Florida Foreclosure Defense Lawyers Blog

According to the latest statistics from the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), the mortgage delinquency rate on single-family homes fell to its lowest rate since the fourth quarter of 2008, falling to 8.22% for the fourth quarter 2010. The MBA's chief economist, Jay Brinkmann, said the fourth quarter stats represent "significant across-the-board" decreases in delinquent mortgages in the U.S. Mortgages one payment behind have fallen to late 2007 levels and loans three payments behind have dropped to the lowest levels of 2010.

The MBA delinquency statistics do not include the mortgages that have already received a foreclosure filing but Brinkman noted that "every state but two (North Dakota and Arkansas) saw a drop in the 90-lus day delinquency rate and the two increases were negligible." The number of loans in foreclosure or are at least one payment past due was 13.56%, a significant decline from the third quarter 2010 numbers.

Brinkman stated that the improvement in the delinquency rate should be attributed to the improvement in individual earnings due to the increase in private sector job growth and that "absent a significant economic reversal, the delinquency picture should continue to improve during 2011. If you are already facing a Florida Foreclosure Lawsuit or are delinquent on you mortgage loan, contact a Jacksonville Foreclosure Lawyer or a Florida Foreclosure Lawyer today to see what foreclosure alternative options may be available to you.

During his annual State of the Judiciary address, New York State Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman announced a sweeping change designed to help the thousands of homeowners facing foreclosure in the state; every homeowner facing foreclosure will get an attorney to represent them, regardless of their ability to pay. Currently, only about half of those homeowners facing foreclosure are actually represented by a lawyer, and this move by the State of New York represents a huge step forward in the foreclosure fight.

For those homeowners who cannot afford to pay an attorney, they will be represented by local legal aid organizations. Judge Lippman has requested an additional $100 million from the state legislature to fund what will be a sharp increase in demand fore pro-bono legal services. New York, like Florida, is one of the 23 judicial foreclosure states and most New York judges believe that getting more attorney's involved will help speed the backlog of 80,000 active foreclosure cases currently active in the New York court system.

The new initiative will being in just two test counties with the mandate to be state-wide by the end of the year. If you are facing a Florida Foreclosure Lawsuit, contact a Jacksonville Foreclosure Defense Lawyer or a Florida Foreclosure Defense Lawyer today for a complimentary foreclosure defense consultation.

With millions of people nationwide facing foreclosure and hundreds of thousands of home sitting vacant, criminal seem to have found at least one way of profiting from the foreclosure crisis: squatting on vacant homes. One such instance involves a California couple who have been arrested for felony forgery, burglary and filing false documents with the county recorders office in connections with their squatting in a five-bedroom home in an upscale neighborhood in Upland, California.

The husband allegedly forged a deed of trust for the property, showing he and his wife as the owners of the home and filed it with the county clerk. The couple then moved into the home and had been living there for roughly one month before they were arrested. The previous homeowners moved out in December 2010 after facing a foreclosure lawsuit brought by Wells Fargo. Wells Fargo paid a local realtor to keep and eye on the home, since it was supposed to be unoccupied, and when the realtor went by the home to check on it, she saw a moving van and a family moving into the home.

A Jacksonville Criminal Defense Lawyer says that may be the newest scam criminals are using to victimize families. A Jacksonville Foreclosure Lawyer has noticed that stories like this one have been more and more prevalent in the news recently. If you are facing a Florida Foreclosure Lawsuit, contact a Jacksonville Foreclosure Lawyer today.

In Jacksonville and around Florida, there is a new movement to have a "pre-suit mediation" with the homeowner. If this is done prior to the foreclosure being filed against a borrower, you will not be offered a second mediation through Florida's managed mediation program after the foreclosure is filed.

Your lender/servicer is required to provide specific information to the "program administrator" prior to mediation whether it is before or after the filing of the Florida Foreclosure lawsuit. IN MOST CASES THE BANKS ARE FAILING TO DO THIS. Don't allow your lender/servicer to lead you down the mediation path without consulting with a Jacksonville Foreclosure Defense Lawyer . If you behind in your payments or expect a foreclosure, contact a Florida Foreclosure Defense Attorney to discuss your circumstances.

It appears as though the people in charge of running MERS have grown weary of the constant homeowners challenges to MERS standing to pursue foreclosure. In a just released announcement from MERS, the company plans to announce an amended to "Membership Rule 8" which will MERS members from foreclosing in the name of MERS and if member must foreclose in the name of MERS prior to that amendment, the member must be given express permission from MERS before it can foreclose in MERS name.

The announcement also states that all mortgages must be assigned out of MERS name before a new foreclosure action may be brought and it lays out procedures for updating or adding new "MERS Certifying Officers" who are authorized to execute documents on MERS behalf. The most troubling aspect of the MERS announcement is paragraph 4 where MERS instructs member to "ensure the accuracy of the information in the complaint and foreclosure affidavit that addresses, where applicable, the authorization under which a MERS Certifying Officer validly assigned the mortgage to the foreclosure note-holder." What were MERS members doing before these instructions?

This announcement underscores the problems with the MERS system that foreclosure defenses lawyers, including a Jacksonville Foreclosure Lawyer and a Florida Foreclosure Lawyer , have been talking about for months. If you are facing a Florida Foreclosure Lawsuit were MERS is the mortgagee, contact a Jacksonville Foreclosure Lawyer or a Florida Foreclosure Lawyer today to see what defenses may be available to you.

To read the full text of the MERS announcement click here.

An interesting account detailing the dramatic rise and abrupt collapse of David J. Stern and the notorious Florida "foreclosure mill" that bears his name was recently published in The Washington Post. The account provides a detailed look into the inner workings of one of the largest foreclosure attorneys in the US and the part it played in the larger foreclosure crisis. If you are facing a Florida Foreclosure Lawsuit from the Law Offices of David J. Stern, contact a Jacksonville Foreclosure Defense Lawyer or an Florida Foreclosure Defense Lawyer today.

To read the full Washing Post article about the Stern Office click here.

The Obama Administration has announced its plans to fix the U.S. housing finance system, setting forth three separate proposals for long-term reorganization, including limiting the government's role in the mortgage market. Each of the three proposals aims to revert much of the current mortgage market and shift future mortgage lending back to the private sector. According to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said that a "realistic time frame for full reform to be put into action is five to seven years."

The first proposal would substantially limit the role of the federal government by restricting the government to insuring mortgages through the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) and other programs designed to give mortgage access to low to moderate income borrowers. Advocates of this proposal say that it will limit "risk-taking" by lenders because there will no longer be a federal guarantee on those mortgages. Opponents fear that the cost of credit, direct costs and interest rates, would soar, causing mortgages to be out of the reach of most Americans.

The second proposal is similar to the first proposal in that is severely limits the role of the federal government in the mortgage market, but with a varying amount of "backstop" insurance to guarantee credit access during a prolonged housing crisis. During normal times, the government would maintain a minimum presence but during times of crisis, when private credit is scarcer, the government could play a larger role and guarantee more mortgages. The same concerns as in the first proposal remain, less access to credit and higher costs for those with access.

The third proposal again would limit mortgage lending to private lenders, outside FHA lending, but to combat the criticisms of the previous two proposals it would have provisions in place to ensure a steady stream of credit for those creditworthy homeowners. To achieve this goal, the federal government would create a guaranteeing body, much like the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), that would guarantees for securities backed by mortgages that meet certain, stringent, underwriting standards. The third proposal appears to be the most popular among congress members who have spoken on the subject and it provides the lowest cost access to credit for those looking to purchase a home.

These proposals call for eliminating or radically reducing the size and influence of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two mortgage giants that many point to as a contributor to the current mortgage crisis. If you are facing a Florida Foreclosure Lawsuit, contact a Jacksonville Foreclosure Lawyer or a Florida Foreclosure Lawyer today.

To read the full Obama Administration Proposal click here.

One of the factors that triggers many of the financial hardships that cause people to default on their loan which causes Florida Foreclosure Lawsuits is the divorce or break-up of a long term relationship. In most of those instances it is difficult if not impossible for once an individual is relying on their income alone.

In instances such as this there are Florida Laws that protect the interests of both parties. A Florida Estate Planning Lawyer has just written an interesting blog on a Florida Law relating to this topic for those couples who have purchased a home but are not married. There are also special laws addressing these situations for those couples who are married that a Jacksonville Divorce Law Attorney can advise you in.

If you are facing a Florida Foreclosure Lawsuit, contact a Jacksonville Foreclosure Lawyer or a Florida Foreclosure Lawyer today.

The California Second Court of Appeals has handed down a ruling that could have far reaching effects for those homeowners who are fighting to save their homes from foreclosure. In January the court heard the argument of Defendant Claudia Aceves, who claimed that her mortgage servicer, U.S. Bank, orally promised to negotiate a mortgage modification for her all the while intending to proceed with their foreclosure efforts on her home.

Ms. Aceves was in the beginning stages of filing bankruptcy but was told by U.S. Bank that she was eligible for a loan modification. Ms. Aceves chose to pursue the mortgage modification instead of filing bankruptcy but U.S. Bank continued their foreclosure efforts against her. When she failed to obtain the mortgage modification she was told by U.S. Bank "an oral promise to postpone a loan payment or a foreclosure is unenforceable." The court disagreed, stating "under this doctrine a promisor is bound when he should reasonably expect a substantial change of position, either by act or forbearance, in reliance on his promise, if injustice can be avoided only by its enforcement." In essence, Ms. Aceves relied on the promise of a mortgage modification by U.S. Bank, and U.S. Bank was bound to keep that promise and it broke that promise by continuing its foreclosure efforts.

This is story that a Jacksonville Foreclosure Defense Lawyer has heard many times, a bank promises to modify a mortgage while continuing to pursue foreclosure. If you are facing a Florida Foreclosure Lawsuit, contact a Jacksonville Foreclosure Defense Lawyer or a Florida Foreclosure Defense Lawyer today to determine what foreclosure alternatives may be available to you.

To read the full Court of Appeals decision click here.

The mayor of Detroit has an interesting new proposal to deal with the city's growing inventory of foreclosed homes while helping to bolster the city's public safety needs: offer police officers and firefighters foreclosed homes for as little as $1,000. According to the mayor's spokesman, the idea emanated from requests from police officers to live closer to the areas in which they work. City estimates reveal that 53 percent of police officers and 61 percent of firefighters live outside the Detroit city limits.

The proposed program will afford police officers and firefighters the opportunity to buy 200 homes from the city's inventory while also allowing them to receive up to $150,000 for neighborhood renovation and revival in those areas. The funding of the project will come from private investors and federal fund previously designated for the rehabilitation of struggling areas of the city. Detroit Mayor Dave Bing said "Police officers living in neighborhoods has the potential to deter crime" and he hopes the program will help Detroit residents feel safer and will "increase the relationship between the community and our sworn officers."

Detroit already has a similar program in place for city employees and the success of this type of program may be a viable solution for other cities who have seen a similar economic downturn as a result of the economic crisis. If you are facing a Florida Foreclosure Lawsuit, contact a Jacksonville Foreclosure Lawyer or a Florida Foreclosure Lawyer today.

Bank of America just announced that is has created a new division to specifically deal with defaulted loans and the issues that surround those loans. The new division, which is being called Legacy Asset Servicing, is being headed by Terry Laughlin and is responsible for overseeing Bank of America's mortgage modification and foreclosure programs. Laughlin will also be responsible with overseeing the bank's "borrower outreach" programs, building additional homeowner assistance centers and expanding the bank's relationships with non-profit foreclosure groups.

Bank of America said in a statement that the necessity for the new division stems from the "robo-signing" controversy and that those issues caused the company to initiate "a self-assessment of default servicing." The bank also announced that the existing Bank of America Home Loans president will remain in charge of the company's mortgage servicing arm, which services over 12 million mortgages which are current on their payments.

If you are facing a Florida Foreclosure Lawsuit from Bank of America, contact a Jacksonville Foreclosure Lawyer or a Florida Foreclosure Defense Lawyer today to see what foreclosure defenses may be available to you.

The California Attorney General has announced that the state will use the $6.5 million settlement it received from two former Countrywide Financial Corp. executives to create a fund to assist foreclosed homeowners. The two executives, Angelo Mozilo and David Sambol, were accused of luring buyers into mortgages they could not afford by offering low teaser rates, imposing large prepayment penalties, failed to fully inform buyers of the downside of adjustable-rate mortgages, etc.

The lawsuit also alleged that Countrywide did not comply with industry lending standards in order to make higher numbers of loans and the two executives, Mozilo was the CEO and Sambol was the President, knew about these practices and did nothing to stop them. The monies will be used "to help Californians affected by the mortgage crisis by providing grants to agencies that help homeowners facing foreclosure with relocation assistance and providing money to state and local agencies to prosecute mortgage fraud" according to the Attorney General's Office. California has remained among the top three states with the highest foreclosure rate since the housing crisis began in 2007.

If you are facing a Florida Foreclosure Lawsuit from Countrywide Bank, contact a Jacksonville Foreclosure Lawyer or a Florida Foreclosure Lawyer today to see what foreclosure alternatives may be available to you.

South Florida "foreclosure mill" Ben-Ezra & Katz have announced that it has been forced to lay off almost half of its 568 employees after Fannie Mae "fired" the firm last week. In a memo released by a Ben-Ezra & Katz company spokesman said the firm was "forced to take this action after Fannie Mae surprisingly terminated its relationship with the firm."

Fannie Mae terminated its relationship with the firm in early February citing "document execution issues" and it informed the servicers of Fannie Mae loans to stop all payments to Ben-Ezra and Katz and to find new law firms to handle former Ben-Ezra & Katz cases immediately. it is estimated that Ben-Ezra & Katz handled at least 18,000 foreclosure cases in Florida alone.

If you are facing a Florida Foreclosure Lawsuit where Ben-Ezra & Katz is plaintiff's counsel, contact a Jacksonville Foreclosure Defense Lawyer or a Florida Foreclosure Defense Lawyer today to see what foreclosure defenses may be available to you.

The foreclosure filings for military homeowners in the 163 zip codes located closest to military bases jumped 32% over the 2008 levels, foreclosure research firm RealtyTrac has announced. That percentage represents over 20,000 military families who faced foreclosure in 2010. Traditionally, mortgages guaranteed by the Office of Veterans Affairs have outperformed conventional mortgages with regard to defaults. The Office of Veterans Affairs helped 66,000 families avoid foreclosure last year through one of the various departmental programs according to Mike Frueh, VA assistant director for loan and property management.

As a resident of a city with a large military presence, a Jacksonville Foreclosure Lawyer understands the unique needs of military families facing a Florida Foreclosure Lawsuit. If you are facing a Florida Foreclosure Lawsuit, contact a Jacksonville Foreclosure Lawyer or a Florida Foreclosure Lawyer today.

For the second time in the last 4 months, Federal mortgage giant Fannie Mae has fired one of the notorious "Florida Foreclosure Mills" when it announced that it will no longer refer foreclosure cases to Ben-Ezra & Katz. Fannie Mae sent a notice letter to all servicers who service Fannie Mae mortgages that payments to Ben-Ezra & Katz should be stopped immediately and instructs servicers to find new law firms to handle Ben-Ezra & Katz cases.

In an announcement from the mortgage giant, Fannie Mae spokeswoman Amy Bonitatibus stated "Fannie Mae has become aware of certain document execution issues at the Ben-Ezra law firm regarding its processing of foreclosure cases on our behalf" and "it is our expectation that law firms will handle matters in strict compliance with proper procedures, ethical codes of conduct and legal requirements." Ben-Ezra & Katz released a statement saying it was "disappointed and surprised by Fannie Mae's decision and that the issues Fannie Mai is referring to were technical paperwork problems that the firm is correcting."

This marks the latest blow to one of the notorious "Florida Foreclosure Mills", coming on the heels of the realization that at least three more law firms are being investigated by the Florida Attorney General's office for their foreclosure practices. Will the same problems that have plagued the Law Offices of David J. Stern after they were terminated by Fannie Mae resurface at Ben-Ezra & Katz? If you are facing a Florida Foreclosure Lawsuit, contact a Florida Foreclosure Defense Lawyer or a Jacksonville Foreclosure Defense Lawyer today to see what foreclosure defenses may be available to you.

Three Congressmen; Rep. Jim Jordan (OH), Rep. Patrick McHenry (NC) and Rep. Darrell Issa (CA) have introduced a bill to put an end to the Home Affordable Mortgage Program (HAMP) stating that the program has been a "colossal failure". Rep. Issa, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, invited the Inspector General of TARP, Neil Barofsky, to speak at the hearing where the bill was introduced.

Barofsky called the number of permanent modifications completed as a result of the program "anemic" while also stating that the program falls significantly short of "any meaningful standard of success." Barofsky stated that the failure of the HAMP program "has had the most devastating consequences" for everyday borrowers and "in many cases it has hurt the very people it promised to help."

While the HAMP program has fallen far short of its initial expectations, the idea to help struggling homeowners avoid foreclosure was proper. The more foreclosure alternatives homeowners have, the higher the likelihood that they will be able to save their homes. If you are facing a Florida Foreclosure Lawsuit, contact a Jacksonville Foreclosure Lawyer or a Florida Foreclosure Lawyer today to explore what foreclosure alternatives may be available to you.

To read the full text of the bill seeking to terminate HAMP click here.

According to the quarterly report from the Office of State Courts Administration, the actual number of case that the new foreclosure initiative, begun July 1, 2010, has disposed of has fallen far short of the initiatives stated goals. Currently more than 111,000 cases, roughly 24% of the total cases, have been resolved statewide, which leaves more than 350,000 backlogged cases still on circuit court dockets across the state.

The Florida Legislature allocated $9.6 million in 2010 for the 20 judicial circuits to set up specific programs to reduce the crushing foreclosure caseload. The $9.6 million represented 62% of what Florida court officials requested to set up the programs, so 62% was set as the percentage of cases the programs were charged with disposing of. 12th Circuit Chief Judge Lee Haworth stated that things such as lender moratoriums on foreclosure, slow downs due to the "robo-signing" controversy as several of the problems plaguing the process of clearing cases. Haworth also stated, "plaintiff's still largely control the process", noting that some plaintiff's attorney's intentionally slow down the process and only file necessary documents just before the deadline for foreclosure cases to be subject to immediate dismissal.

As many foreclosure defense attorney's stated at the beginning of the process, "rocket dockets" were not the best answer to the foreclosure problem and now the numbers seem to bear that out. If you are facing a Florida Foreclosure Lawsuit, contact a Jacksonville Foreclosure Defense Lawyer or a Florida Foreclosure Defense Lawyer today to review your case and explore what options may be available to you.

One stat that many may overlook when looking at the recently released census home ownership rate is the startling high vacancy rate for homes in the U.S. While a Jacksonville Foreclosure Lawyer has detailed the precipitous drop in the homeownership rates since the housing crisis began in 2007, the number of unoccupied homes is just as alarming.

According to the Census report, of the 131 million housing units in the U.S., only 112.5 million are occupied, either by owners or renters. That leaves 18.4 million vacant homes in the U.S., which amounts to over 11% of all U.S. homes being unoccupied! Industry experts fear that this number could rise even higher as builders re-start their building efforts.

To read the full Census Report click here.

The chairman of the Senate administrative oversight and courts subcommittee, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, has proposed a bill that would allow struggling homeowners to enter into court-supervised mediations with their lenders in order to try to attain a mortgage modification that would allow the homeowner to keep their home. Mediation program like the one proposed already exist in several states, including Florida, but the proposed law would extend mediation efforts to homeowners in every state.

Senator Whitehouse believes that mortgage servicers "too often act in their own fee-driven interests and not in the interests of the investors who actually hold the mortgages" and "a court-supervised negotiation can ensure that servicers don't rejects reasonable settlements." Whitehouse hopes that the adoption of such program will pressure mortgage servicers to modify mortgages that, under other circumstances, they would not grant. The top four mortgage servicers are owned by mortgage giants Bank of America Corp., Wells Fargo & Co., J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Citigroup Inc.

Hopefully Senator Whitehouse's bill meets with approval and the proposed program, which stands to potentially help millions of struggling homeowners, meets with the approval of Congress. If you are facing a Florida Foreclosure Lawsuit, contact a Jacksonville Foreclosure Defense Lawyer or a Florida Foreclosure Defense Lawyer today.

During the boom years of the housing market, 2000-2007, when many lenders made easy credit and mortgages available to potential homeowners with little regard for their ability to repay the loans, millions of Americans realized their dreams of home ownership. According to census data from that period, home ownership rates swelled to the point where 69.4% of Americans owned homes. Now, three years into the housing crisis, industry watchers indicate that all of the gains in home ownership made during the boom years have been erased completely.

Home ownership numbers from the fourth quarter of 2010 show that 66.5% of Americans now own homes, almost a 3% decline in ownership, and those same industry experts expect that rate to fall below 65% before it begins to rise again. The ownership decline is most prominent in the western US where only 61% of people own their homes while the Midwest had the highest rate of ownership with 71.3% of people owning their homes. Industry experts say that every 1% decline in ownership rates represents 1 million homeowners.

This latest news just goes to show the depths that the housing market has fallen to and the millions of Americans who have been and continue to struggle making their mortgage payments. If you are facing a Florida Foreclosure Lawsuit, contact a Florida Foreclosure Defense Lawyer or a Jacksonville Foreclosure Defense Lawyer today to see what foreclosure defenses may be available to you.

In an unexpected announcement, which coincides with the offering of a free continuing legal education seminar aimed at improving the foreclosure processes in Florida, the Florida Bar is now requiring all attorney's to notify foreclosure judges about potential fraud in their cases, including those cases that are closed and the home sold. With 1.2 million foreclosures being filed in the state of Florida since 2007 and countless accusations of fraud from the five Florida "foreclosure mills" no one can accurately estimate the impact on foreclosure cases in the state. This announcement represents the largest step toward preventing fraud the Florida Bar has ever taken.

Attorneys are now instructed to report the fraud to the court, but are instructed not to do so in a public court hearing. Instead, attorneys are instructed to ask for a private, "in camera", hearing with the judge in order to determine whether any fraud was perpetrated. Many foreclosure defense lawyers have bristled at the idea of more, private hearings and point to the fact that foreclosure hearings are civil matters and are, and should be, open to the public. It remains to be seen what judges will do once they are alerted to fraud, as the consequences range from doing nothing to dismissing the action.

A Jacksonville Foreclosure Lawyer hopes that this latest step to prevent fraud has a profound effect on foreclosure courts and Florida homeowners facing foreclosure. If you are facing a Florida Foreclosure Lawsuit, contact a Jacksonville Foreclosure Lawyer or a Florida Foreclosure Lawyer today.

On the heels of the latest Home Affordable Mortgage Program (HAMP) report from the Treasury comes news that many banks have stepped up their efforts to help struggling homeowners. According to the latest HAMP report, 521,630 loans have been modified since the programs' inception in the spring of 2009. Those numbers fall far short of the projected 3 to 4 million homeowners that the program was supposed to help when it was proposed. One of the stumbling blocks many banks and homeowners have found is that the eligibility requirements for the HAMP program are proving to be relatively stringent and hundreds or thousands of homeowners have been declared ineligible for the program.

With the HAMP program struggling, states across the nation have ramped up the pressure on bank to modify these loans and banks have responded by modifying roughly 2 million loans outside the HAMP program. One of the major ways that mortgage giant Wells Fargo is modifying loans outside HAMP is by holding large-scale mediations where the bank and borrowers negotiate the terms of modification directly. The company has announced that is will hold 20 mediation session across the country and has already, or will, invite 150,000 borrowers who has previously missed their mortgage payments. Wells Fargo had one such "modification fair" for 30,000 New York-New Jersey borrowers with much success.

This numbers seem to show that banks are starting to see the benefits of modifying mortgages for struggling homeowners. While the HAMP program has been called a dismal failure by many lawmakers, states appear to have maintained the idea that homeowners still need help. If you are facing a Florida Foreclosure Lawsuit, contact a Jacksonville Foreclosure Defense Lawyer or a Florida Foreclosure Lawyer today.

Many of the nations largest insurance companies are joining forces in order to sue Bank of America for "mortgage fraud." These are the insurance companies: Dexia Holdings, FSA Asset Management, New York Life Insurance Company, The Mainstay Funds, Teachers Insurance & Annuity, TIAA-CREF Life Insurance, and College Retirement Equities Fund. MBIA, a holding company who provides financial guarantee insurance, found that in approximately 19,000 Countrywide loan files, at least 91% of the loans are either in default or delinquent, and appear to contain material deviations from Countrywide's underwriting policies.

The issues for Bank of America stem from loans originated by Countrywide which Bank of America purchased in 2008. Many of the Countrywide loan applications for the non-performing loans were replete with omissions. Repeatedly, mortgage origination files did not have verifications showing borrower income, had invalid appraisals, and failed to show what the debt-to-income ratio or the borrowers credit score was.

In the coming months, it is likely that Bank of America will be battling billions of dollars in damages the insurance companies are seeking. If you are facing a Florida Foreclosure Lawsuit where Bank of America is the Plaintiff, contact a Jacksonville Foreclosure Defense Lawyer or a Florida Foreclosure Lawyer today to determine what defenses may be available to you in order to save your home.

Judge Robert W. Lane in Nye County, Nevada, issued a preliminary ruling that blocks ReconTrust, a Bank of America affiliate, from conducting nonjudicial foreclosures in the state until a hearing can be held in order to determine whether or not the ban should be permanent. The new hearing will be held on February 28, 2011, according to a January 20, 2011 order provided by the court.

The injunction requesting that all Nevada foreclosure proceedings involving Bank of America and ReconTrust Co. was brought by a Nevada homeowner and includes claims of "unlawful seizure of homes" and the "irreparable injury" that it would cause the homeowner. The ruling applies to any real estate or personal property in Nevada.

Nevada had the highest U.S. foreclosure rate in 2010 for the fourth consecutive year, with more than 9 percent of the state's households in foreclosure. Arizona was second at 5.7 percent and Florida third at 5.5 percent.

One of the major questions that many people have been asking about the foreclosure mess is "Why did banks made millions of loans to people who could not afford their mortgage?" The banks were supposed to verify that applicants had the ability to repay back loans. This process is called underwriting. The banks stopped underwriting because they knew that the risk would be passed to investors through the securitization process.

The banks became sloppy in their paperwork and allowed fraud to run rampant. Banks hired untrained temps to replace retiring veterans to speed up the applicant review process, and took more copies, faxes, and phone calls instead of original documents. Banks today are even trying to foreclose on homes that should not be in foreclosure due to their bad record-keeping. Banks have tried to: foreclose on the same property; foreclose on homes bought in cash; and break into homes believed to be in foreclosure.

A large portion of the foreclosures in the courts today is caused by the bank's failure to properly underwrite the loans that were written. Instead of rejecting loans the banks knew certain consumers could not repay, banks passed on the risk to the investors. Even if some homeowners are to blame for taking on a mortgage they could not afford, banks still should not have been sloppy in their paperwork. Government tax dollars are bailing out the bank for this foreclosure mess!

If you are facing a Florida Foreclosure Lawsuit, contact a Jacksonville Foreclosure Lawyer or a Florida Foreclosure Defense Lawyer today for your free foreclosure consultation.

Beginning on January 30, 2011, lenders will be required to provide more detailed, easier-to-read disclosures for interest rates, monthly payments, and details for adjustable-rate mortgages. These disclosures will appear in a spreadsheet format that is supposed to make the consumer understand what kind of loan they are signing on for. Lenders will need to provide estimates of amounts to be put in escrow for property taxes or property insurance due on the loans. These new federal guidelines will also apply to negative-amortization loans, interest-only loans, balloon payment loans, and other variable rate loans for mortgages. These types of loans are examples of subprime mortgages that are still available in the current market.

Thomas, Martin, president of America's Watchdog, a national consumer advocacy group stated, "the additional clarity included in the new documentation will illustrate when a borrower's payment will change, as well as the maximum amount of a future payment after a defined period." However, Mr. Martin is also concerned that borrowers might be "further confused" and "awash in spreadsheets." The new disclosures appear to help the consumer understand what kind of mortgage loan they are signing up for, however in the long run a general consumer will still not be able to interpret what the various numbers on this new spreadsheet means.

Hopefully this is another step in the right direction in protecting homeowners from unscrupulous practices of some mortgage lenders. If you are a Florida homeowner facing a Florida Foreclosure Lawsuit due to the practices of your lender, contact a Jacksonville Foreclosure Defense Lawyer or a Florida Foreclosure Defense Lawyer today.

In non-judicial foreclosure states unlike Florida a lender can process a foreclosure without court intervention while judicial foreclosure states require the courts to participate in the foreclosure process. In non-judicial states, a bank has to file a Notice of Default before the foreclosure sale. A Notice of Default alerts the borrower that the foreclosure process has begun and is filed with the clerk's office.

One of the growing trends in foreclosure defense is that many of foreclosure lawsuits filed have a flawed Notice of Default and therefore the entire foreclosure can be declared invalid. Many industry experts believe that the flaw in the Notices of Default may be the next national "robo-singing" scandal. In Foreclosure Radar, it shows that fewer Notices of Default are being filed in California due to these flaws. "It appears in 2011 that this new examination of Notice of Defaults will slow down the foreclosure process," states mortgage consultant Mark Hanson.

While Florida is a judicial foreclosure state it pays to check your Notice of Default, as it is a precondition to foreclosure that you may be able to use as one of the defenses against your lender. If you are facing a Florida Foreclosure Lawsuit, contact a Jacksonville Foreclosure Defense Lawyer or a Florida Foreclosure Lawyer today to see what other defenses may be available to you.

As a Jacksonville Foreclosure Lawyer wrote in early January, new Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi is expanding her Office's investigation into "robo-signing" and falsification of documents by investigation firms other than the five firms initially under investigation.  At the time of Mrs. Bondi's announcement, she declined to specify which additional firms were being investigated. A Jacksonville Foreclosure Lawyer has learned that at least three other firms are being investigated and the letters from the Attorney Generals' office are attached below which were obtained through freedom of information requests.

The Letters inform the Kahane & Associates, The Law Office of Daniel Consuegra, and Albertelli Law Firm that a preliminary investigation regarding complaints received by the AG regarding allegations of unfair, deceptive and unconscionable practices by the firms in regards to their handling of mortgages which are in default.

The Tampa Florida Tribune has posted an interesting article about the actual effects of the early stages of the statewide, mandatory foreclosure mediation program. According to statistics compiled by the Tribune, between March and June 2010 there were 13,417 cases referred to mediation statewide. Of those cases only 1%, 768 total, resulted in an agreement between the borrower and the lender!

The primary question many are asking is why is the program not working as intended. While there are several factors that may be contributing to the low success rate of the program, most mediation administrators are point to the sloppiness of the lenders attorneys' and their process servers as the most obvious reasons for the breakdown of the program. The sloppy paperwork has made it difficult to locate borrowers in order to determine their desire to participate in the mediation program, which is problematic because the mediation program must contact the borrowers within 60 days of the lawsuit being filed or the case goes back to regular court proceedings.

While only 7 of the 20 Florida Circuit Courts submitted data for the Tribune report, there is enough data to determine that there are major flaws in the program. A Jacksonville Foreclosure Defense Lawyer thinks that mediation is a good alternative for many struggling homeowners and hopes the trend reverses. If you are facing a Florida Foreclosure Lawsuit contact a Jacksonville Foreclosure Defense Lawyer or a Florida Foreclosure Defense Lawyer today.

Many churches are now finding out what thousands individual and commercial property owners have already discovered, no one is immune from the effects of the national foreclosure crisis. Just as many homeowners got caught up in the rush to buy new property, so to did many churches. Since 2008, almost 200 churches or other religious facilities have been foreclosed on by their lenders.

Churches and religious organization have long been viewed as very low risk when it comes to mortgages, mostly due to the weekly positive cash flow due to the donations of their congregations and the moral obligation felt by those who operate the churches to pay back those loans. But, as members of various congregations have faced unemployment or reductions in income churches are facing steep reductions in charitable giving, or "tithing", and many insiders see this as the primary reason so many churches are facing foreclosures.

This just goes to show the absolute depths of the national foreclosure crisis. If you are facing a Florida Foreclosure Lawsuit, contact a Jacksonville Foreclosure Lawyer or a Florida Foreclosure Lawyer today.

*Church Foreclosure Chart credited to Wall Street Journal