Miami Real Estate Attorney Blog

According to a recent report, Florida ranks among the top states nationally for the average length of time it takes for foreclosure proceedings to begin. For those homeowners who went into foreclosure in November, they typically had not made a mortgage payment in 10 months. Financial experts are flabbergasted by the 307 day delay between the first late payment and a foreclosure referral.

Here are some statistics for other states: In Maryland, a home doesn't go into foreclosure until 358 days after the first late payment. In New York its 344 days, and California tops the list at 367 days.

The report also found that 18 percent of loans across the country with 24 or more delinquent payments are not in foreclosure. Further, about 15 percent of loans with 18 months of no payments are not in foreclosure. As a result, a very large pool of extremely delinquent loans exist.

Of course, delinquent homeowners benefit from these delays. However, homeowner associations certainly do not obtain any benefit because they are unable to collect fees. Also, neighbors of vacant properties must deal with the fact of reduced home values and property maintenance.

A reason for the delay is the federal government's loan modification plan. The Making Home Affordable program helps homeowners obtain lower monthly payments. As we've discussed, the program has not been completely successful due to the amount of homeowners dropping out and the bureaucratic red tape.

Another reason for the lengthy delays is the fact that banks are unprepared to handle the millions of foreclosure cases as well as loan modifications. They also don't have the staff or the talent needed to move these faster.

Today's current real estate market, and ongoing foreclosure crises, presents all sorts of issues that must be properly navigated. There are many factors contributing to Florida's nation leading delinquency rates. They include a weak job market, weak economic recovery, and a major drop in home prices. Consequently, Florida's housing market remains unsettled in large part due to the continued foreclosure crises.

Our Miami foreclosure defense lawyers have assisted many homeowners in buying enough time to reach the solution that is right for them. There are many alternatives to foreclosure, and often times it just takes proper planning to properly navigate against the potential pitfalls. Help is often available to those who seek it.

Continue reading "Florida Homeowners Stay in their Homes Longer Because Florida is Among the Nation's Leaders for the Length of Time it takes to Commence a Foreclosure against a Delinquent Borrower" »

Wishing you and your family all the best during this holiday season, as well as peace and prosperity in the New Year.

While many loan servicers, and banks, were experiencing increasingly more difficulty in moving their foreclosures forward due to shoddy paperwork, "robo signing", and faulty legal process, many of them are nonetheless temporarily halting all foreclosure evictions during the holidays. Moreover, some South Florida courts are even canceling foreclosure related hearings and foreclosure sales until after the holidays.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have halted foreclosure evictions during the Christmas and New Year's holidays. As for Bank of America, it will also halt all foreclosure sales and evictions during the holidays on all loans in its portfolio or held by investors who will allow such a moratorium.

Broward County has canceled all scheduled foreclosure auctions through the end of the year. Moreover, all foreclosure hearings scheduled during the holidays must also be re-scheduled.

While no such order has been issued in Miami-Dade County, long standing tradition, and custom, holds that foreclosure evictions and foreclosure sales will not take place during the holidays. Indeed, the next scheduled foreclosure sale in Miami-Dade County is scheduled to take place on January 3, 2011.

Today's current real estate market, and ongoing foreclosure crises, presents all sorts of issues that must be properly navigated. There are many factors contributing to Florida's nation leading delinquency rates. They include a weak job market, weak economic recovery, and a major drop in home prices. Consequently, Florida's housing market remains unsettled in large part due to the continued foreclosure crises.

Our Miami foreclosure defense lawyers have assisted many homeowners in buying enough time to reach the solution that is right for them. There are many alternatives to foreclosure, and often times it just takes proper planning to properly navigate against the potential pitfalls. Help is often available to those who seek it.

Continue reading "Foreclosures Get a Reprieve During the Holiday Season " »

The USA Today is reporting that existing home sales rose in November as compared with October. This is an indication that our housing market may be slowly awakening from its long slumber.

The real estate recovery, however, will continue to move in a rather uneven pace for the foreseeable future. While demand has steadily improved since bottoming in July following the expiration of the buyer's tax credit, other factors are driving the rather uneven real estate recovery.

For instance, the glut of foreclosed homes continues to drive down home prices and continues to hurt demand for new homes. To illustrate this phenomenon one only needs to look at the numbers for the homes sold last month. During that time period, foreclosed homes sold at a 15% discount as compared to non-distressed properties. In short, foreclosed homes were selling for less than non-foreclosed homes, and, as a result, driving down prices as a whole.

Because of the large inventory of foreclosed homes still unsold, many anticipate that real estate prices will continue to decline through most of 2011. Indeed, many are anticipating that banks will repossess one million homes in 2011, and that is on top of the one million homes they repossessed in 2010. These foreclosed homes will no doubt continue to drive prices down in 2011.

Another significant factor driving today's real estate market is job growth. Many economists are predicting that the US economy will add close to 2 million jobs in 2011. Until the job situation is truly improved, however, the real estate market, and recovery, will remain rather uneven.

Additionally, many homebuilders anticipate that 2011 will also prove to be a very difficult year. This year proved to be one of the worst years for homebuilders in decades. However, many homebuilders are claiming that the groundwork for a recovery has been laid because of the historically low interest rates, low prices, improving consumer confidence, and anticipated growth in job creation.

Continue reading "Real Estate Sales Increase in November but Foreclosed Properties are Still Driving Prices Down" »

While Florida's Attorney General continues its investigation into many so-called foreclosure mills, it has now begun investigating two companies that deliver foreclosure notices to defaulted homeowners. While many would consider it a mere technicality, proper service of process is vital to our judicial system. It ensures we are all provided fair notice of any sort of legal action against us.

Two process serving companies, one based in Miami, are being investigated after numerous complaints were filed against them. Complaints include filing questionable statements with the court, back-dating documents and questionable billings. Both of those companies have been used by the now notorious law offices of David J. Stern in Plantation. Two recent court decisions also illustrate the importance of perfecting service of process.

The job of a process server is to personally hand court summonses to defendants. This provides homeowners of the fact that a legal action has been filed against them. It also lets them know that they have 20 days to respond to the complaint or the action will proceed.

As we previously discussed, banks, and their lawyers, are often in a rush to commence legal proceedings to foreclose on your home. In light of all the "robo signing" allegations, and on going investigation launched by Florida's Attorney General, it should come as no surprise that banks are also often cutting corners to perfect service of process.

Our Miami foreclosure defense lawyers have assisted many homeowners in buying enough time to reach the solution that is right for them. There are many alternatives to foreclosure, and often times it just takes proper planning to properly navigate against the potential pitfalls. Help is often available to those who seek it.

Continue reading "Florida's Attorney General Initiates Investigation Against Process Servers" »

The term "underwater" typically refers to the situation where a borrower owes more on their home than their home is worth. According to news reports, Florida is behind only Nevada and Arizona with the amount of homes with negative equity, or that are currently "underwater."

Nearly half of all Florida homeowners had mortgages that were "underwater." Specifically, more than 2 million mortgages out of 4.5 million are currently underwater. Additionally, an almost 200,000 more were near negative equity.

The high number of loans that are "underwater" is an increasingly disturbing trend in South Florida. The reason being is that may individuals with a loan that is "underwater" have decided to "strategically default" on their loan.

What is a 'strategic default'? It is a decision by a borrower to stop making payments on a debt despite having the financial ability to make the payment. The large financial firm, Morgan Stanley, for example, recently made the calculated decision to give up five San Francisco towers it purchased at the peak of the booming real estate market.

Many individual borrowers are also turning to the same strategy used by Morgan Stanley, and others, and are seeking solutions to the problems brought in by the unstable real estate market. And the reason 'strategic defaults' are becoming so popular are for a number of different reasons.

For instance, many homeowners are unable to sell their homes without bringing tens of thousands of dollars to the closing table. Consequently, many of these owners just give up and walk away. This, in turn, triggers more foreclosures and, ultimately, price declines.

Today's current real estate market, and ongoing foreclosure crises, presents all sorts of issues that must be properly navigated. There are many factors contributing to Florida's nation leading delinquency rates. They include a weak job market, weak economic recovery, and a major drop in home prices. Consequently, Florida's housing market remains unsettled in large part due to the continued foreclosure crises.

Our Miami foreclosure defense lawyers have assisted many homeowners in buying enough time to reach the solution that is right for them. There are many alternatives to foreclosure, and often times it just takes proper planning to properly navigate against the potential pitfalls. Help is often available to those who seek it.

Continue reading ""Underwater" Homes Continue to Dampen South Florida's Real Estate Market Leading to More "Strategic Defaults" and Foreclosures" »

A recent survey shows that Americans have a negative attitude towards the housing market recovery. More than half of Americans surveyed last month said they don't believe a recovery will occur until at least 2013. Reports about robo-signers abusing the foreclosure process has contributed to this attitude. Another survey shows that about 70 percent of renters would wait at least two years before they would buy a property.

The current real estate market, and ongoing foreclosure crises, presents all sorts of issues that must be properly navigated. There are many factors contributing to Florida's nation leading delinquency rates. They include a weak job market, weak economic recovery, and a major drop in home prices. Consequently, Florida's housing market remains unsettled in large part due to the continued foreclosure crises. Our Miami foreclosure defense lawyers have assisted many homeowners in buying enough time to reach the solution that is right for them. There are many alternatives to foreclosure, and often times it just takes proper planning to properly navigate against the potential pitfalls. Help is often available to those who seek it.

The underlying problem with today's housing market is the continued high number of inviduals that remain unemployed. If unemployment rates stay high - like those we see in South Florida - then the housing market cannot recover. While the housing market is taking small steps toward a recovery, it will not fully rebound until unemployment is lowered.

Even those who are employed now are not buying homes. This is probably due to the fear of taking on the risk of a long-term financial commitment in a climate where people feel they could be next to lose their jobs.

A survey also demonstrated that more Americans are willing to walk away from their homes if they owe more on their homes than what it is worth. This typically referred to as a strategic default. Compared to 41 percent in May, 48 percent of homeowners with a mortgage would consider a strategic default today.

Continue reading "High Unemployment Continues to Plague the Housing Recovery" »

Two recent court decisions from the Third District Court of Appeal highlight the importance of proper service of process. These two decisions are also powerful rulings that could be used to aid homeowners in defending a foreclosure if they have not been properly served with the lawsuit.

Service of process is the procedure used to give legal notice to a person (such as a defendant/homeowner in a foreclosure action) of a court's exercise of its jurisdiction over that person so as to enable that person to respond to the proceeding before the court. Typically, notice is furnished by delivering a set of court documents (called "process") to the person to be served. Once service of process has been properly perfected, by the Plaintiff (such as a bank filing a foreclosure action against a homeowner), over the defendant (such as a homeowner), then the Court has jurisdiction to enter orders in the case. Such court orders could include the sale of the property. But the Court cannot sell the property unless service of process has been properly perfected.

In two very favorable rulings for homeowners facing foreclosure, the Third District Court of Appeal recently concluded that the bank could not sell the property at issue because the bank had failed to properly serve the defendant homeowners with the necessary legal papers to begin the foreclosure.

In the first case, Opella vs. Bayview, the Third District Court of Appeal concluded that a foreclosure judgment needed to be reversed because the lender failed to properly notify the property owner of the legal action. The Appellate Court ruled that service of process was done improperly and that the lender could not proceed with the lawsuit given that service of process was faulty. The Third District Court of Appeal also referred the matter to the Florida Bar for further investigation to determine if the Bank's lawyers violated any rules governing the practice of law in Florida.

The second case, Bennett vs. Christiana Bank & Trust Company, also involved allegations of improper service of process. And in that case, the Third District Court of Appeal again concluded that service of process was faulty.

In Bennett, the Third District Court of Appeal concluded that leaving lawsuit documents at a homeowner's front door is insufficient notification and in violation of Florida's service of process laws, and voided the final judgment.

These two cases illustrate how banks, and their lawyers, are often in a rush to commence legal proceedings to foreclose on your home. In light of all the "robo signing" allegations, and on going investigation launched by Florida's Attorney General, it should come as no surprise that banks are also often cutting corners to perfect service of process.

However, even if you believe that the legal papers, and lawsuit, were not properly provided to you, if you fail to respond within 20 days, or otherwise act in a timely manner, you will be in a default situation where your defenses may be all waived and it will be difficult for you to assert any valid defense that you may have to defend the case. And that includes the defense that you have not been properly served with process and the legal papers.

Therefore, if you have received any papers that you feel may be a lawsuit filed against you then you need to take immediate action to protect your rights. There are many alternatives to foreclosure, and often times it just takes proper planning to properly navigate against the potential pitfalls. And one of the best ways to plan is to consult with a foreclosure defense lawyer. Help is often available to those who seek it.

Continue reading "Have You Been Properly Served with that Lawsuit? Contact a Miami Foreclosure Defense Lawyer Today to Determine if You Have Been Properly Served with a Foreclosure Lawsuit and to Further Assess Your Rights and Alternatives to Foreclosure" »

A recent House Subcommittee hearing brought together bankers and housing regulators to discuss the ongoing foreclosure crises. The one consensus that was reached was that the system needs to be corrected and fixed.

One of the main obstacles that many banks claim they encounter during both the foreclosure and loan modification process are investors who require that the foreclosures keep moving forward even though borrowers are trying to get a modified mortgage to lower their mortgage payments. Another problem involves what to do with the second loans because the holders of both the first and second loans must agree to the modification. Therefore, homeowners may not get payments lowered as dramatically if they have a second mortgage, and that could lead to re-defaults.

Another source of harsh rebuke was the Home Affordable Mortgage Program (HAMP). The results of the HAMP program to date reveals that it is not meeting its objective of preventing foreclosures. Indeed, the Federal Reserve predicts that there will be approximately 2.25 million foreclosure filings in 2011 and about 2 million more in 2012. Florida would again be among the nation's leaders in the number of foreclosure filings, with South Florida leading way in the Sunshine state.

The current real estate market, and ongoing foreclosure crises, presents all sorts of issues that must be properly navigated. Our Miami foreclosure defense lawyers have assisted many parties in buying enough time to reach the solution that is right for them.

There are many alternatives to foreclosure, and often times it just takes proper planning to properly navigate against the potential pitfalls. Help is often available to those who seek it.

There are many factors contributing to Florida's nation leading delinquency rates. They include a weak job market, weak economic recovery, and a major drop in home prices. Consequently, Florida's real estate market remains unsettled in large part due to the continued foreclosure crises.

Continue reading "Many of the Problems Associated with the Handling of Foreclosures Comes to Light During Recent Congressional Hearings Investigating Foreclosures" »

"Robo-signing" has become a popular term in the ongoing foreclosure crises, especially in light of the investigation launched by Florida's Attorney General is undertaking at many of the State's foreclosure mills. Often, documents at these firms were being notarized with missing signatures and with the wrong dates.

Plenty of mortgage assignments have surfaced which indicate that these documents have been fraudulently notarized. A mortgage assignment is a document which helps prove a lender has the right to repossess a property. This documentation is of the utmost importance because many mortgages were securitized, sold, and transferred many times over before the recent mortgage crisis. Without this document, a lender will have to spend more money and time proving that it is the legitimate owner of a mortgage.

If you feel as though you have been victimized by fraud, don't despair. Our lawyers will carefully evaluate the facts and legal issues in your case. If we believe that you are a fraud victim, we will aggressively represent you in your case while fighting for your rights and seeking justice in the legal system. If you are a victim of fraud, we will use our legal experience to stand up for your rights. We want to help you keep your home.

One of the foreclosure mills which is currently being investigated is the Law Offices of David J. Stern, P.A. Stern claims that the errors in these documents are isolated incidents and simply mistakes.

The Herald-Tribune, however, took a look at some of these documents which are public record in Sarasota and Manatee Counties. Their investigation seems to indicate that these alleged errors were purposeful and conducted in a systematic fashion.

Here is some of what they have found:

(1) At least 60 homeowners have lost property based on improper mortgage assignments;
(2) 1 in 10 mortgage assignments filed by Stern's office in Sarasota County have mistakes that violate state law, and
(3) 1 in 3 have either legal violations or other irregularities which call into question their authenticity.

Despite these widespread examples of fraudulent documents, Courts have been slow to stop or reverse foreclosures based on questionable documents. Although this is mostly attributed to the fact that judges must maintain neutrality and allow borrowers to defend themselves, some judges have taken a stand. For instance, two judges out of Marion and Pasco Counties have dismissed cases where Stern's firm misdated mortgage assignments. One of the judges called the filing a "fraud intentionally perpetrated upon the court" and said the lender could never try to foreclose on the homeowner again.

Unfortunately, we may be dealing with these fraudulent documents for years to come. A healthy real estate market depends on the legal transfer of property. Accordingly, there could be many title issues and someone who bought a home from a bank that used questionable paperwork might have trouble selling the property. Some experts "expect a flood of legal challenges based on inaccurate documents." This could lead to previous homeowners suing to get their homes back.

Continue reading "Lawlessness Running Rampant in Florida's Court-run Foreclosure Process" »