Tonight at 10:00 p.m. the lead story on Channel 13 inTampa is about the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys’ survey that came out today warning of an emerging student loan debt bomb. News Reporter Jeremy Campbell interviewed me about this study and the future impact of student loan debt.…
Bloomberg today reports that banks are offering as much as $35,000 to delinquent homeowners to sell their home in a short sale. In doing so, the banks avoid the costly foreclosure process especially when their loan documents are questionable and perhaps fraudulently prepared. I imagine we will be seeing a…
Due to the particularly bad housing market in Florida, more of our bankruptcy debtors are finding themselves exceeding the debt caps in a Chapter 13 when they have severely underwater homes. When this happens, a debtor becomes ineligible for Chapter 13 relief and is required to file a more expensive…
Why aren’t we seeing any legislation or rules addressing servicers’ inability and unwillingness to modify loans even when the modification is clearly in the best interest of the investor-owner of the mortgage? Florida foreclosure defense and bankruptcy attorneys see the conflict of interest daily between mortgage servicers and their own…
I speak with many clients in the Tampa Bay, Florida area who have heard of cancelled debt and 1099-C forms but they do not really understand the impact of the taxable events that occur in a short sale. An understanding of how a 1099C works in a short sale is…
Our Florida clients have recently been asking me if there is a new law allowing them to reduce their mortgage balance to the value of their home. This is not accurate and I am not sure where this is coming from. My guess it may be from somewhat misleading and…
Mortgage modifications are often determined by whether the owner (not servicer) is either a participant in HAMP or a recipient of TARP bailout funds. Here’s how to check on your lenders: First, use our Resource page on our website to look up who likely owns your loan by doing a…
Follow this link for a one page concise description of the Principal Paydown Plan we’ve written about in the past (to allow mortgage payments made during a Chapter 13 bankruptcy to go directly to principal thereby reducing the underwater portion of your mortgage). The idea is to encourage homeowners to…
The Bankruptcy Court for the Middle District of Florida, Tampa Division, has recently implemented a mediation program for homeowners wishing to modify their first mortgages. The Orlando Division has had a similar program in place for a year or more and reports a success rate of 70%, unlike the state…
I’ve written previously about the Florida Legislature not renewing the designated funding for residential mortgage foreclosure cases. On July 1, 2011, most counties were forced to curtail or even shut down entire divisions when the money ran out. In response, the Tampa judges in Hillsborough County, Florida put into place…