts and emails offering mortgage deals, confusing the buyers and asking why either I, their lender, or their title company would sell their information. None of those three parties did – it was the credit bureaus who did.

The new law, Homebuyers Privacy Protection Act (HPPA for short), PROHIBITS the consumer reporting agencies from selling that data, UNLESS the consumer chooses to opt-in or unless the mortgage transaction is a “firm offer” of credit or insurance, meaning that the contact is a guaranteed offer to that consumer based on an actual pre-screening of a customer’s credit.

I think this is a great new law, and I am pleased for my future Towson homebuyers that they should no longer have a barrage of spam calls, texts, or emails trying to get their mortgage business.

Thank you to Consumer Financial Services Law Monitor for more details on this new law.

If you are considering buying a home in Timonium, Baltimore, Towson, or the Greater Baltimore area, please contact me. I would love to help!