Florida Foreclosure Defense Lawyers Blog

The aptly names "Helping Responsible Homeowner Act of 2011" has been recommended by members Congress to help more borrowers refinance their current mortgage loans. This new act would remove the risk-based fees on mortgage loans that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac already endure the risk on, and could potentially allow about 5 million more home loan borrowers refinance. This could potentially be a far-reaching and speedy way to get money into the overall U.S. economy. It is hopeful that the act could also decrease the number of strategic defaults by underwater borrowers, those who are defaulting because they owe more than their home are currently worth.

An adjustment to the current Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) is also being supported by many members of Congress. The adjustment would restructure and streamline the appraisal and closing processes for homeowners who are refinancing, which could reduce the overall cost and effort associated with mortgage refinancing. Suggestions have also been made to increase the present required loan-to-value ratio.

The current Home Affordable Refinance Program has allowed homeowners with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac backed mortgages to refinance their existing mortgages at decreased interest rates, but the program has not provided the widespread help across the country as was initially hoped. Currently, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac charge high, risk-based up front fees when refinancing risky mortgage, which the Helping Responsible Homeowner Act of 2011 seeks to eliminate.

Nevertheless, a long-term solution, widespread refinancing is not enough without an improved economy and value appreciation. If you are currently facing a Florida Foreclosure Lawsuit and your house is underwater, contact a Jacksonville Foreclosure Lawyer or a Florida Foreclosure Lawyer today to determine what foreclosure alternatives may be available to you.

According to a report entitled "The Post Foreclosure Experience of U.S. Households," by a Federal Reserve Board discussion group appose the impression that post-foreclosure homeowners are forced to move in with family or crowded, poor neighborhoods in order to cover their bills. Instead, the report states more foreclosed homeowners are beginning to plan ahead for what they will do after foreclosure--a strategic exit after foreclosure--allowing them to remain in the same, better, or at least comparable living standards.

After foreclosure, 60% of foreclosed homeowners are living in single-family homes, such as a rental, in a neighborhood with educational levels and home values similar to what they had pre-foreclosure. One Palm Beach mother told the study her plans include staying in the same school district for her children. She further stated, "I know tons of people going through this, and they are making plans for when they get kicked out of their homes...They are planning to rent, centering it around their kids' schools. They are not moving into one-bedroom apartments."

The report further found that household size post-foreclosure only increased from 2.24 adults from 2.27 adults. Only roughly 12% are forced to move in with an older family member (such as a parent). Compare the 12% to the 5% of adults who move in with older family members while not in foreclosure.

Another part of the study looked at how long once a foreclosure is initiated, before a homeowner is forced to leave the home. The report found only half of borrowers are forced to leave their homes after two years. The postponement reflects the aspect that many foreclosures are never finished as loans are worked out or the home is sold. However, it also shows how long it takes for a foreclosure to work its way through the court system. In Florida, the average home spends 676 days in foreclosure. That is almost 2 years!

Foreclosure does not have to mean a smaller living space in a bad part of town, or a quick move. If you are facing a Florida Foreclosure Lawsuit, contact a FFlorida Foreclosure Defense Lawyer or a Jacksonville Foreclosure Defense Lawyer today for a free review of your situation to find out what foreclosure options may be available to you.

In a program which mirrors a program struggling Florida homeowners have been able to take advantage of for almost a year, Illinois homeowners who are having difficulty making their mortgage payments can take advantage of a new federal program designed to help keep people in their homes. The program, dubbed Illinois Hard Hit, cam provide up to $25,000 over 18 months to those homeowners who are at risk for losing their homes.

The Illinois Hardest Hit Program offers two types of assistance: 1) Reinstatement assistance to pay mortgage arrearages, fees, and penalties in full, and 2) Monthly mortgage payment assistance to pay 100% of the mortgage payment owed to the servicer for up to 18 months while the household makes monthly contribution payments to the Illinois Housing Development Authority during their enrollment in the program.

To qualify for the "Hardest Hit" program, a homeowner must have at least a 25% drop in income, the household income cannot be more than 120% of the local median income, the residence must be the primary and only residence of the borrowers, the loan balance must not exceed $500,000 and the current servicer must agree to accept payments.

This program may bring some much needed relief to struggling Illinois homeowners. If you are a Florida homeowner, a similar program is available to you. For information on the Florida Hardest HIt Program clicktarget=new here. If you are already facing a Florida Foreclosure Lawsuit, contact a Jacksonville Foreclosure Lawyer or a Florida Foreclosure Defense Lawyer today for your free consultation.

What is going on in with all of the Foreclosure craziness? This has been the question for millions of homeowners dealing with the potential loss of a home right now. People have heard the horror stories of predatory lending, and the other stories of unqualified homeowners working with brokers to deceive lenders to get financed. But many mortgages fall somewhere in between, leaving big question marks in place of answers the housing market desperately needs.

As a greater number of questions are pouring in, however, searching for answers has become a daunting task. MIllions of homeowners are in a struggle to hold onto their loans while batting off multiple lenders. The problem is many of the original brokers and lending companies have since gone out of business or been the subject of criminal charges stemming from their faulty practices. Often times, the loans in question have been securitized into a mortgage-backed trust. The issue underlying this confusion is that no one knows whom the owner of the note and mortgage actually is. This is largely because of one four-letter acronym, MERS.

MERS (Mortgage Electronic Registration System), a service created to track mortgage transfers, was created in 1994. MERS replaced the old system of "walking" every important mortgage document to the County Clerk's office. With this shortcut in place, lenders were able to save millions of dollars in local recording fees and started transferring mortgages at a pace that, we would later learn, was far too much to handle. So grueling, in fact, MERS failed to properly follow state and local laws in documenting these transfers. Now when it comes time to foreclose instead of documenting each transfer, MERS allegedly signs the mortgage from the original lender to the most recent owner.Many courts are now deciding whether MERS has actual standing to foreclose.

There are things you can do to be prepared for or stave off a potential foreclosure. One of the most important is to communicate with your lender. If you are facing the prospect of foreclosure, contact a Florida Foreclosure Defense Lawyer or a Jacksonville Foreclosure Defense Lawyer today to determine what foreclosure defenses may be available in your specific case.

As a requirement before lenders with allow you to short sale your home, most lenders will require homeowners to sign contracts agreeing to the bank's stipulations in selling the home. Many times these documents will include boilerplate language that can be harmful to a borrower's position. In some cases, as a condition of short sale, borrowers are asked to sign a promissory note agreeing to pay the balance of the deficiency amount after the sale before the house can even be sold. As a result lenders will be contractually able to obtain a deficiency judgment when short sales did not cover the entire cost of the mortgage.

Never sign a promissory note for a lender without knowing the legal consequences that document will have on your short sale. If you are considering the foreclosure alternatives such as short selling your property contact a Florida Foreclosure Lawyer or a Jacksonville Foreclosure Lawyer today to determine what foreclosure alternatives may be available to you and what alternative may be the best in your situation.

When faced with a foreclosure in Florida, you should be aware of the different alternatives that are available before you lose your home. Due to the complex nature of foreclosure proceedings, it is advisable to first contact a Jacksonville Foreclosure Lawyer to discuss which option is right for you. Below are several alternatives to foreclosure that can be discussed with your attorney:

• Forbearance-If you have recently experienced an involuntary interruption of income or been burdened with extraordinary expenses, a lender may be able to adjust your repayment plan based on the status of your current financial situation.

• Modification of the Mortgage-A lender may allow you to refinance your debt and extend your mortgage loan, which could reduce monthly payments to an affordable level.

• Short Sale-Once in default, you can sell your property and pay off your mortgage loan to avoid foreclosure and damage to your credit.

• Deed-in-lieu of Foreclosure-As a last resort, you may be able to "give back" your property to the lender. Although this will likely not save your home, it may help your chances of receiving another mortgage loan in the future.

Of course, this is not an exhaustive list of foreclosure alternatives and the availability of the above alternatives will vary on a case by case basis. To discuss these options and other available foreclosure alternative options, contact a or a Jacksonville Foreclosure Lawyer or a Florida Foreclosure Lawyer today.

The influx of mortgage foreclosures in the United States seems to have no end in sight. In an effort to motivate mortgage lenders to actually cooperate, the Federal Government offered lenders cash incentives, up to $1,000 per modification, if they would help prevent the loss of a home by permanently modifying a homeowner's mortgage payment. But a certain set of lenders have done so little to help the foreclosure crisis that the Government will no longer offer them those incentives.

According to a release by the Treasury Department, Wells Fargo, Bank of America and JP Morgan Chase & Co. failed in helping people permanently modify their mortgages. Their failure was so abysmal that the government has pulled the plug on the lucrative cash incentive, although the money still lives on for other, more cooperative lenders. Out of the 1.6 million homeowners who began in the program, roughly 850,000 of them have dropped out as of April 2011.

The issues involved reach beyond un-cooperation; the Treasury found that the lenders wrongly disqualified many people from the program. Numerous borrowers have complained that the banks have either lost documents or been completely unresponsive to their modification requests. Banks, however, blame homeowners for not submitting needed paperwork to complete the modification.

On the other side of the coin, those who were actually accepted into the program received interest rates as low as 2 percent for five years, with a median savings of $526 per month. If you have applied for a mortgage modification and believe that you were denied unnecessarily, contact a Jacksonville Foreclosure Lawyer or a Florida Foreclosure Lawyer today to explore potential remedies or what other foreclosure alternatives may be available to you..

Florida, along with 19 other states, receives money from the Federal Government to maintain a Hardest Hit fund, which is designed to provide aid for families most affected by the housing crises and the recession. Each state is allowed to establish its own rules, and you can find information on how to apply for Florida's fund right here.

For example, the Hardest Hit website says that to be eligible, you must occupy the home as your primary residence, be unemployed (or underemployed through no fault of your own, have a total income at or below 140% of the area median income, have an active bank account, cannot have an outstanding bankruptcy, and cannot have been convicted of a mortgage-related felony within the last 10 years.

This list may sound reasonable; however, many applicants are finding it difficult to actually get approved for assistance. In fact, more than 10,000 homeowners have completed applications. 2,700 of those applications have actually been processed, and 80% of them have been rejected. According to a spokesperson, the high denial rate is by design. They want to ensure they approve primarily people who have a good chance of keeping their homes.

The reasons for denial, however, likely seem arbitrary to applicants. Unemployed applicants can be denied if the agency determines they were at fault for losing their jobs. If the person is actually employed, the agency may not consider them "underemployed" to qualify for assistance. Applicants are also denied if more than 6 months behind on mortgage payments, or if they are deemed to have income to spend 31% on housing expenses.

This doesn't mean you shouldn't apply. In fact, many states -- including Florida -- have been surprised at the low number of applicants. If you believe you qualify for the program, check out Florida's Hardest Hit website for more information. If you have been denied or your home is otherwise in foreclosure, contact a Jacksonville Foreclosure Attorney for more information.

Florida homeowners that are unemployed or underemployed and having difficulty paying their mortgages can apply for assistance from the "Florida Hardest-Hit Fund" beginning on April 18. This program has been expanded after initially being launched in October for Lee County homeowners only. The program will now be available in all 67 counties in Florida.

The program is run by the Florida Housing Finance Corporation and is designed to give homeowners temporary relief so they can focus on getting re-employed or finding more meaningful employment. The Fund provides struggling homeowners with zero percent, deferred-payment loans. In some instances, the loans may be forgiven over a 5-year period at a rate of 20 percent each year. For more information about eligibility for the program or the program itself visit www.FLHardestHitHelp.org.

The federal government ordered 14 of the largest mortgage lenders in the country to reimburse homeowners that had their homes improperly foreclosed upon. Bank of America, Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase and Citibank were among the 14 mortgage lenders named in the federal joint report. The joint report was created by the Federal Reserve, Office of Thrift Supervision and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. Two servicers, Lending Processing Services (LPS) and MERSCORP, were also named in the joint report.

The agreement is still pretty vague. The lenders will have to "remediate all financial injury to borrowers caused by any errors, misrepresentations, or other deficiencies." Additionally, there has been no maximum or minimum amount of damages identified in the report. Many lawmakers feel that the agreement is too lenient on the lenders. We will have to wait and see the effect this agreement actually has on lenders and homeowners that were wrongly foreclosed upon.

It is always good to have a Florida Foreclosure Defense Attorney review all documents associated with the foreclosure process. If you are contacted by your former lender about a settlement agreement, it is imperative that you have the settlement agreement reviewed by a Florida Foreclosure Defense Lawyer.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has filed a challenge to the Florida foreclosure courts in the Lakeland, Florida. The lawsuit claims that the foreclosure courts are biased in favor of the lenders and that the courts do not provide the same due process that individuals in the regular civil courts enjoy. The case requests that the court review the procedures used by the foreclosure courts in southwest Florida.

Florida foreclosure courts were created in 2010 in reaction to the foreclosure crisis in the state. The purpose of the foreclosure courts was to prevent the regular circuit courts from being overloaded with foreclosure cases. According to the ACLU's filing, the foreclosure courts focus on clearing the cases has put the homeowners at a disadvantage because it gives the homeowner less time to develop their case and it limits the homeowner's ability to present a defense. Additionally, according to the ACLU Complaint, the foreclosure courts have a quota of cases cleared that it must meet every month despite the fact that most of the cases have questionable paperwork. In response, a spokeswoman for the 20th Judicial Circuit stated that there were no such quotas but there was a goal to clear as many cases as possible.

If you are facing foreclosure in the state of Florida, contact a Florida Foreclosure Defense Lawyer prior to appearing in a Florida foreclosure court to ensure that your rights are protected.

Florida housing expects to move forward with a statewide implementation of the Florida Hardest-Hit program by the middle of April (within 2 weeks). Homeowners in all 67 counties can apply for assistance from the Florida Hardest-Hit program on their website http://www.FLHardestHistHelp.org

There have been several websites what appear to be copycat websites

See the video below