Florida Foreclosure Defense Lawyers Blog

Just like many couples across the nation, this elderly Florida found them selves unable to make their current monthly mortgage payment and were in need of a mortgage modification. In their case, the husband became ill and their medical bills increased. Therefore, the couple applied for the Federal Home Affordable Modification Program (commonly referred to as "HAMP"), which reduced their monthly mortgage payment to a manageable amount. The first payment was due January 1.

The couple made their first mortgage payment on December 23, 8 days early. After they received notice their February payment was not accepted because the signature line of their check was left blank, they discovered they could be loosing their modification because they made their first payment early. Of course, the couple contacted the bank to ask them to review their file.

However, their initial attempts to correct the situation were unsuccessful and they received a letter in July stating, "payments not made for the correct month, even earlier, would result in the loss of eligibility in the modification program." Luckily, shortly thereafter, the bank reevaluated their decision and has allowed the couple to resume their modification and continue their participation in the HAMP program. The bank has also admitted the error they made.

This goes to show that being approved for as well as keeping a modification can be difficult and confusing. If you are facing a Florida Foreclosure Lawsuit as a result of a failed mortgage modification, contact a Florida Foreclosure Defense Lawyer or a Jacksonville Foreclosure Defense Lawyer for a free consultation and a review of the remedies which may be available to you.

A 63 year-old California woman has finally received her wish after a nearly a year and a half of fighting, a meaningful mortgage modification on her home of 27 years. The woman was evicted from her home by Alameda county Sheriff's Deputies in 2010 but on January 19, 2011 she took a bold step in an effort to get her home back...she hired a locksmith to change the locks on her home and she began to "squat" in the home.

Since re-entering her home, the woman has launched a crusade to get her mortgage modified. She sued Wells Fargo in federal court and when her case was dismissed she appealed the decision without the help of a lawyer. She has had California state legislators write to Wells Fargo on her behalf, had community organizers "blast" Wells Fargo's offices with emails and phone calls, confronted Wells Fargo Regional Vice President at a meeting arranged by the Oakland teachers' union and even been lead away in handcuffs after interrupting Wells Fargo's annual shareholders meeting.

A Wells Fargo spokesman has stated the deal reduces the principle amount of the woman's loan from $484,000 to $365,000, but said the company modified the loan "because we want to keep homeowners in their homes", not as a result of any of the antics of the homeowners. The principle reduction reduces the homeowner's payment by about $500 per month.

A Jacksonville Foreclosure Lawyer does not recommend taking such extreme actions when trying to prevent foreclosure of your home. If you are facing a Florida Foreclosure Lawsuit, contact a Jacksonville Foreclosure Lawyer or a Florida Foreclosure Lawyer today for a free case review to determine what foreclosure defense options may be available in your case.

In response to the increasing national foreclosure problem, the Obama administration has announced a program that will allow eligible homeowners to skip part or all of their monthly payments for 12 months (or more) while they search for a new job. In the past, eligible homeowners have only been able to skip payments for three or four months.

The implementation of the plan comes after increasing criticism for the rise in foreclosures. Past efforts to help prevent foreclosures were geared toward homeowners who were unable to make their payments and had adjustable rate mortgages. However, the new program will buy more time for unemployed homeowners to cure a default on their payments.

Only eligible borrowers will be able to benefit from the new program. For many, this is the bad news because only mortgage servicers whose loans are backed by Federal Housing Administration insurance will be required to offer payment deferments to eligible homeowners. This is only about 14% of all active mortgages in the market. The changes will not apply to loans owned or guaranteed by the big mortgage companies Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, which account for roughly half of all mortgages.

If you are struggling with a foreclosure and would like to learn more about the available foreclosure defenses options, contact a Jacksonville Foreclosure Lawyer or a Florida Foreclosure Lawyer today for a complimentary case review.

Florida is one of about 25 states with a foreclosure mediation program, which was established by the Florida Supreme Court in 2009 in an attempt to both help homeowners and clear court caseloads. However, a recent study suggests the mediation program is not as successful as had been hoped.

For example, in Miami-Dade County, only 2,396 of the 14,372 foreclosures that were recommended to foreclosure actually occurred. This is largely due to the fact that homeowners are very difficult to reach and often don't respond to requests for mediation -- Statewide, only 41% of homeowners were successfully contacted. This is just one of the many reasons you should not ignore attempts by your lender to contact you.

It's important to remember that the program is young and still improving. Some of the problems associated with the program can be remedied by hiring an attorney. If your lender has requested mediation but you failed to respond, an attorney may be able to reinstate you into the program. It is important to have an attorney representing your rights at mediation. If you are facing the prospect of foreclosure and believe mediation may be option for you, contact a Jacksonville Foreclosure Lawyer or a Florida Foreclosure Lawyer today to discuss your options.

The Florida Attorney General's Office has announced it has filed suit against three loan modification companies for charging upfront fees to homeowners while not providing the services they were hired for. Loan modifications have become extremely popular in Florida, as struggling homeowners have sought help to lower monthly mortgage payments. Charging upfront fees for loan modifications is illegal under Florida law. The companies allegedly told homeowners their mortgage debt would reduced and would be able to successfully prevent foreclosure.

The mortgage modification companies: Home Owner Protection Economics, Inc., DC Financial Group and Deleverage America, Inc., have been order to cease their operations by the court handling the case. In addition, the financial assets of the owners of the companies have been frozen by the court. The companies charged fees varying between $495 and $2000, most of which was for work that was never completed.

This is just one of what should be many suits brought against mortgage modification companies. Unscrupulous mortgage modification companies are one of the fastest growing areas of mortgage fraud and homeowners should be beware. If you are facing a potential Florida Foreclosure Lawsuit, contact a Jacksonville Foreclosure Defense Lawyer or a Florida Foreclosure Defense Lawyer today to see what foreclosure alternatives are available to you.

Amid pressure from the Obama administration to put programs into place allowing underwater homeowners to refinance into smaller, government backed loans, quasi-federal mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have stated that they will not be writing down principle loan balances...unless someone else picks up the tab. Edward DeMarco, the acting director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, stated that reducing loan balances on loans would be damaging to the companies but "should a source of funds outside the companies emerge to cover some portion of the costs associated with principle" they would re-examine their stance.

DeMarco also gave several more reasons that Fannie and Freddie not writing down loan balances: according to their statistics, only 10% of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac owned loans are actually underwater; most underwater homeowners are still paying on their loan; and that the companies do offer forbearance plans for struggling homeowners which don't require payments, but those payments are not ultimately forgiven.

While this stance is not beneficial for many homeowners, at least the topic of forgiving mortgage principle is being discussed openly. If you are facing a Florida Foreclosure Lawsuit, contact a Jacksonville Foreclosure Lawyer or a Florida Foreclosure Lawyer today to see what foreclosure alternative or mortgage modification options are available to you.

The latest numbers from the S&P/Case-Shiller home price index indicated that housing prices fell across 20 major metropolitan areas in October. Overall homes prices fell 1.3% which constitutes the third straight month-over-month drop. Economists were optimistic for an overall economic recovery in early 2010 as rising home prices indicated a recovery in the housing market but these latest numbers appear to be on path for double-dip. Now many experts are saying that the declines will continue until at least the spring of 2011.

One of the major contributors to this current drop in home prices is the glut of foreclosed homes already on the market which tend to drive down prices due to their often bottom line prices. Six major metro-areas; Atlanta, Miami, Seattle, Tampa, Charlotte, and Portland, saw their lowest home values since the housing market collapse began in 2007. Only four metros saw increases in home prices over 2009 levels; Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, and Washington D.C. Many housing analysts are expecting markets in Florida, Arizona and Nevada, which have been most affected by the foreclosure crisis, to experience even more declines in home values.

Wells Fargo last week agreed to a settlement with attorneys general of eight states, including Florida, in response to claims of deceptive marketing practices surrounding payment option adjustable rate mortgage originated by a Wells Fargo Bank subsidiary bank. The mortgages, marketed as "pick-a-pay" loans, granted homeowners the option to pay less than their monthly interest payments, letting the balance of the mortgage increase until the loan reset, causing the homeowner to pay the full monthly principle and interest payments. In most cases, the full principle and interest payments were much higher than the payments that the homeowners had been "picking." A statement contained in a release from Attorney General Bill McCollum said that the marketing materials of the loans "did not fully explain to borrowers that the minimum payments in the first years of the loans wouldn't fully cover the interest and cause the balance of the loan to grow."

The settlement includes a payment of $10.2 million dollars to Florida to help with foreclosure relief and a loan modification plan for 4,000 Florida borrowers. The loan modification plan begins December 1, 2010 and runs through June 2013. Eligible borrowers are ones who are 60 days behind or are facing "imminent default", though the first step in the process is attempting to qualify those borrowers into the federal Home Affordable Modification Program before they enter the alternative Wells Fargo program. Each of the eight states Attorneys General will receive quarterly reports to monitor the bank's compliance with the settlement terms.

To read the terms of the settlement click here.

Jacksonville homes underwater. This is a question that we hear often as Florida Foreclosure Lawyers. In short, a deficiency judgment is a judgment for a debt that is owed after a foreclosure, i.e. the amount of money the bank was not able to recover after it forecloses on a home. Lenders are even allowed to add interest, fees and other expenses to that amount as long as their is an outstanding deficiency. While some states have laws that prevent lenders from seeking deficiency judgments, Florida is one of the states that does allow deficiency judgments to be pursued.

It is possible that there may not be a monetary shortfall after a lender has taken and sold a home through foreclosure but that is becoming less and less likely as national home prices have continued to decline. This may seem like a no-win situation for a homeowner but there are alternatives that homeowners can pursue to avoid a deficiency judgment. Foreclosure alternatives such as short sales, deeds-in-lieu, and loan modifications are just a few of the ways a Jacksonville Foreclosure Lawyer may use to help homeowners avoid deficiency judgments.

If you are one of the thousands of Florida homeowners who are facing a Florida Foreclosure Lawsuit and potentially a deficiency judgment, contact a Florida Foreclosure Lawyer or Jacksonville Foreclosure Lawyer today to explore your potential foreclosure alternatives.

On June 4th, the Florida 5th DCA reversed two Wells Fargo initiated unopposed motion to cancel foreclosure sale and two unopposed motion to vacate the foreclosure sale due to the trial courts "gross abuse of discretion" in deny these motions.

Wells Fargo filed a mortgage foreclosure action against the Lupicas and the foreclosure was granted due to the failure of the Lupicas to file an answer. The foreclosed home was set for sale but prior to the foreclosure sale Wells Fargo filed a motion to cancel the sale because Wells Fargo and the Lupicas reached an agreement on a loan modification. The court denied the motion to cancel the sale. Wells Fargo purchased the home at the foreclosure sale and then filed an unopposed motion to set aside the sale because the Lupicas and Wells Fargo had reached a forbearance agreement. Again the court denied the motion to vacate the sale.

The 5th DCA overturned the trial courts denials and found the trial courts actions constituted a gross abuse of discretion in that settlements between lenders and borrowers are favored over foreclosure and sale of the property.

If you are currently facing a Florida Foreclosure Lawsuit, or believe you will be facing a Florida Foreclosure Lawsuit in the near future contact a Jacksonville Foreclosure Defense Lawyer to explore your options. In many cases there are options that can be pursued that may prevent foreclosure sale and keep you in your home.