Several hundred to possibly thousands of Florida homeowners will have an opportunity to own their house free of charge as a result of a Florida law. The statute is common contract law that says a person has five years to sue on a debt, with the right to collect that money expiring at the end of the time period. The most common scenario of how this occurs is: The bank filed the initial foreclosure, then dismissed it for whatever reason and failed to refile during the five-year period. It is possible that cases currently in the system, and older than five years, could get dismissed and then will not be refiled because the allotted time has run out.
In Palm Beach County, 30,100 foreclosures were filed in 2008. There are about 1,550 still in the system, which are five years old or older.
But it is not just age that determines whether the statute of limitations will grant victims of foreclosure a free house. It is also critical to know when the clock started ticking. Most attorneys agree that it is at the time of “acceleration” — when the bank decides after a series of missed payments that the entire loan amount is due. That typically happens when the foreclosure is filed with the court.
Homeowners cannot just assume they will be protected by the statute. If a lender files after the deadline passes, and the borrower does not respond and defend the case, the bank could win despite missing the deadline. Several unprecedented events during Florida’s housing crisis have increased the chances that borrowers will benefit from the five-year statute of limitations on foreclosures. Some of these events included the hundreds of thousands of foreclosure documents filed with Florida’s courts that were either flawed or fraudulent along with sloppy paperwork signed by countless numbers of robosigners.
In a recent South Florida case, a ‘legal misstep’ was to blame for a foreclosure victim being awarded her multi-million dollar Boca Raton waterfront mansion, which had been in foreclosure since 2008. The bank’s attorneys were forced to voluntarily dismiss the case that went to trial on July 25, 2013.
Choosing the right attorney can make the difference between whether or not you can keep your home. A well-qualified Miami foreclosure defense attorney will not only help you keep your home, but they will be able to negotiate a loan that has payments you can afford. Miami foreclosure defense attorney Timothy Kingcade has helped many facing foreclosure alleviate their stress by letting them stay in their homes for at least another year, allowing them to re-organize their lives. If you have any questions on the topic of foreclosure please feel free to contact me at (305) 285-9100. You can also find useful consumer information on the website, www.miamibankruptcy.com.
