Miami foreclosure defense attorney Archives - Page 12 of 20

Florida Attorney General Filed Court Action to Stop Foreclosure Fraud

Posted on August 22, 2016by Admin

A court action has been filed to stop foreclosure fraud. Attorney General Pam Bondi filed the action to stop a group of non-lawyers from operating an illegitimate foreclosure defense and loan modification law firm.

“Florida homeowners facing the stress of foreclosure should not have to worry about scammers posing as lawyers and making false promises of relief to get what little money the homeowners may have. Thanks to the great work and dedication of my Consumer Protection Division, we will continue to fight foreclosure rescue fraud and protect homeowners,” said Attorney General Bondi.

The attorney general’s office alleges three men- Adam Forman, Joseph Hilton (a.k.a – Joseph Starr), and Victor Spagnuolo operated eight firms that were used to scam homeowners into paying large upfront fees for legal services. Another problem, not one of them was an attorney.

The named firms are Asset Protection Law Firm, Heritage Law Group, Liberty Law Group, Consumer Legal Resources, Consumer Legal Advocates, Legal Referral Services, Galler Lehman Law and Selective Housing Solutions.

According to the office, the men also face possible criminal charges for the unlicensed practice of law from the Coral Springs Police Department, Boca Raton Police Department, the Broward County State Attorney’s Office and the United States Secret Service.

There were 37 complaints received from consumers about the defendants’ “deceptive and unfair practices.” Some of the allegations included misleading representations regarding the law firms’ expert legal services, charging unlawful up-front fees prior to the services being completed, failing to protect the consumers’ homes from foreclosure and failing to obtain loan modifications as promised.

Full restitution is being demanded for consumers who have been affected by the crime. The complaint also seeks an injunction that will prevent the defendants from engaging in future loan modification, foreclosure defense and legal services.

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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 Kingcade & Garcia website at www.miamibankruptcy.com.

Debt Relief, Foreclosures, Timothy Kingcade Posts

Millions of Americans are making a Come Back after the Housing Crisis

Posted on July 8, 2016by Admin

Millions of Americans who lost their homes to foreclosure during the housing crisis are now getting a second chance at home ownership. Fortunately for our nation’s economy, time heals credit reports. The improvement in credit scores means more Americans will have the ability and means to once again apply for loans, and not just home loans.

“Improving credit scores might entice households to start borrowing more in general,” said Ralph McLaughlin, chief economist at real estate search engine Trulia.

That, combined with an improved rate of employment and bigger increases in pay, could give consumer spending, which accounts for almost 70 percent of the U.S. economy, an increase over the next couple of years.

The number of consumers with a new foreclosure added to their credit reports peaked at about 566,000 in the second quarter of 2009, according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

The home ownership rate for consumers who are 35 to 44 years old, which includes members of the generation most hurt by the housing crisis, has risen for two straight quarters on a year-over-year basis, U.S. Census data show. That is the first time this has happened in two years and another sign some of the previously foreclosed-upon buyers are returning to the market.

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Debt Relief, Foreclosures, Timothy Kingcade Posts

RealtyTrac Reports Foreclosure Activity “Flat” in May

Posted on June 24, 2016by Admin

Foreclosure filings, which include default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions were reported on 100,841 properties in May, a number virtually unchanged when compared to April and a decrease of 21% from a year ago. RealtyTrac’s U.S. Foreclosure Market Report reveals May was the eighth consecutive month with a “year-over-year” decrease.

Florida, New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware and Nevada were the states with the highest number of foreclosure filings for the month.

A total of 42,279 properties started the foreclosure process in May, down 3% from the previous month and down 18% from the previous year, according to RealtyTrac’s report. It was the 11th consecutive month with a year-over-year decrease.

A total of 34,014 bank repossessions were completed in May, up 1% from the previous month but still down 24% from a year ago. It was the third consecutive month with a year-over-year decrease in bank repossessions.

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Foreclosures, Timothy Kingcade Posts

Zombie Foreclosures: What Homeowners Need to Know

Posted on June 9, 2016by Admin

If you are facing foreclosure, it’s a good idea to not move out of your home too quickly- you could be haunted by what’s called a “zombie foreclosure.” Some homeowners quickly pack up and leave after receiving a foreclosure notice because they assume the bank will take over the property immediately. However, in some cases, the bank does not always move so fast. While the bank is finishing up the foreclosure process, the home can sit vacant for months while still in the homeowner’s name.

A zombie foreclosure can lead to devastating consequences for the homeowner. Oftentimes, these occur in low-income areas where the lender is not too anxious to assume the responsibility and upkeep of the property, along with paying the taxes. If squatters occupy the property or it falls into severe disrepair, the bank may ultimately wash its hands of the property.

Other times, the property may have been part of the robo-signing scandal and the foreclosure cannot be completed, the sale was never held, the paperwork was lost, or the title was never officially transferred into the new owner’s name. All of these circumstances result in the title remaining in the foreclosed homeowner’s name.

The states with the highest number of zombie properties include Florida, Illinois, New York and New Jersey, according to RealtyTrac. Zombie foreclosures can spell disaster for homeowners. Since the title is never transferred out of the foreclosed homeowner’s name, they are on the hook for certain debts and expenses like property taxes, HOA dues and maintenance fees for upkeep of the property. These debts can go unpaid for years, without the homeowner even knowing they have a legal obligation to pay them, further damaging their credit.

If you leave your property and the title is never transferred out of your name, the following things can happen (among others):

The tax collector can come and collect from you back property taxes;
The HOA may file a lawsuit to recover unpaid dues;
You can incur fines for not complying with housing codes and ordinances;
You can incur bills for yard maintenance, repairs, trash and graffiti removal, etc.

So how can homeowners avoid a zombie foreclosure? Remain in your home for as long as possible during a foreclosure. You will be less likely to become a victim of a zombie foreclosure if you stay through the entire foreclosure process and wait for an official notice to vacate before moving out. Confirm the title has been transferred out of your name. You can do this by going to the county recorder’s office where the property is located to make sure a new deed has been recorded. You can also check your local county recorder’s website. It is important to do this because in some cases the bank is not legally required to inform you that the foreclosure has stopped.

Related Resources:

http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/zombie-foreclosures.html

Debt Relief, Foreclosures, Timothy Kingcade Posts

How to Get a Second Chance at Home Ownership after Foreclosure

Posted on May 30, 2016by Admin

More than 9.2 million Americans lost their homes to foreclosure between 2006 and 2014, according to the National Association of Realtors. For many of those individuals, enough time has passed that they may once again qualify for another mortgage.

How long you have to wait varies by the program. Generally, you will need to wait seven years after a foreclosure or short sale to qualify for a conventional mortgage, three years to get a Federal Housing Administration or U.S. Department of Agriculture loan and two years to get a loan backed by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

But those time periods can be shortened to as little as one year for a VA or FHA loan and three years for a conventional loan, if borrowers can demonstrate their defaults were the result of a significant hardship from which they have now recovered.

Here are five tips to remember when seeking a mortgage after a foreclosure or short sale:

Your lender will see a different credit report. The report lenders pull when you apply for a mortgage is not the same report you receive from servicers that provide credit reports to consumers. Consumers are often provided with a “stepped-down version.” The credit score is not the end all, be all. There are other factors that can potentially slow the loan. You can figure at least 620 is needed for a conventional mortgage and 580 is necessary for an FHA loan.

On-time payments are important. Re-establishing your credit is one of the most important qualifiers for getting a mortgage after a foreclosure or short sale. Lenders want to do everything they can to avoid lending to someone who will default, again- so they look closely at your bill payment history since the foreclosure.

You will need to demonstrate job stability. If you have a traditional job for which you receive a W-2 form, your lender will verify your income with your employer. People who work several part-time jobs or are self-employed, will face additional scrutiny and will have to demonstrate their income with several years of tax returns and additional documentation.

You will need to document everything. Since the housing crisis, the documentation required for mortgages has increased significantly. Anything a customer puts on the mortgage application will be verified, particularly financial information.

Not all lenders are the same. Each lender has different requirements. There is no one size fits all when it comes to mortgage lender requirements. The basic guidelines are set by FHA, VA, USDA, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, but individual lenders and even individual underwriters may interpret these in different ways.

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Foreclosures, Timothy Kingcade Posts

Wells Fargo Pays $70 Million Penalty for Foreclosure Mistakes

Posted on May 27, 2016by Admin

Wells Fargo & Co. has agreed to pay a $70 million penalty ending the bank’s five-year fight to settle claims over foreclosure mistakes following the 2008 financial crisis.

This week, U.S. regulators announced the fine as part of an agreement that also frees the nation’s biggest mortgage lender from loan-servicing restrictions imposed last year. Wells Fargo has been accused of failing to move fast enough to fix deficiencies outlined in a series of settlements over improper activity including so-called robo-signing of foreclosure documents. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), also identified more recent problems, including faulty payment-change notices filed in bankruptcy courts and faulty escrow calculations.

The bank neither admitted nor denied wrongdoing in the OCC agreement.

Five years ago, Wells Fargo and most of the other largest U.S. mortgage servicers agreed to resolve allegations that they mishandled loan papers and fraudulently endorsed legal papers used in foreclosures after the crisis. Regulators amended that accord in 2013 after deciding the original plan failed to help affected borrowers.

A year ago, the OCC imposed new restrictions on Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase & Co. and four other companies, blocking them from buying mortgage-servicing rights because they had not yet met the demands of the foreclosure settlement.

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Bankruptcy Law, Debt Relief, Timothy Kingcade Posts

Reverse Mortgage will likely be modified

Posted on May 12, 2016by Admin

A reverse mortgage payable upon the pre-petition death of the borrower has been modifiable under section 1322(c). Section 1322(c) provides an exception to the anti-modification provision of section 1322(b) in the case of a debt secured by the debtor’s residence when the final payment comes due during the life of the chapter 13 plan.

In re Michaud, No. 14-23406 (Bankr. S.D. Fla. March 29, 2016), Julie Lisana Michaud sought to strip down the reverse mortgagee’s (James B. Nutter & Company) interest in her principal residence to its value at the time of her chapter 13 petition.

The reverse mortgage agreement was entered into by Ms. Michaud’s husband who died prior to her bankruptcy filing. By the terms of the reverse mortgage, the debt became due and was owed upon the death of Mr. Michaud. The agreement further stated that the full debt “if not paid earlier, would be due and payable on May 29, 2095.”

The issue at hand is whether the final payment became due when Mr. Michaud died, as argued by Ms. Michaud, or on May 29, 2095, as argued by Nutter. In the end, the court rejected Nutter’s due date based on “common sense,” finding the 2095 due date to be meaningless as the mortgagor would certainly pass away before that date.

The court also went by the terms of the lending agreement and federal regulations. By the terms of the agreement, the death of the mortgagor accelerates the due date without regard to the date listed in the agreement. Finally, federal regulations, provide that reverse mortgages become “due and payable” when “(i) The consumer dies; (ii) The dwelling is transferred; (iii) the consumer ceases to occupy the dwelling as a principal dwelling.” 12 C.F.R. §226.33.

Nutter countered with a “slippery slope” argument that debtors could use the ruling to their advantage when the debtor has caused the acceleration by his or her own default such as by failure to maintain insurance on the property, which the court rejected.

The court granted Ms. Michaud’s motion to value for a secured claim in the amount of $45,500 plus interest, and an unsecured claim of $67,096.75.

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Debt Relief, Foreclosures

Florida can’t shake its High Foreclosure Ranking

Posted on May 10, 2016by Admin

Even though the numbers are shrinking, Florida can’t seem to shake its spot at the top of the nation for foreclosures. The state accounts for approximately 15 percent of all foreclosures nationwide. Mortgage lenders closed on 71,644 foreclosures in Florida during the 12-month period that ended in February, according to CoreLogic. That total was down by more than 41,000 foreclosures, or 37 percent, from 2015.

Florida’s foreclosure inventory (i.e. – mortgaged homes in some stage of the foreclosure process) was 2.2 percent in February, the fourth-highest in the nation. While that number is down from 3.4 percent over the year, it remains double the U.S. rate of 1.1 percent.

Nationwide, completed foreclosures have dropped by 10 percent and the foreclosure inventory has fallen by 24 percent. Statewide, 5.1 percent of all mortgages are considered seriously delinquent — at least 90 days past due — the third-highest level in the nation.

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Foreclosures, Timothy Kingcade Posts

Why more widowed homeowners are struggling to prevent foreclosure

Posted on May 5, 2016by Admin

Consumer advocates say more widows and widowers nationwide are having trouble saving their homes from foreclosure. Even though servicers will generally accept loan payments, surviving spouses who are not on the mortgage face increasing resistance when seeking loan modifications, once they have fallen behind on the mortgage payments. This is often due to the loss of their spouse’s income.

Many are being told there is nothing they can do to prevent foreclosure. Consumer advocates believe the problem dates back to practices done nearly a decade ago during the housing bubble. These include a rise in “risky” first and second mortgages, many that were taken out by older Americans who previously avoided taking on new debt- and securitization of loans, which has increasingly put servicers in control of the foreclosure process. Sometimes these servicers flat-out refuse to deal with the surviving spouse. Other times they give inaccurate information or require unnecessary documentation to prove ownership of the house, stalling a modification while the foreclosure moves forward.

Another roadblock for widowers- companies simply will not allow a modification until the surviving spouse assumes the loan, which cannot happen until the owner is current on the mortgage. This growing problem has caught the attention of federal regulators and state lawmakers. Rules are now being proposed to boost protections for surviving spouses. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is preparing regulations this summer that will assist surviving spouses and other so-called successors-in-interest.

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Foreclosures, Timothy Kingcade Posts

First Quarter Housing Market Trends

Posted on May 2, 2016by Admin

The housing market has continued to make improvement in the first quarter of the year. Home prices have increased, helping homeowners accumulate equity. Based on the first quarter trends of 6% home price gain, another $1.3 trillion in housing equity could be added to homeowners’ wealth this year. It has been a positive quarter for the housing sector, particularly for homeowners.

The spending growth for home improvement, including new home construction, rising brokerage commission income, more use of moving trucks and lawn care, and even increased consumer spending for many things arising from homeowner housing wealth accumulation are helping keep the economy afloat.

Another good sign- mortgage default rates are on the decline. The number of people late on their mortgage payment by only a month was 2.35% in the latest quarter, the lowest in at least 40 years when this data was first collected. In addition, the share of homes with new foreclosure proceedings fell to 0.36% of homes with mortgages – the lowest in over a decade.

The sense of stress is among renters. Rents have been outpacing income growth for the past four years. The strict credit requirements are holding many renters back from converting into homeowners. Another factor holding first-time home buyers back is student loan debt. That is a big reason why the homeownership rate remains at a near 50-year low, at 63.6% in the first quarter.

Among those under the age of 35, the ownership rate fell even more and was 34.2% in the latest quarter. Renter households in the meantime have been increasing upwards by an additional 9 million in the past decade while homeowner households have been reduced by a million.

The trend of more renters and fewer homeowners is occurring at a time of rising home values and housing equity gains. Many interpret it as a loss of The American Dream and attribute it to the rising wealth inequality.

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