In recent weeks many banks have dismissed hundreds of foreclosure lawsuits in Southwest Florida. They are doing this instead of facing lenders at trial.
However, what should we understand this to mean? Does it meant banks are just taking a break before refiling with stronger evidence? Or, does it mean that they are giving up for good?
The foreclosure defense bar has long accused foreclosure firms of never actually reading lawsuits that were filed. Also, many mortgages which ended up being securitized were never actually legally transferred by entities such as MERS leading to significant problems in proving ownership.
The Clerk of Court for Lee County believes that the banks will come back and refile. However, this will certainly be costly because of the large filing fees incurred in these cases. For example, in order to file suit against a homeowner living in a $250,000 home, a bank would have to pay $1,900.00 in filing fees. The Clerk of Court is currently unable to estimate how many cases have actually been dismissed.
This past Tuesday alone, banks filed eight voluntary dismissals. An attorney based in Southwest Florida has reported that he saw 50 consecutive foreclosure suits voluntarily dismissed.
The banks may not be able to re-litigate many of these files because a lot of mortgages were bundled in mortgage-backed securities. Many mistakes were made in this process, which makes it extremely difficult for a bank to prove ownership of a mortgage. Nonetheless, there are still a small amount of cases where the bank is still the original holder of the mortgage.
The Jacksonville area is also seeing the same activity. Its believed the dismissals may be caused by a significant Massachusetts Supreme Court ruling which invalidated two foreclosures because a bank couldn’t prove ownership of a mortgage after it had been improperly placed into a mortgage-backed trust.
This creates opportunities for many struggling homeowners to potentially get back on their feet, or otherwise chart a course of action that is best for them. 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.
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