Florida Foreclosure Defense Lawyers Blog

The Home Affordable Mortgage Program (HAMP), the $75 billion federal program intended to help homeowners at risk of foreclosure by lowering their monthly mortgage payments, is showing increased signs of ineffectiveness, with nearly half of all participants dropping out of the program according to RealtyTrac, Inc. According to the Treasury departments July numbers, of the approximately 1.3 million homeowners who sought relief by enrolling in the program, 630,000 of them have been "cut loose" from the program. That 630,000 who fell out of the program is a higher number, 421,804, than homeowners who have received a permanent modification via the HAMP program.

More than 100 mortgage companies are participating in the program but foreclosure rates and home repossessions continue to climb. Historically, lenders have taken over roughly 100,000 homes per year but lenders are forecast to repossess over 1 million homes in 2010 with the number of foreclosures and short sales predicted to increase to 1.5 million in 2011. Foreclosures and distressed home sales have crippled the housing industry by driving down home values which is discouraging potential sellers from putting their homes up for sale.

If you are one of the thousands of Floridians facing a Florida Foreclosure Lawsuit, there may be foreclosure options available to you. Contact a Florida Foreclosure Lawyer today to review your case and determine what defenses may be available to you.

A bevy of recent state foreclosure court decisions around the United States has spurred optimism that as many as 62 homeowners may not be able to be foreclosed on by their lenders. At the center of the controversy in most of these cases is Mortgage Electronic Recovery Systems or MERS. To read a previous post explaining what MERS is and how it works click here. Essentially, MERS was created by large financial institutions to facilitate the transfer and assignment of mortgage and their accompanying promissory notes in order to cut down on the amount of work necessary to securitize these mortgages. Today around 62 million mortgages are now held, allegedly, in MERS name.

In most states a lender has to prove that it is the proper party to bring a foreclosure case by providing the original mortgage and promissory note, and assignment of the mortgage if the party bringing the case is not the original lender. Many cases focus on MERS inability to provide that necessary documentation but several state courts have now begun ruling that MERS never has standing to bring a foreclosure case because it is only a nominee and was not entitled to collect on the mortgage. There is a growing tide of states, including California, New York, Kansas, Nevada and Ohio that hold this view. While these decisions are not binding in other states courts, they can provide persuasive authority that courts in other states can look to.

This is just one of the defenses that a Jacksonville Foreclosure Lawyer may be able to raise in a Florida Foreclosure Lawsuit. As courts learn about the specific issues that a Florida Foreclosure Lawsuit presents they seem to be untangling the web of deceit that may lenders have weaved over the last decade. If you are facing a Florida Foreclosure Lawsuit, contact a Jacksonville Foreclosure Lawyer to discover what defenses may be available to you.

Many homeowners that apply for the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) and the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) have their applications denied. Many of the applications that are not approved are denied because they do not properly document all of the things that are pre-requisites to acceptance in the programs. If your application has been denied you are allowed to re-apply to these programs.

If you have been denied entry into either program and your goal is to keep your home, contact a Florida Foreclosure Lawyer or Jacksonville Foreclosure Defense Lawyer Foreclosure Defense Lawyers are familiar with the guidelines that the government uses when reviewing HAMP and HARP applications. A Foreclosure Defense Lawyer can help to to determine whether or not you will qualify and if you do qualify they will be able to assist you in preparing the necessary documents. Contact a Florida Foreclosure Attorney for a consultation.

The federal government announced that it is setting aside $3 billion to assist homeowners that are struggling to pay their mortgages. Unemployment has been one of the major factors that have contributed to the country's current housing crisis. The money will be split up between two foreclosure prevention programs, the Housing Finance Agency Innovation Fund for the Hardest Hit Housing Markets and Emergency Homeowners Loan Program.

The Housing Finance Agency Innovation Fund for the Hardest Hit Housing Markets will receive $2 billion which will be funneled through the housing finance agencies in 17 of the states hit hardest by foreclosures. This program assists homeowners who cannot make their mortgage payments due to unemployment. The Housing and Urban Development (HUD) will receive $1 billion for the creation of the Emergency Homeowners Loan Program. This program will give financial assistance to homeowners at risk of foreclosure due to a medical condition, underemployment or involuntary unemployment.

Florida is eligible to receive up to $238,864,755 out of the $3 billion. Hopefully this will bring some much needed relief to homeowners in Florida struggling to pay their mortgages due to involuntary unemployment, underemployment, or a medical condition.

In Jacksonville theThe Times Union reported that Florida's Attorney General Bill McCollum launched an investigation on August 10th to determine whether or not three of Florida's largest foreclosure law firms are using unfair and deceptive trade practices. The three law firms that are being targeted in this probe are The Law Offices of David J. Stern, P.A.; The Law Offices of Marshall C. Watson, P.A.; and Shapiro & Fishman, LLP. This comes on the heels of McCollum initiating a similar investigation into the Florida Default Law Group and Fidelity National Financing, a Jacksonville-based corporation. It appears as if the state's Attorney General is finally getting fed up with the fraudulent practices of Florida's "foreclosure mills."

The unfair and deceptive trade practices used by these firms put homeowners at a severe disadvantage when they are attempting to save their home from foreclosure. If you or anybody you know has received a foreclosure notice from any of the law firms that have been named in this article, it is imperative that you contact a Jacksonville Foreclosure Defense Lawyer or Florida Foreclosure Lawyer.

In a reversal of the falling foreclosure rates in June, which fell 7%, RealtyTrac announced that the rate of new foreclosure filed grew by 4% in July which equates to one in every 397 U.S. homes received a foreclosure filing. While these numbers may seem like grim news but they do mark a 10% decrease from July 2009.

There were 325,229 total foreclosures reported in July with California accounting for 21% of that total with Florida accounting for 16% as the top two foreclosure states in July. For the 43rd consecutive month Nevada had the highest rate of foreclosure, with 1 of every 82 homes in foreclosure, although those numbers are down about 30% from the same time last year. In another positive sign, the top ten metro areas with the nations highest foreclosure rates all saw a decrease in foreclosure rates over last year.

These numbers constitute a mixed bag of information about the state of the foreclosure crisis. While there is evidence of improving conditions, there are still hundreds of thousands of U.S. homeowners that get a foreclosure notice each month. If you are facing a Florida Foreclosure Lawsuit, you should contact a Florida Foreclosure Lawyer to review your case to determine the best course of action to try to save your home.

According to the credit-reporting agency TransUnion, the national mortgage loan delinquency rate fell during the second quarter of 2010, signaling a potential stabilization in housing credit conditions. This is the second consecutive quarter that the national delinquency rate has dropped, reversing a 12 quarter trend where mortgage delinquency rates increased. The mortgage delinqueny rate is the ratio of mortgage borrowers who are 60 or more days behind on their home loan payments.

The national delinquency rate fell to 6.67% during the second quarter, a decrease from the 6.77% rate during the first quarter of 2010. The top two states for mortgage delinquencies remained the same, Nevada with a 15.86% delinquency rate and Florida with a 15.02% rate. According to forecasts from TransUnion, the national rate is expected to continue to drop throughout 2010 but Florida is forecast to overtake Nevada as the state with the highest delinquency rate with projections as high as 16.2% of mortgages being delinquent.

While the TransUnion report paints a positive pictures for the rest of the U.S., the projections that Florida delinquencies will continue to rise is not good new for Florida homeowners. If you are delinquent on your mortgage and fear being served with a Florida Foreclosure Lawsuit, you should contact a Florida Foreclosure Lawyer today to review your circumstances. Many times there are defenses that a Florida Foreclosure Lawyer can raise that may be able to save your home.

As the numbers of Americans considering strategic defaults rises, more and more mortgage brokers are fielding calls asking about the possibility for "buy and bail" purchase. A "buy and bail" purchase is where a homeowner is considering a strategic default on their home, often due to an extreme drop in their home's value, purchases another home before they default on their current home. By completing a "buy and bail" purchase, a homeowner is able to get into another home, often at a steep discount due to low home values, before their credit rating is ruined because of the default.

Mortgage brokers are seeing an increase in "buy and bail" purchases even though Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have attempted to set up standards to prevent it. The borrowers most likely to take advantage of buy and bail purchases are those with high credit scores and who have jumbo loans that fall outside of Fannie and Freddie funding limits. Many mortgage brokers ask about the potential for "buy and bail" purchases during the application process and if homeowners lie on their application, a "buy and bail" purchase constitutes fraud. While "buy and bail" purchases are becoming more popular, the FBI and other federal agencies are investigating allegations of "buy and bail" purchases aggressively.

If you are facing a Florida Foreclosure Lawsuit, there are foreclosure alternative options that may be available to you. Contact a Florida Foreclosure Lawyer today to review your case and options.

The Treasury department's latest numbers release regarding HAMP modifications showed significant gains in the total number of borrowers receiving permanent modifications and which lenders are approving permanent modifications. In June, 51,205 new permanent modifications were approved, an increase of nearly 15%, bringing the total number of permanent modifications to 389,198.

Of the new HAMP modifications approved in June, almost 52% of those approvals came from the nations four largest banks. Bank of America led the way with 9,263 (18%), followed by J.P. Morgan Chase with 7,255 (14%), Citimortage with 6,138 (12%) and Wells Fargo with 3,869 (7.5%) of the total permanent modifications approved in June.

These numbers may represent a dramatic jump in HAMP usage and may signify the beginning of recovery in the housing market, however only time will tell. If you are facing a Florida Foreclosure Lawsuit, it is in your best interest to contact a Florida Foreclosure Lawyer to review your case in order to determine what foreclosure prevention options may be available to you.

The country's average rate on a 30-year fixed rate mortgage stands at 4.49%, which is an all-time low in America since Freddie Mac started keeping track of the rates in 1971. But unfortunately this record low has not sparked the substantial increase in home sales and mortgage refinancing that the federal government had hoped to see. Experts disagree on how low the 30-year fixed mortgage rate must go to jumpstart the housing market, but one thing is for sure, it's lower than 4.49%.

Mortgage refinancing and home sales have not increased for a number of reasons. The high unemployment rate has caused a lot of uncertainty, even for those who still have their jobs. Lenders are barely refinancing because so many of the homeowners that want to refinance are so underwater on their home loans. Also, many potential buyers are waiting for the market to hit rock bottom before they buy a home.

Contact a Jacksonville Foreclosure Defense Lawyer or Florida Foreclosure Lawyer if you are underwater on your home loan or if your lender has file a foreclosure on your home.

According to real estate data and analytics firm CoreLogic, the number of short sale has more than tripled since 2008. Their research study states that short sales will continue to rise from their estimated numbers, 400,000 short sales annually, and be an important part of the mortgage recovery. Four states, Texas; California; Florida and Arizona, account for 55.8% of the national short sale volume.

Though the numbers of short sales are likely to rise, CoreLogic states that this increase in short sales could potentially open the floodgates to short sale fraud. CoreLogic estimated that losses due to preventable short sale fraud amount to $310 million by the end of 2010. The average loss from each instance of short sale fraud is $41,500 with fraud occurring in 1 in every 53 short sales.

This study is evidence that there are alternatives to foreclosure to many homeowners. Programs such as HAMP and HARP, short sales and deeds-in-lieu of foreclosure are just a few of the alternatives that may be available to you. If you are facing a Florida Foreclosure Lawsuit, contact a Jacksonville Foreclosure Lawyer to explore your foreclosure alternative options.

Lee Farkas, former chairman of Taylor, Bean & Whitaker has been indicted by federal prosecutors on charges involving a $2 billion fraud scheme. Taylor, Bean & Whitaker is one of America's biggest privately held mortgage lending companies. The indictment alleges that Farkas and unnamed co-conspirators began misappropriating money from other companies as a way to hide mounting losses at Taylor, Bean & Whitaker. The misappropriated funds allegedly came from the mortgage lending division of Colonial Bank in Orlando and from Ocala Funding, which is a subsidiary of Taylor, Bean & Whitaker. Also included in the indictment were charges that Farkas committed securities fraud and wire fraud in an attempt to get the federal government to give Colonial Bank over $550 million from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).

The House Ethics Committee is investigating U.S. Representative Maxine Waters on charges that she helped a bank in which her husband was a stockholder and director. OneUnited Bank of Boston received Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) funding that they should not have received according to government sources. The bank received over $12 million worth of capital from TARP funds on December 19, 2008. According to government officials the bank was the weakest bank to receive TARP funds between October 2008 and December 2009. The company has not repaid the government loan.

Rep. Waters is alleged to have scheduled a meeting with government regulators as a way to assist the bank at which her husband worked. The bank, like many others, needed an infusion of capital after the housing markets began to collapse. The bank's losses were not attributable to bad loans, but instead were tied to the demise of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The bank had a high percentage of their investments in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac issued securities.

Rep. Waters denies that that she committed any ethics or rules violations in connection with OneUnited Bank of Boston's receipt of TARP funds. She has also stated that she would not accept any type of deal from the government if one was offered to her.

In a recent release by the analysts at Moody's Investors Service hypothesized that already depressed home prices could fall by an additional 20% if the U.S. economy slips back into recession. The Moody's research report stated, "the risk of a double dip recession is rising. We believe the odds of a near-term double dip recession have increased from nearly one in five this spring to closer to one in four."

The report warns that housing prices, expected to drop 5% before leveling off in early 2011, could fall by 20% before finally stabilizing in early 2012. Moody's analysts pin the hopes of preventing sliding home prices on the success of the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP). To date the HAMP program has not met the initial expectations of the Fed because many borrowers are too far behind for a mortgage modification to help. As we have detailed in our Florida Foreclosure Defense blog, the government has introduced several new revisions to HAMP, in an effort to make the program more beneficial for those homeowners.

While Benjamin Kotzian is over in Afghanistan fighting for our country, his family is fighting to be made whole again at home. Ms. Kotzian and her children lived in Texas for five months so they could be with Benjamin prior to his deployment to Afghanistan. She returned to their Michigan home to find the locks were changed, door frames were broken, pipes were broken, there was no running water, her carpets were ruined and all of their belongings were gone.

She was perplexed because prior to leaving for Texas she worked out a plan with her lender under the Service members Civil Relief Act which protects military families from foreclosure in certain circumstances. When she contacted her lender, the bank admitted that there had been a mistake and the home was not being foreclosed upon. But even after the bank admitted their mistake, they have done nothing to rectify the situation. Nothing has been repaired, the water still does not work and they have not gotten any of their belongings back.

The case of Taylor v. Deutsche Bank National Trust Company decided in the 5th District of Florida has given us some new case law relating to the Mortgage Electronic Registration System (MERS). Mr. Taylor claimed that because the mortgage was not endorsed and did not have an allonge or a specific assignment that it was only payable to the original lender. He further argued that MERS assignee did not have the standing to foreclose on the home.

Unfortunately for Mr. Taylor the mortgage had a clause in it stating that MERS had the right to exercise any and all interests of the lender, including assigning the mortgage and foreclosing on the home. When MERS assigned the mortgage to Deutsche Bank, they assigned the "full benefit of all the powers" to Deutsche Bank. Therefore, the court held that because MERS had the power to foreclose on the home so did Deutsche Bank since they were assigned all of the rights that MERS previously possessed. The court agreed with a decision from the 2nd DCA in 2007 holding that MERS was not required to have a beneficial interest in the note in order to have standing in a foreclosure case.

There seem to be many things that could have been done to preserve the record or raise different issues on appeal, but because there was no transcript of some of the lower courts rulings it was difficult to see what happened. This is a reason it is important to have a court reporter at every hearing involved with a Florida Foreclosure Case.

The Apple Law Firm has expanded again and added a Jacksonville Bankruptcy Lawyer and a Jacksonville FDCPA Lawyer who can help Stop Creditor Harassment in Florida. Look for an exciting announcement with a new lawyer addition next week in a related area of Florida Estate Planning.

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A study released by real estate date provided Zillow reports that negative equity, usually referred to as a homeowner being underwater in their mortgage, dropped by several percentage points, to 21.5%, in the second quarter of 2010. While this number does point to a potential slowdown in falling overall home values the numbers show a mixed bag of home values in individual markets.

Home values in two of the hardest hit areas, Miami, FL and Phoenix, AZ, fell 15.2% and 11.8% respectively over the values from one year ago. There is little evidence that values in either market will stabilize anytime soon. In many California cities the housing values have shown large percentage gains over the same period last year. San Diego has seen a 7.9% increase while San Francisco and San Jose have seen 5.6% and 5.5% increases in home value respectively. While these trends are good, many market researchers attribute the gains to both federal and state tax credits currently in place in California. Numerous analysts are cautious about the optimism because they feel that the looming expiration of the federal home buyer tax credit buoyed the overall second quarter numbers.

Since 2009 the federal government has put in place several programs to help homeowners overcome the mounting debt associated with their mortgages. If you are facing a Florida Foreclosure Lawsuit or are stuck in an underwater mortgage, there are numerous programs that may be able to help. Contact a Florida Foreclosure Lawyer today to discuss options that may be available to you.

Fannie Mae has created a new set of regulations designed to limit the profit that a foreclosure mill can make when handling a Fannie Mae loan. The new regulations will take effect on September 1, 2010. One of the regulations places a $25.00 per loan limit on the amount that an attorney or trustee can charge for "technology charges" when working with a Fannie Mae loan. But the regulation that will hit the foreclosure mills the hardest prohibits servicers from requiring or encouraging the use of specific vendors when working on a referral from Fannie Mae. Attorneys, servicers and trustees must now select the vendor based on cost efficiency, timeliness of the services, reliability and quality. If these new regulations are effective they will take a lot of money out of the pockets of the foreclosure mills who in many instances own the companies that they use for all of their foreclosure related services. These regulations are a great idea in theory but we will have to wait and see how stringent Fannie Mae is in their enforcement of these new regulations.

Continue reading "Making Homes Affordable - Which Banks Participate" »

With home values threatening to fall again and nearly 25% of U.S. homeowners currently underwater in their mortgages, the Federal Housing Authority (FHA) is pledging to help homeowners by financing their loans. The program, which was announced in March and will begin September 7, will offer FHA-insured mortgages to underwater, non-FHA borrowers who are current on their mortgage payments. One caveat to qualifying for the program is that the original lenders must agree to write-off 10% of the unpaid principle balance of the loan, something lenders have been notoriously hesitant to do.

To qualified for this new program, the homeowner must be underwater in their current mortgage, be current on the loan, have a credit score of 500, and use the property as their primary residence. In announcing the program, FHA Commissioner David Stevens said, "this is another tool to help overcome the negative equity problem facing many responsible homeowners who are looking to refinance into a safer, more secure mortgage product." Homeowners interested in participating in this new program need to contact their mortgage lender to determine their eligibility.

While this program is evidence of the federal governments effort to slow the effects of the housing crisis, it may not be enough to ensure the protection of your home. If you are one of the thousands of homeowners facing a Florida Foreclosure Lawsuit, it is in your best interests to contact a Florida Foreclosure Lawyer to review the circumstances of your case. There are numerous foreclosure alternative programs, as well as legal defenses to foreclosure that may be able to save your home.

Allegations of Fannie Mae's abuse of the HAMP program by a former executive has prompted Senators to urge the House Financial Services Committee to investigate whether Fannie executives improperly implemented HAMP. The former Fannie Mae VP, who worked in several executive positions from 2000-2007 and worked as a consultant implementing HAMP at Fannie Mae in 2009, alleges that Fannie Mae "mishandled its stewardship" of the program in order to benefit from the incentives offered by the Treasury Department.

Among the allegations brought forth against Fannie Mae are that Fannie Mae impeded and later terminated a "borrower portal" the could have potentially reduced the backlog of homeowners waiting to complete their HAMP application by streamlining the process. Fannie executives "placed their institutions short-term financial goals above helping homeowners avoid foreclosure." The HAMP program modified approximately 230,000 mortgages in 2009, about 8% of the foreclosures filed in the same time period.

This is just the latest evidence of the problems that exist with the HAMP program that many homeowners already know. Delays, lost documents, differing statements are problems that a Florida Foreclosure Lawyer has heard from homeowners who have sought a HAMP modification. If you are facing foreclosure, contact a Florida Foreclosure Lawyer or Jacksonville Foreclosure Lawyer today to review your circumstances to determine the best course of action for you.

In its latest effort to contact potentially distressed homeowners in order to prevent a worsening of the current foreclosure climate, Fannie Mae has rolled out a new website aimed at providing homeowners with options to avoid foreclosure. One of the major problems that lenders have cited that prevent them from helping borrowers avoid foreclosure it that it is often difficult to reach them before it is too late.

A Fannie Mae spokesman said the website is meant to "lay out options for stressed homeowners in a friendly and warm way." The site utilizes a virtual assistant which helps homeowners explore foreclosure alternatives based on whether or not they want to stay in their homes. Using that information, the virtual assistant shows homeowners the basics of foreclosure alternatives such as loan modifications, refinancing, short sales or a deed in lieu of foreclosure. The website also features a loan lookup tool that provides homeowners with the contact information for their mortgage servicer and also provides the addresses of local housing counselors.

If you are one of the millions of Florida homeowners who are currently, or will be in the near future, facing a Florida Foreclosure Lawsuit it is in your best interests to contact a Foreclosure Lawyer in Florida to explore foreclosure alternative that may be available to you.

Two homeowners are suing Citimortgage for breach of contract, negligence, unfair trade practices and breach of fiduciary duty after they were denied a permanent mortgage modification under the government's Home Affordable Modification Program. The couple purchases their home and entered into a mortgage contract with Citimortgage in September 2008 and contacted Citimortgage in June 2009 after learning of the HAMP program. The homeowners entered into a trial modification in September 2009 and claim they were told that if they made all the trial payments that their trial modification would become permanent.

The couple made the trial payments from September 2009 through March 2010 after which they expected Citimortgage to make their modification permanent. Citimortgage then informed the couple they were not approved for a permanent modification and that they must pay a $7,046.67 delinquency fee or Citimortgage would foreclose on their home. The homeowners claim that Citimortgage did not disclose that the trial modification payments would be reported to credit bureaus as late payments or defaults and that the homeowners could be rejected for a permanent modification at any time which would require a balloon payment for amounts principle and interest reduced along with late payment and delinquency fees.

f you are considering a loan modification, you should have it reviewed by a Jacksonville Foreclosure Lawyer to help determine if the loan modification will benefit you. As previously reported, many "loan modifications" end up costing the home owner more than if they preformed under the existing loan because of hidden fees and the ability to change the interest rates 3-5 years down the road.

As the real estate market has continually deteriorated over the past few years, we have seen a dramatic increase in the number of homeowners that are selling their home through short sales. With the drastic increases in short sales and the number of homeowners that are willing to short sell on their home we have also seen an increase in the number of con men working on short sales.

The short sale process is very extensive and can be very frustrating for a homeowner. Oftentimes the deal does not work out for one reason or another. This is when the con men come in to "save the day." They guarantee to sell your home quickly and/or guarantee the banks approval of the short sale. In exchange they usually ask the homeowner to pay large upfront fees or, in some cases, ask the homeowner to sign the title over to them. This can drain the homeowner's remaining financial resources or sometimes cause them to lose their home. The worst part about this is that these con men cannot and will not deliver on their promises.

If you are considering a short sale you must do your due diligence. If you are going to contract with a company to assist you with a short sale do an extensive background check of the company. If you cannot complete this background check, contact a Jacksonville Foreclosure Lawyer or Jacksonville Foreclosure Defense Lawyer to assist you in understanding the effects of a short sale of your home.

The "rocket docket" has been implemented in several counties in Florida as a way for the court systems to clear the backlog of pending foreclosure lawsuits. The criticism of this program is that it sacrifices the due process right that a homeowner is entitled to in order to expedite the cases through the system. The "rocket docket" makes it very difficult for an unrepresented homeowner to retain their homes because it basically eliminates their opportunity to defend themselves against the foreclosure.

Retired lawyer Richard Kessler claims that he has the tool that could bring the "rocket docket" to an end. He calls his solution the "Rocket Docket Annihilator" and it consists of an electronic packet of forms which he claims will force the court to remove the case from the "rocket docket" and transfer it to the regular docket. Kessler makes it clear that this packet does not stop foreclosure it just slows the process and gives the homeowner an opportunity to defend themselves.

Almost every Florida Foreclosure Defense Lawyer and Florida Judge advises against the use of pre-fabricated legal documents. These pre-fabricated forms are just a band-aid that will slow the foreclosure process down but will not help solve the problem. The "Rocket Docket Annihilator" may not be the best course of action for an individual that is facing a Florida foreclosure lawsuit. But the basic idea behind it is legitimate: If a homeowner does not file paperwork with the court then their case will be handled in a matter of minutes and they will have no opportunity to defend themselves and stay in their home.

If you are facing a Florida foreclosure lawsuit, contact a Florida Foreclosure Lawyer or Jacksonville Foreclosure Defense Lawyer to determine what options you have an protect your your opportunity to defend yourself against foreclosure.

The office Attorney General Bill McCollum announced the investigation of the practices of three Florida foreclosure mills; The Law Offices of Marshall C. Watson, P.A., Shapiro & Fishman, LLP and the Law Offices of David J. Stern. Foreclosure mills are large law firms hired by mortgage servicers to begin foreclosure lawsuits when homeowners are behind on their mortgages and these are three of the largest foreclosure mills that a Florida Foreclosure Lawyer has seen.

The investigations, which will be conducted by the Attorney General's Economic Crimes Division, center on allegations of the falsified documents being created and introduced in court proceedings in order to speed up the foreclosure process and obtain final judgments against potentially thousands of Florida homeowners. Subpoenas have already been served on each of these firms.

This investigation is just the latest step in the fight of Florida homeowners against banks and lenders who may improperly attempt to foreclose on your home. In order to protect your interests, you should contact a Jacksonville Foreclosure Lawyer or Jacksonville Foreclosure Defense Lawyer today who can review the circumstances of your case and determine what defenses may be available to you.

In today's real estate market, home buyers are finding deals on homes that have been foreclosed upon by the neighborhood's homeowners association (HOA). HOAs in Florida have the legal right to place a lien on a homeowner's property if the homeowner is delinquent in paying the HOA fees, no matter how small the delinquent amount. This gives the HOA the right to foreclose on the home and sell it at an auction in order to acquire the minimal amounts that the homeowner owes in fees.

The HOAs are selling these properties very cheap at an auction because they usually only need to recoup a few hundred dollars in delinquent fees. But most home buyers do not realize that when a HOA forecloses upon a home it does not extinguish the lien that the lender has on the property. Many of these home buyers are finding out the hard way that even if they buy a home at a foreclosure auction the lender can still foreclose on the home subsequently. In some cases, the lender will not even deal with the new homeowners because they are not the individuals named on the mortgage.

Do not let this happen to you. If you are considering buying a home that has been foreclosed upon by an HOA, contact a Florida Foreclosure Lawyer or Jacksonville Foreclosure Defense Lawyer prior to purchasing the home.

The process of turning mortgages into mortgage backed securities, or securitizing mortgages, is a complicated, multi-step process with several major actors, the originators, the investors, the trusts, the trustees and the servicers. The process of mortgage securitization as we know it today began with creation of the Real Estate Mortgage Investment Conduit (REMIC) via the approval of the Tax Reform act of 1986. The process of securitization begins when homeowners borrow the initial money needed to purchase their home from a mortgage originator.

In many instances the originators "sell", "organize", or "pool" the mortgages into trusts, which are then purchased by investors who were looking for safe, high-yield places to invest their money. The trust is organized under and the trustee is bound by the pooling and servicing agreement, which sets forth the rights and duties of all the involved parties.
As in other types of trusts, a securitized trust is managed by a trustee, usually a bank who owes a fiduciary duty to the investors in the trust.

While this is a highly complex organization and it presents a specific set of issues a Jacksonville Florida Foreclosure Lawyer is well versed in this subject. If you are facing a Florida Foreclosure Lawsuit involving a securitized trust it is important you contact a Florida Foreclosure Lawyer today is review your case and see which defenses may be available to you.

A lawsuit has been filed against Sherron Lewis, Jr. by Colorado Attorney General John Suthers. The lawsuit alleges that Lewis defrauded many homeowners that were in foreclosure by charging them upfront fees in exchange for services associated with foreclosure. The Colorado Foreclosure Protection Act makes it illegal to require a homeowner to pay upfront fees for foreclosure services.

In addition to that violation, the complaint also alleges that Lewis defrauded some victims by forcing them to give him a property interest in their home in return for his services. In some instances, he rented out the properties in which he had a property interest while the meritless claims that he filed on behalf of the homeowners went through the judicial system. Mr. Lewis even filed a lawsuit against one of the people that he was "attempting to help." He is accused of living in one of his customer's homes without paying rent for over a year. When the elderly woman tried to get here home back from Lewis he filed a discrimination lawsuit against her.

Many states including Florida have a statute similar to the Colorado statute that prohibits an individual from requiring a homeowner to pay upfront fees for loan modification or foreclosure services not performed by a lawyer. If someone has charged you upfront fees for foreclosure related services or the individual promised you results or services that they did not deliver, contact a Florida Foreclosure Lawyer or Jacksonville Foreclosure Lawyer.

Homeowners associations (HOA) as we know them developed in the 1960s. The rise of HOAs can be linked to a Federal Housing Authority (FHA) mandate which required residential developments to create a non-profit HOA in order for the development to be eligible for FHA insurance. The FHA also advocated attaching covenants to the property that included giving the HOA a lien on the property if the homeowner did not pay their homeowners fees. Any home buyer that wants to buy property in a neighborhood with an HOA is required to join the HOA and pay its fees.

The housing crisis in Florida has led many HOAs to take drastic measures. When a homeowner is facing the possibility of foreclosure, HOA fees are usually one of the first things that homeowners stop paying. In some neighborhoods in Florida the HOA fee delinquency rate is greater than 15%. This depletes the revenue of the HOAs forcing many of them to foreclose on the homes in their neighborhood in order to recover the delinquent fees.

Most homeowners are not even aware that their HOA can foreclose on their home for failure to pay their HOA dues. But if you are delinquent with your HOA fees, your HOA can and more than likely will foreclose on your home. Florida law is very advantageous to HOAs because there is no minimum amount which must be met prior to the HOA foreclosing on a home, the fees must just be delinquent.

It is very important as a homeowner that you stay current on your HOA fees because if you do not you will probably end up facing a foreclosure. If your HOA has initiated a Florida foreclosure lawsuit against you for delinquent HOA fees, contact a Florida Foreclosure Lawyer or Jacksonville Foreclosure Defense Lawyer . There are defenses to a HOA foreclosure lawsuit and a Foreclosure Defense Lawyer will protect your rights as a homeowner.

A Qualified Written Request or QWR is a method of disputing errors you believe to be on your mortgage or requesting information from your mortgage lender about your mortgage. A QWR has to be in writing and was intended to force mortgage-lending companies to maintain some sense of transparency and to allow homeowners to get important information about their mortgage. A mortgage lender must comply with a QWR request made by a homeowner within 60 days of receiving the request and must provide written notice to the homeowner within 20 days acknowledging receipt of the request.

If a mortgage lender fails to comply with either the time limits imposed or does not provide the complete information requested from a QWR they are subject to damages for non-compliance. For non-compliance for individual requests a mortgage lender is liable for any actual damages incurred by the homeowner and statutory damages up to $1,000. Non-complying lenders are also liable for any court costs and attorney's fees incurred as a result of non-compliance. Some lenders attempt to claim that certain information is outside the scope of a QWR but there are no limits placed on what information can be requested from a QWR.

Sending a QWR to your mortgage lender is a powerful tool to get information necessary to defend your foreclosure case. While it is possible for homeowners to send a QWR to their lender without the help of a Florida Foreclosure Lawyer, a Florida Foreclosure Lawyer is trained in foreclosure defense and knows the specific documents that hold the most importance to defending your foreclosure case.

Foreclosure Defense Lawyer in Florida Update: Last year the Federal Reserve supplied more than $1 trillion to homeowners for newly acquired home mortgages. Many believed that this program was necessary in order to correct the faltering real estate market in America. Most experts and analysts believe that the program was a success. Although the housing market has not recovered the infusion of cash provided by the Fed did a lot to halt the decline in the market.

This program has resulted in the Fed holding thousands of mortgage securities. This puts the Fed between a rock and a hard place. It will cost the Fed millions of dollars to hold on to the securities and that will limit the Fed's ability to fight inflation. But if they sell the securities, it could deplete significant financial resources from the economy, which is still struggling badly. We will just have to wait and see how the people on Capitol Hill deal with this troubling situation.

One of the most common reasons we hear from clients in regard to their mortgage modification efforts is that they meet the requirements for a modification under HAMP but they are denied a permanent modification due to an objection by the "investor." The question clients keep asking is who are these investors and why do they have the ability to deny my mortgage modification request?

In the early 2000's, large portions of mortgages in the U.S. were combined by financial institutions into large investment pools called securitized trusts. Legally these trust are their own entity but they must be managed by a trustee who makes decisions on behalf of the trust. The financial institutions then sold bonds from the trust to investors, namely mutual, pension funds and other large investment funds.

While the trustee is charged with making decisions on behalf of the trust they are almost never the actual entity servicing these mortgages. In almost every instance the trust contracts with a mortgage servicer to provide mortgage related servicing for these loans and trustees for the largest trusts contend that the authority to decide when to modify a mortgage rests with the servicer of the loans. While the investors maintain that the servicers are the ones denying the HAMP modifications some housing counselors have estimated that between 10% and 40% of HAMP denials are blamed on investors.

A new article published here, details several accounts of homeowners who have run into this same problem

As a homeowner you do have rights and defenses to avoid a Florida foreclosure. If you have had your mortgage modification denied or if are currently, or will be in the near future, facing a Florida Foreclosure Lawsuit you should contact a Jacksonville Foreclosure Lawyer to discuss what defenses are available to you in order to save your home.

The current foreclosure climate has caused a need for a new kind of risk management; digital investigation and fraud detection in existing mortgages. An Orlando based company, Digital Risk LLC, with additional offices in Dallas and New York City is opening a new Jacksonville, FL office to meet the growing demand for its services.

Digital Risk, established in 2005, works with mortgage originators, warehouse lenders, mortgage insurers, mortgage servicers, and purchasers of mortgage backed securities to determine the likelihood of borrower default and to detect instances of fraud in the mortgage application process. Its services, which have allowed the company to double in size each of the last three years, has been in increasing demand by the mortgage industry which is engaged in a struggle as to which parties will take responsibility for bad debt as a result of the resent mortgage collapse.

While Digital Risk does investigate problem mortgages it doesn't use the information they find to go after individual mortgagees. Rather, the information found is used to properly value mortgage backed securities in an effort to prevent this type of financial collapse from happening in the future.

In a recent post on his Real Estate Law blog, Scott Kuhn did a very good job laying out the steps necessary to carry out a residential eviction in the state of Florida. The procedural steps necessary to evict someone in Florida, as laid out by Mr. Kuhn are:

• The landlord or his/her attorney prepares a Three-Day Notice demanding payment and delivers it to the tenants. This gives the tenant three business days to respond.
• If the tenant does not pay, the next step is to file an official, notarized Complaint for each tenant with the Court Clerk
• The clerk then issues an Eviction Summons, which the sheriff or official process server serves on the tenant
• The tenant has five business days to respond and deposit money
• If this is done, the landlord has five business days to contact the court to schedule a hearing
• If the tenant does not respond to the eviction summons after five business days, the clerk issues a Motion for Default.
• Again, the tenant has five business days to respond to the motion
• After that the judge reviews the case and enters a Final Judgment for Possession and directs the clerk to issue a Writ of Possession, which is again served on the tenant
• Eviction can take place within 24 hours if the tenant is still non-responsive.

If you are facing eviction from your home due to non-payment or because your landlord is being foreclosed on, you have rights under both Florida and Federal law. Contact a Florida Foreclosure Lawyer today to explore your rights and options to stay in your home.

On August 2nd the Obama administration announced an additional $2.1 billion in funding to help homeowners located in the hardest-hit housing markets. Currently the housing markets eligible for the new funding are Arizona, California, Florida, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Rhode Island and South Carolina. The funds will be used to create state Housing Finance Agencies (HFAs) designed to provide stability in these troubled housing markets.

Some of the foreclosure alternative program the HFAs will implement include assistances to unemployed borrowers, funding to extinguish second liens, incentives for lenders to reduce principle on underwater mortgages and program to facilitate short sales and deeds-in-lieu of foreclosure. While the HFA program are a separate and distinct entity from other Making Home Affordable programs such as HAMP, HARP and HAFA, many of the same borrowers will be targeted by the HFAs and some of the same measures used in the Making Home Affordable programs will be utilized.

If you have any questions regarding your rights or eligibility under HAMP or HARP, contact a Jacksonville Foreclosure Lawyer. A Florida Foreclosure Lawyer will know your rights and whether or not you qualify for either of these programs

To view the Hardest Hit Fund website please click here.

The law recognizes many types of fraud. Fraud is when an individual knowingly misrepresents the truth or conceals a material fact to persuade another to act to his or her detriment. The types of fraud that are important when dealing with lenders are categorized as Fraud in the Execution, Fraud in the Inducement, and Fraud on the Court. The terms are defined as follows:

1. Fraud in the Execution- When a borrower believes that they are signing a document(s) and the document that they are actually given to sign is a different document. An example of this would be a lender telling you that the interest rate on the mortgage is 5% but they give you a contract that has an interest rate of 10%.

2. Fraud in the Inducement- A false statement that satisfies the definition of fraud and causes a person to execute a document that they would not have agreed to execute had the false statement not been made. An example of this would be a lender telling you the house was worth $200,000, when in reality the lender recently got it appraised and it was only valued at $125,000.

3. Fraud Upon the Court- When a lawyer or party in a judicial proceeding conduct themselves in a way that undermines or intends to undermine the integrity of the legal proceedings. This occurs when a lender forges documents and submits them to the court.

As a result of the 2008 collapse and subsequent government bailout of Wall Street giant Bear Stearns, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York is facing the possibility of being forced to foreclose on a number of residential and commercial properties in the next several months. When Bear Stearns failed and was purchased by J.P. Morgan Chase; Chase did not want to take $30 billion work of Stearns portfolio of real estate loans and securities. The Fed stepped up to assume ownership of those securities in order to complete the deal.

As the economy slumped deeper and deeper into recession and citizens began to default on their home and commercial loans, the value of those securities began to drop drastically and the Fed was unwilling to sell those securities as such a deep discount because doing so would hurt the taxpayers who helped fund the Bear Stearns bailout. To date, the value of the portfolio's residential and commercial loans have fallen by almost $5 billion. A New York Fed official commented that the Fed is approaching each loan with the desire to pursue work-out options but it seeks to "maximize value for U.S. taxpayers" who helped facilitate the bailout.

This development is more evidence the depths of the current lending climate. The foreclosure crisis has wreaked havoc on homeowners and now one of the Federal Reserve Banks. If you are facing a Florida Foreclosure Lawsuit or are contacted by the Federal Reserve of New York about a mortgage modification it is in your best interests to contact a Jacksonville Foreclosure Lawyer who can review your case with you to determine the best method to save your home.

For the complete text of the article click here

Some Florida cities are getting creative when dealing with foreclosed and abandoned properties; imposing a tax on the homeowners who don't maintain the property. Before the current glut of foreclosed properties and abandoned properties appeared, cities would deal with problem properties by cleaning them up and attaching a lien to the property for the cost of the cleanup. City governments have found that it is difficult to recover that money through liens because of the decrease in home values and out-of-state banks rarely pay any bill for these types of clean-ups.

Most cities that have imposed these taxes give the homeowners an opportunity to pay the bill, but if they don't it is added to their property tax bill for the following year. So far the new tax has been beneficial for communities that have implemented them. Fort Meade, Florida city manager Fred Hillard stated, "if it's bank owned, we can put all the liens we want on it, but it won't get paid...with this they usually pay it."

It is important to note that these taxes are applied specifically to those properties that have fees assessed by the city and not a blanket tax imposed on all properties. Do you think this is an effective way to force banks to maintain the homes they foreclose on?

Many homeowners probably heard the rumor late last week that the Obama administration was considering ordering the Treasure department, which controls mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, to forgive the mortgage debt of millions of Americans who are underwater in their mortgages. While this rumors would seem to be a coup for the American homeowner and would be very popular for democrats just before midterms elections, Treasury spokesman Andrew Williams poured cold water on the rumor Thursday. Mr. Williams emphatically stated that "the administration is not considering a change in policy in this area" which should end the speculation of debt relief in Washington and Wall Street.

As many as 15 million homeowners are facing negative equity with losses, according to some estimates, as high $800 billion. The key date many experts have pointed to is August 17 when the Treasury Department holds a meeting on the future of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. If an announcement of debt relief does come at that time the means of providing relief would most likely be the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) which was just extended through June 30, 2011.

Only time will tell if the rumors of a major loan forgiveness program will be proven true or not. What we do know is that there are foreclosure alternative programs already in place that can potentially reduce your mortgage payment and keep you in your home. To discuss the foreclosure alternative options available to you, contact a Jacksonville Foreclosure Lawyer today.

A recent letter from Lisa Epstein of ForeclosureHamlet.org posted on the Livinglies blog highlights the newest method of lenders to get homeowners to waive their right to a mandatory managed mediation. In a Florida Supreme Court Order sent out in February, all judicial districts in Florida were to create a specialized program to facilitate the expedited processing of the backlog of foreclosure cases plaguing Florida courts. In many circuits, a mandatory managed mediation program was established where a representative of the lender, the homeowner (along with their attorney if they are represented), and a neutral mediator sit down and try to come to an agreement that works best for all parties in order to avoid foreclosure. Many in the Florida legal community see this as a definite step in the right direction in helping homeowners avoid foreclosure.

Of course a system like this only works when both sides work in a fair and just manner. We have seen it ourselves and we have heard increasing reports of attorneys for the foreclosure mills contacting clients who are unrepresented, and even some who have attorney representation, offering something called a conciliation conference. In the letter from Lisa Epstein she says that she has seen attorneys from the foreclosure mills "smooth talk pro se homeowners into an agreement where there is a sale date 120 days in the future" to get the homeowners to agree to the conciliation conference. There are three main problems with this:

1) the lender cannot sell your home, or proceed with their foreclosure case, before engaging in a mandatory mediation,
2) the lenders are the parties paying the $750 fee for mandatory mediation and by getting homeowners to agree to a conciliation conference they do not have to pay that fee, and
3) if you agree to take part in the conciliation conference, where there is no mediator present to help facilitate an agreement, you essentially waive your right to engage in mandatory mediation!

If you have been contacted by your lender or their attorney's about a conciliation conference it is in your best interests to contact a Florida Foreclosure Lawyer today to preserve your right to enter mandatory mediation. In most instances a conciliation conference will go nowhere and it will rob you of the potentially helpful process of managed mediation. Contact a Florida Foreclosure Lawyer today.

The Florida 5th District Court of Appeals recently announced that a trial court abused its discretion when it denied a homeowners motion to amend their answer after the lender filed its motion for summary judgment. When the homeowners received the foreclosure complaint from their lender, they filed a short, informal answer with the trial court within the 20 days allotted by Florida Law. Amazingly, seven months passed before the homeowners received the next communication from their lender, a motion for summary judgment.

One week later, the homeowners newly hired Lawyer filed a motion to amend the homeowners' brief answer to include the necessary defenses to fight the foreclosure action. The trial court held a hearing on the homeowners' motion to amend their answer and the lenders' motion for summary judgment where it ruled to deny the motion to amend and to grant the motion for summary judgment. The homeowners appealed the decision and the 5th DCA overturned the decision by ruling the trial court abused its discretion by not allowing the amended answer. The 5th DCA stated, "public policy further favors the liberal granting of leave to amend where the failure to do so will likely prevent the cause from being resolved on its merits."

This decision marks a very important victory for homeowners facing a Florida Foreclosure Lawsuit. The time period for responding to a foreclosure complaint is very short and this decision means that homeowners are not bound to the bare bones answers that they are sometimes forced to file because of the short response time. Keep in mind that there are several defenses to a Florida Foreclosure Lawsuit that are time sensitive so it is in your best interests to contact a Jacksonville Foreclosure Lawyer today to examine your case.

A 12-year-old gardening business may be forced to close because of property damage caused One West Bank. In December, a typo in a foreclosure address caused One West Bank to seize and winterize the building that housed the businesses seedlings. When the banks seizure team left the building they didn't lock the doors and left the gates open, causing the seedlings to freeze as a result of being exposed to the harsh January cold.

Although the business owner was able to ultimately prevent One West from seizing her property she sustained $35,000 worth of property losses! The business owner has spent the last seven months fighting with One West to recover her losses due to their negligence and she has stated that if she doesn't recover her losses she may be forced to close her once thriving business.

One of the most important lessons the business owner wanted others to take away from her situation is to open and read all letters you receive from any bank, if only to make sure that they have made a mistake and are coming after your home. If you have received any communication from a lender seeking to mistakenly foreclose on your home contact a Florida Foreclosure Lawyer to discuss your options.

We are all seeing a rapid increase in the numbers of Foreclosures in Jacksonville and other areas of Florida. Now RealtyTrac has released its foreclosure numbers for the first half of 2010 and the numbers show that 75% of the large metropolitan areas in the United States experienced a rise in foreclosure actions when compared to the same period last year. The company defines a large metropolitan area as one that has a population over 200,000. The main factors contributing to the increase were the faltering economy and high unemployment rates. Experts estimate that the banks will take over more than one million mortgages in 2010. That would be a record, but it would only be 20% of the more than 5 million homeowners that will face foreclosure due to being more than 3 months delinquent on their mortgage payments. Unfortunately for those of us that live in Florida, of the top 20 cities hit the hardest by foreclosures, 9 of those cities were in the state of Florida.

In a recent study from the Federal Reserve Board has answered the question of "at what point do borrowers who can make their mortgage payment decide to stop making that payment?" This newly popular practice and its accompanying term, strategic default, have been one of the issues at the center of the current foreclosure crisis. The study found that a median borrower decides to strategically default when the amount they owe on their home exceeds the value of their home by 62%.

The Federal Reserve Board stated that in states where lenders do not have recourse to borrowers for deficiencies homeowners will strategically default when their homes are less underwater, while homeowners in states like Florida, where lenders do have recourse to pursue borrowers assets for deficiencies, don't strategically default until they are substantially underwater.

If your Florida home is underwater and you are considering strategic default there are other options to consider which may better serve your interests in the long term. Contact a Florida Foreclosure Lawyer today to discuss alternatives to strategic default, several of which may be able to save your home

The old adage that every dark could has a silver lining has proven itself to be a more than true statement for one U.S. family facing foreclosure. As the family was packing their belongings after their lender began foreclosure proceedings and came across a box of old comic books that contained the crown jewel of comics, the "Action Comics No. 1" where Superman made his first appearance.

The family, who have chosen to remain anonymous, realized their rare find and contacted a comic book dealer to try to determine the value of the comic. The comic dealer was initially skeptical but when given the opportunity to examine the comic informed the family that, if auctioned, the comic could sell for between $250,000 and $1 million!

The family, who was "shell-shocked about finding this book," plans to use the funds from the sale of the comic to get back up to speed on the mortgage on their home, which has been in the family's possession since the 1950's.

Just yesterday, the 4th District Court of Appeals announced their decision to overturn a trial court decision and dismiss a foreclosure case because of invalid service of process on the homeowner. In this case, Suntrust Bank hired a private process server to serve its foreclosure complaint on the homeowner but the complaint was served on the homeowners' girlfriend via substitute service because the homeowner was not present at the time service was attempted. While the process server did initial, date and note the time on the return of service, he failed to note the time on the complaint given to the homeowners' girlfriend, in violation of a 2004 Florida Statute.

While the trial court ruled that note including the time on the complaint was a trivial element and said that service was complete, the 4th DCA stated that no matter who trivial a law seems it is the job of the legislature to make the laws and the judges job to enforce them. Therefore, the service of process was incomplete and the case must be dismissed because the homeowner was improperly served.

This case goes to show how seemingly small details can make a huge difference in defending a Florida Foreclosure Lawsuit. A Florida Foreclosure Lawyer is trained to discover these issues and will use them to help you save your home.

For the complete 4th DCA opinion click here

A recent study done by Corelogic, a real estate analytics firm, found that the rich are defaulting on their loans at rate much higher than the middle and lower class. One in seven homeowners with loans exceeding one million dollars are seriously delinquent. The survey suggests that many of the rich are opting to strategically default on their properties as if it were a bad stock investment.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, who hold most of the mortgages on home in America worth less than $500,000, are asking their homeowners to explore options other than strategically defaulting on their homes. The delinquency rate of second homes and investment homes, owned at a disproportionately higher rate by the rich, has risen to a 23% rate, while the rate for less expensive investment home is 10%. A Corelogic analyst expressed that those with high net worth are less concerned with any repercussions of strategically defaulting because they have other resources to lean on it they get in trouble and may be less susceptible to scare tactics employed by lenders.

If you are in a position where you are considering strategic default it is imperative that you contact a Florida Foreclosure Lawyer to review all the foreclosure alternatives available to you.

Alin Negrila of San Antonio Texas recently contacted Bank of America, his lender, to discuss getting a loan modification on his home. Instead of starting the loan modification process, Bank of America placed Mr. Negrila on their loan forbearance program for a period of six months. While he was participating in their loan forbearance program, Mr. Negrila received a letter from Bank of America notifying him that he had 26 days before his home would be sold at an auction. He was very confused because when he received the notice of sale he still had a week until the deadline to submit his loan modification application.

When he placed a call to Bank of America the lender told him to disregard the notice and that all he had to do was call the lender on the day of the sale and everything would be taken care of. When he called the bank on the morning of the sale he was informed that his loan modification application was null and void because the home had already been sold to a third party. After some investigation he discovered that this was in fact a lie and that Bank of America still owned the home. After talking to many employees at Bank of America he grew very frustrated. He contacted a local news station in San Antonio and when the story aired Bank of America made a promise that one of their home retention specialists would assist Mr. Negrila in keeping his home. This is just more of the same from Bank of America.

We are seeing many cases where Bank of America is telling Federal Express to destroy Loan Modification Applications in the Field and not to deliver them or return them to the sender. If you are having problems with a Florida Foreclosure case contact a Jacksonville Foreclosure Lawyer

The enactment of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protections Act, known mostly for its new consumer protection measures, includes provisions designed to protect low-income households and communities and extends the Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act through 2014.

Under the PTFA, renters whose landlords have been foreclosed on have the right to stay in the property for 90 days after the foreclosure is entered or through the original term of their lease. The PTFA also clarifies that leases created before a change in title due to foreclosure on the property are covered by the PTFC.

Studies have shown that almost 40% of those affected by the foreclosure crisis are renters. In most cases the renter does not know that their landlord is facing foreclosure and many have been forced to move from their homes with little or no notice. Before the original PTFA was enacted in 2009, there was no uniform system for dealing with this problem as tenants rights in foreclosure were administered by the individual states.

If your home is being foreclosed on in Florida and you are renting the house, contact a Florida Foreclosure Lawyer or a Jacksonville Foreclosure Defense Lawyer and discuss what rights and options you have.

A new study from researchers at MIT and Harvard University has found that, on average, a house's value drops by 27% when it has been foreclosed. The finding of the study, due for publication in the fall, surprised the researchers who expected a drop in a homes value, but not a drop that large. The researchers stated that they expected the decrease in value to be close to that of a forced sale as a result of bankruptcy, drop of 3%, or the death of the owner, drop of 5-7%. Most surprisingly, the value of a home located within 250 feet of a foreclosed home drops by an average of 1%.

The researchers also concluded that the discounts on foreclosed home are larger for low-priced properties in low-priced neighborhoods because of the costs associated with maintaining a foreclosed home. Things such as vandalism, tax liabilities, etc. are costs that cause lenders to accept discounts that "are proportionally larger for low-price houses."

This study is more evidence of how the foreclosure crisis is affecting the housing market and the overall economy. If you are facing a Florida Foreclosure Lawsuit you should contact a Jacksonville Foreclosure Lawyer today to review your case and determine the best way to save not only your home, but the value of your home.

As a part of the continuing effort of the federal government to protect consumers and jump-start the economy, Congress recently passed the new Consumer Financial Protection Law which protects consumers by requiring transparency in consumer transactions and creates the first national consumer protection agency, Bureau of Financial Protection (BCFP), as the enforcement mechanism. While the BCFP takes some of the power and enforcement duties away from the FTC many consumer advocates are celebrating the BCFP and the new law as a step in the right direction.

The underlying standards of the BCFP's regulatory responsibilities are based on the existing language of the FTC act, except for one major term. The new consumer protection includes the term "abusive practice" and defines the terms as one that:

1. materially interferes with the ability of a consumer to understand a term or condition of a consumer financial product or service; or


2. takes unreasonable advantage of

(A) a lack of understanding on the part of the consumer of the material risks, costs, or conditions of the product or service;




(B) the inability of the consumer to protect the interests of the consumer in selecting or using a consumer financial product or service; or




(C) the reasonable reliance by the consumer on a covered person to act in the interests of the consumer. "

If you are facing a Florida Foreclosure Lawsuit you should contact a Jacksonville Foreclosure Lawyer today to protect your interests. Only a Jacksonville Foreclosure Lawyer can examine your case and identify the specific facts that can save your home

When a homeowner rents out their home and the home goes into foreclosure, the renters can be evicted from the home just as if they were the owner. Each state has its own laws concerning eviction of a renter when a home is being foreclosed upon. All states give the renter some rights but some states give more than others.

In most states, the servicer that is foreclosing upon the home is required by law to place a notice of foreclosure in a conspicuous place on or around the premises. Florida's law gives the homeowner even more rights. In Florida, renters have the right to remain in the home until their lease on the property ends (in most cases).

Individuals that rent property have rights even when the homeowner is in foreclosure. If you are renting your home while in foreclosure it may be valuable to have a Florida Foreclosure Lawyer discuss these rights with your tenant so that you can keep your tenant from vacating the property.

Homeowners have been hit the hardest by the foreclosure epidemic that has swept across the nation, but small banks are also feeling the pain. Although the economy has shown signs that it may be turning around, small banks are still not safe from having the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) close the bank or from having a larger bank take them over. In 2010, the (small) banking industry is on its way to surpassing the 140 bank closures that occurred in 2009. The FDIC reported that there have been 103 closures so far this year, compared to the 70 closures at this time last year.

The foreclosure crisis has wreaked havoc on homeowners and small banks. Again it appears that the big winners are the large banks. The larger banks are making a lot of money off of foreclosing on homes, taking the homeowner's equity and reselling them immediately. While at the same time the smaller banks that they compete with are disappearing.

The Law Offices of David J. Stern and it affiliate, DJSP Enterprises, Inc., are being sued by a class of stockholders for violations of federal securities law which lead to substantial losses by those investors who purchased DJSP shares between March 16, 2010 and May 27, 2010. David J. Stern provides legal services to 17 of the top 20 mortgage servicers in the country and DJSP exclusively provides the non0legal support and supplementary services in support of David J. Stern's real estate and foreclosure legal proceedings.

The lawsuit arises out of a new foreclosure system instituted by one of David J. Stern's largest clients that drastically reduced the number of foreclosure cases referred to David J. Stern which negatively affected the profits of the publicly traded company. Between May 27, 2010 and May 28, 2010 shares of DJSP (the public traded organization which includes the Law Offices of David J. Stern) dropped nearly 29% with an alarmingly high number of shares traded.

One week before the May 27 announcement of its disappointing quarterly numbers and subsequent drop in share price, David Stern himself was marketing in New York stating that the business was doing well and that everything was fine. Member of the class action have charged that David J. Stern knew of the troubles in his company and made false statements to the marketplace about those troubles in order to profit by maintaining an inflated share price.

Thanks to Matt Weidner for first reporting the lawsuit. Follow this link to read the full complaint.