Reboot Your Life: Tampa Student Loan and Bankruptcy Attorney Blog
The new foreclosure bill that went into effect in Florida July 1, 2013 will be a trap for the unwary once the mortgage companies get their cases together and start to file foreclosure lawsuits under the new law. Thy’ve started trickling in, but not enough yet to gain any real publicity on the new procedures.
I’m speaking mostly of the new order to cause procedures. Basically, homeowners who send in their own responses without meeting specific criteria of presenting verified defenses will be caught off guard by the Judge granting final judgment at the first hearing within 60 days of service. And a sale date scheduled 30 days later. For a Florida populace used to months or years going by with no activity, having a sale date in 90 days or less will be a shock.
And once a final judgment is entered at the first hearing, it is very difficult if not impossible to try to get that set aside.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s position is that they will not agree to a principal reduction in a mortgage modification. So our Florida foreclosure defense and bankruptcy clients are out of luck when their home is worth a lot less than the balance owed. This is their position even after a homeowner has filed bankrutpcy and is no longer personally liable for the underlying debt.
Traditionally in Florida, doing a short sale rather than allowing a foreclosure sale to occur is considered much better for your credit. Not so much difference in credit score per se, but mostly for future governmental financing when it is time to buy a home again.
Bank of America simply cannot get it right. Our Tampa, Florida law firm sees violations regularly whether it involves foreclosure or bankruptcy. Of particular note these violations are all one way and they put money in BofA’s pocket. If they were truly errors, wouldn’t they immediately be corrected once pointed out and wouldn’t the errors go both ways? 
Another tool to help Florida homeowners keep their home and avoid foreclosure will be available this summer.
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The late night fiscal cliff tenative workout included a proposed extension of the Mortgage Debt Relief Forgiveness Act for one more year to include 2013! Floridians seeking to short sale their home but weren’t able to get it done prior to the end of 2012 can breathe a sigh of relief. It’ll take a few days, but provided the House approves the Senate’s Bill, it will be full speed ahead for short sales for another year.
We are still seeing significant principal reductions for some of our very lucky clients, mostly from Bank of America and Ocwen. 
In Florida, typically someone who is sued is served with the lawsuit and given 20 or sometimes 30 days to file a response. If the lawsuit was filed in small claims court, you are given a date to appear at a pretrial conference instead of filing a written response.
In a strong opinion favoring Florida homeowners, the Eleventh Circuit slammed the door in the face of debt collectors and mortgage servicers in foreclosure cases making it abundantly clear that calling homeowners multiple times in one day after they have hired an attorney to represent them, using abusive and offensive language and lying about foreclosure sale dates and other unscrupulous behavior would no longer be tolerated. In