Elusive principal reductions are hard to come by, but we recently scored a very big win on behalf of one of our prior foreclosure clients turned Chapter 13 client. This week Ocwen agreed to a reduction in principal from $130,000 to $49,000 at 2.625% interest. This family’s principal and interest…
A lot of our clients in the Tampa Bay area have questions regarding how exactly their credit score will be impacted by a short sale, foreclosure, or a bankruptcy. A recent article by FICO, Banking Analytics Blog, researched these very questions. The FICO study focused on three sample consumers with…
In Florida, our Tampa Bay area homeowners are faced with a dilemma whether to claim the homestead exemption for their underwater homes. Historically, Florida homeowners have been allowed to keep or exempt $1,000 of personal property in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy. This isn’t much, and many homeowners had to pay…
In a new incentive program beginning in late 2010, Chase is purportly offering $10,000 to $20,000 to homeowners who take the effort to short sale their property. The offer includes a waiver of any deficiency balance. But it only applies to loans actually owned by Chase, not just serviced by…
We have noticed here in the Tampa Bay, Florida legal community that written deficiency waivers of the unpaid loan balances for first mortgages are getting harder to come by. A recent St. Petersburg, Florida Times article focuses in on the potential landmine: “People have no idea of all the trouble…
Sheila Blair, FDIC chairman, announced Friday a new proposal to resolve the foreclosure fraud issues that have arisen, particularly in Florida, a judicial foreclosure state. It is being presented as a settlement of the fraudulent issues by the five major mortgage servicers. The nation-wide “cash for keys” program would provide…
Currently, the Bankruptcy Code does not allow a bankruptcy court to modify a bankruptcy debtor’s first mortgage on his or her primary home. It does not prevent a mortgage company from modifying a loan if it voluntary agrees, but nothing allows the bankruptcy judge the power to force a principal…
Finally, a win in the Florida Supreme Court for bankruptcy debtors. In February, the Osbourne v. Dumoulin decision puts to rest an issue in Florida where judges disagreed on how much personal property a debtor could keep when filing bankruptcy. Generally a debtor using Florida state exemptions can keep $1,000…
On March 9, 2011, Bank of America Corp. (BAC) announced it is segregating its good and bad mortgages into two separate entities. After swallowing Countrywide, Bank of America is America’s biggest lender with 13.9 million mortgages. Often referred to as being too big to fail, frankly it is also too…
The Middle District of Florida, Tampa Division, upheld Wells Fargo’s practice of freezing bank accounts of Chapter 7 bankruptcy debtors. In re Young, 439 B.R. 211 (Bankr. M.D. Fla. 2010). In ruling that the administrative freeze was not a violation of the stay, the Court denied sanctions against Wells Fargo.…