Miami foreclosure defense attorney Archives - Page 6 of 20

Mortgage Delinquency Rates Decline Nationally, But Florida Shows Increase Due to Irma

Posted on August 7, 2018by Admin

Mortgage delinquency rates have declined on a national level, as reported by the monthly Loan Performance Insights Report published by CoreLogic. However, despite the national decrease, Florida residents have seen an increase, which is attributed mostly to Hurricane Irma and the 2017 hurricane season.

According to CoreLogic’s report, as of April 2018, 4.2 percent of mortgages nationwide are in some stage of delinquency. A delinquency means that the mortgage is 30 days or more past due and includes those mortgages that are already in foreclosure. This number shows a 0.6 percentage point decrease in the overall delinquency rate as compared in April 2017. At that time, the percentage was at 4.8 percent.

The report also provided information on the foreclosure inventory rate, which measures the share of mortgages that are in some stage of the process of foreclosure. The rate as of April 2018 was at 0.6 percent, which is down 0.1 percentage points from where it was in April 2017. The foreclosure inventory rate has been steady at the rate of 0.6 percent, which is the lowest rate that has been reported since June 2007, when the rate was last reported at 0.6 percent. The April 2018 rate is the lowest that it has been in the past 11 years.

The purpose of measuring delinquency rates during the early stage of the process helps in analyzing the health of the mortgage market. CoreLogic’s report looks at all stages of mortgage delinquency and transition rates, including the percentage of mortgages that are reported as moving from one stage of delinquency to the next step in the process.

Early stage delinquency occurs when a mortgage payment is 30 days to 59 days past due. This early-stage delinquency was reported at being at 2.2 percent in April 2017 and was reported at 1.8 percent in April 2018. The figures in the early-stage delinquency category can be volatile, so it is for this reason that CoreLogic looks at the transition rates, meaning the number of mortgages that transition to the next stage. The transition rates for mortgages reported in the early-stage to later stage went down from 1.2 percent in April 2017 to 0.8 percent in April 2018. To provide some perspective, at the start of the financial crisis the early-stage delinquency transition rate was at 1.2 percent in January 2007 and 2 percent in November 2008.

The percentage of mortgages at the 60 to 89 days past due remained the same during this time. The mortgages that were reported in the serious delinquency stage at more than 90 days past due were down from 2.0 percent in April 2017 to 1.9 percent in April 2018. It should be noted that this is the lowest the serious delinquency rate has been since 2007 when it was reported at 1.6 percent.

However, despite these decreasing numbers, two states were reported as showing significant gains in the serious delinquency stage. These two states, Florida and Texas, were showing serious negative effects from the 2017 hurricane season. Of the two states, Florida has the most densely populated areas and the longest coastal area. This long coast leads to more exposure to storm surge flooding, putting almost 2.7 million homes at risk during hurricane season. After Florida, Louisiana is second to Florida with 817,000 homes in the “at-risk” area. Texas is right behind in third with 543,000 at-risk homes. Of these three states, Florida and Texas are the ones currently still struggling following Hurricanes Irma and Harvey which hit in 2017. Both states are finding themselves with higher mortgage default rates due to the natural disasters that have hit those states. The percent of mortgages that are in the serious delinquency category with loans that are 90 days past due are doubled than what they were reported in the previous year. In Puerto Rico, another area hit by hurricanes in 2017, the foreclosure rate or 90-day delinquency rate has quadrupled.

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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 McMaken website at www.miamibankruptcy.com.

Lawmakers Approve Extending Foreclosure Mediation Law

Posted on July 6, 2018by Admin

Rhode Island lawmakers recently approved a bill that will extend an expiring foreclosure mediation law. The bill was approved last weekend as the General Assembly ended its session and is making its way to the governor for signature.

This law has been in place since 2013 and requires Rhode Island Mortgage lenders to participate in mediation with homeowners whose mortgages are in default and are facing foreclosure. The hope of this law was to prevent the resulting onslaught of foreclosures. The law is set to expire on July 1, 2018. This new extension moves the law’s sunset provision to July 1, 2013.

The Rhode Island Attorney General, Peter Kilmartin, has declared this extension “good public policy,” in that it was meant to save homeowners from losing their homes. Since the law was put into place in 2013, it is estimated that approximately 1,000 homeowners have sought foreclosure mediation.

The mediation program is administered through RIHousing. According to the program administrator, more than 70 percent of the homeowners who have gone through the mediation program have reached an agreement with the mortgage provider and were able to stay in their homes.

Florida had a similar mandatory mediation program that was enacted in 2009. The state ended its mandatory foreclosure mediation program in December 2011. The program required all residential foreclosure cases involving homestead property in Florida to undergo mediation, through an administrative order that was issued by the Florida Supreme Court. Upon a later Florida Supreme Court review, it was reported that the program was not having as much success as has been reported in Rhode Island. A panel review was started to determine whether the program should be continued, modified or eliminated. It was after that review that the Florida Supreme Court determined that the program should then be eliminated, and it ended at the end of 2011.

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 McMaken website at www.miamibankruptcy.com.

Related Resources:

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/rhode-island/articles/2018-06-25/lawmakers-approve-extending-foreclosure-mediation-law

http://www.flcourts.org/resources-and-services/alternative-dispute-resolution/mediation.stml

http://www.wsh-law.com/files/In_re_Managed_Mediation.pdf

Debt Relief, Foreclosures, Timothy Kingcade Posts

New Bill Seeks to Enhance Foreclosure Protections

Posted on June 20, 2018by Admin

The Mortgage Servicing Fairness Act of 2018, introduced by Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), aims to protect homeowners against foreclosure and increase the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s (FHFA) oversight of mortgage servicers that conduct business with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Both of these agencies own or guarantee nearly 60 percent of all mortgage loans.

Waters, who is a ranking member of the House Committee on Financial Services, introduced the bill on Monday and said the new legislation will strengthen FHFA oversight of servicers who conduct business with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The new legislation will require:

Documentation of servicer behavior;
FHFA evaluation of the services provided to borrowers; and
Will penalize servicer failure to meet minimum standards established by the FHFA.

The bill is supported by the National Consumer Law Center and the National Fair Housing Alliance.

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Bankruptcy Law, Credit, Debt Relief, Foreclosures, Timothy Kingcade Posts

An Inside Look at 83 Million Eviction Records, and what Housing has come to in America

Posted on April 11, 2018by Admin

A recent article in the New York Times provided an in depth look at the eviction crisis occurring in America. Nearly one million American households received eviction judgments in 2016 in new data spanning dozens of states. Two years prior, sociologist Matthew Desmond turned the topic of eviction into a national one with his book, ‘Evicted,’ which chronicled how poor families who lost their homes in Milwaukee sank even further into poverty. This problem is not just in Milwaukee, eviction judgment rates for renting households is widespread.

Desmond’s team found records for nearly 900,000 eviction judgments in 2016. Landlords were given the legal right to remove at least one in 50 renter households in the communities covered by this data. And one in five renter households in Richmond, Va., which has one of the highest eviction rates, were threatened with eviction in 2016. Their landlords began legal proceedings, even if those cases did not end with a lasting mark on a tenant’s record.

Most of those evicted never made it to the courtroom. Some did not appear because their problem seemed hopeless; others did not show because they had no legal representation. The median amount owed was $686. These cases, sometimes brought in bulk by property managers are settled in minutes when defendants are not present.

Eviction is not just one problem; it often spirals into a number of problems. Medicaid benefits and food stamps are forfeited by families who often need them the most after losing the permanent addresses where the renewal notices are sent.

To make matters worse, states like Virginia, that have some of the highest rates of eviction lack certain tenant rights available in other states. In areas like Richmond, Va., many poor African-Americans live in low quality housing projects with no means of escaping it. Many times these individuals are just a car repair or hospital visit away from missing a rent payment.

The process of what happens after the eviction is not any better. The current court process functions as an arduous rent-collection system, one that attaches attorney fees and court costs to rent checks, and one that saddles even tenants who do not lose their homes with lasting eviction marks on their credit reports. It oftentimes takes years for families to stabilize after this.

Another downside, the underprivileged tenants are not ensured access to legal aid or protected from steep rent increases, as in some cities and they have no rights to deduct their own repair costs from the rent. The median amount owed on a public housing eviction was $328, according to Desmond’s data. The public housing authority, spends on average 50 days turning over the apartments, costing the agency more in lost rent than the unpaid rent cases are often worth.

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Debt Relief, Foreclosures, Timothy Kingcade Posts

Clarifying Contested Foreclosures After Bankruptcy – Florida Governor Rick Scott Signs off on New Law

Posted on April 9, 2018by Admin

When going through the bankruptcy process, filers must declare their intentions toward any property securing their debt, which can include their home. This can involve surrendering the property to the lender or retaining it and making payments to reduce the debt. If you agree to surrender the property in order to clear the mortgage debt, can you contest the foreclosure to try and delay the process while remaining in the home?

Senate Bill 220, a new law addressing the property rights of defendants pertaining to bankruptcy and foreclosure proceedings, recently signed by Florida Governor Rick Scott says no. The bill is consistent with the ruling in the Florida Middle District Case In re Metzler, a 2015 case that ruled debtors cannot raise defenses once a subject property has been surrendered in bankruptcy. However, the law does allow defenses to be made based on the conduct of the lender after surrendering the property.

Florida has one of the most generous homestead exemptions in the country. To use Florida’s bankruptcy exemptions, you must have resided in Florida for at least 730 days before filing your bankruptcy petition. To claim the full value of the homestead exemption in Florida, you must have owned the property for at least 1,215 days before the bankruptcy filing.

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Foreclosures, Timothy Kingcade Posts

Debt Collection Law Firms Must Follow FDCPA in Foreclosure Cases

Posted on March 7, 2018by Admin

A federal judge has ruled that debt collection law firms are now subject to the rules of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act in mortgage foreclosure cases. The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) was designed to help prevent creditor abuse and harassment.

U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Savage of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania denied a motion by law firm Phelan Hallinan Diamond & Jones seeking to dismiss plaintiffs Tina Collins and Glendale Walker’s FDCPA claim, which alleged the firm failed to cease all collection activity before verifying the debt after the plaintiffs first disputed it.

According to the judge’s opinion, the plaintiffs alleged that the foreclosure complaint and Phelan Hallinan’s response to their notice of dispute “contained false and misleading representations thru [sic] deceptive means in an attempt to collect a debt.’” In addition, Collins and Walker claimed that the firm threatened to proceed with the foreclosure action without first verifying the debt.

The plaintiffs also claimed that the firm falsely represented itself as counsel to Wells Fargo, leading Collins and Walker to believe that Phelan Hallinan was a part of Wells Fargo’s legal department.

“Foreclosure, although legal in nature, is ‘activity undertaken for the general purpose of inducing payment,’” Savage said. “A debt collector cannot avoid FDCPA liability simply by proceeding in rem rather than in personam. Therefore, for purposes of this action, Phelan was acting as a debt collector and engaged in debt collection activity when it communicated with the plaintiffs and filed the foreclosure action.”

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Foreclosures, Timothy Kingcade Posts

Florida Ranks in the Top 10 for Highest Foreclosure Rates

Posted on February 6, 2018by Admin

Even with economic improvement, Florida ranked among the top 10 states with the highest foreclosure rates in 2017, despite the number of foreclosures dropping by 45% compared to 2016. Last year in Florida there were 24,215 foreclosure proceedings filed, compared to 43,772 in 2016, according to ATTOM Data.

Here are the states with the highest foreclosure rates in 2017:

New Jersey (1.61 percent of housing units with a foreclosure filing);
Delaware (1.13 percent);
Maryland (0.95 percent);
Illinois (0.86 percent);
Connecticut (0.78 percent);
Florida (0.72 percent);
South Carolina (0.70 percent);
Ohio (0.70 percent);
Nevada (0.67 percent);
New Mexico (0.63 percent).

Florida ranked among the top states with the highest number of legacy foreclosures on loans originated between 2004 and 2008. Miami-Dade County ranked among the highest number of legacy foreclosures in the nation. The top counties were: Nassau County (Long Island), New York (6,782); Cook County (Chicago), Illinois (5,478); Kings County (Brooklyn), New York (4,677); Miami-Dade County, Florida (3,804); and Suffolk County (Long Island), New York (3,417). In the fourth quarter of 2017, Florida also ranked near the top of all states with the longest average time to foreclose, on average 1,493 days.

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Foreclosures, Timothy Kingcade Posts

Millions Left Unspent after State Ends Federal Foreclosure Aid

Posted on February 1, 2018by Admin

This week Florida closed its three largest Hardest Hit federal housing-aid programs, years early- leaving $88 million unspent. This closes three opportunities for struggling homeowners, which includes: mortgage help for the unemployed and underemployed, aid on delinquent home loans and mortgage principal reduction.

Florida’s Hardest Hit program helped only about half the number of the approximately 100,000 Floridians who applied since it launched in 2010. The program was troubled from the start, with “technical issues” such as rolling out with crashed computers and an eight-month delay to get approved.

Compared with 17 other states that were part of the program, Florida had the lowest admission rate, even though Florida had one of the most severe home-price corrections in the nation, according to a 2015 federal report. The delayed disbursement of money from the program has not gone unnoticed and has drawn criticism.

“It’s criminal,” said one Florida resident, who tried unsuccessfully to apply for the funds. “I had all my ducks in a row but could not get through on the phone. I ended up standing in their lines, but there was no follow-up. It was a complete waste of time.”

Another Florida applicant said, “They put me through the ringer. They were so rude, so ugly. I tried so many times. I got turned down so many times. It was just totally ridiculous.”

U.S. Rep. Darren Soto, D-Orlando, said the money approved during the Obama administration could have been deployed quickly to help speed up Florida’s recovery from the crash and save families from foreclosure.

“Unfortunately, Governor Scott and Republican legislators dragged their feet for years in getting the FHFC [Florida Housing Finance Corporation] to deploy significant funds and various assistance programs, undermining the effort and stifling its effectiveness,” Soto said. Though the state has moved toward recovery, it remains one of the few yet to rebound fully, according to data from the National Association of Realtors.

Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Florida, has consistently called for investigations into Florida’s oversight of the federal spending program.

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Foreclosures, Timothy Kingcade Posts

Foreclosure Filings Drop Sharply in South Florida

Posted on January 22, 2018by Admin

During the 2007-2009 recession, South Florida was at the top of the list for most foreclosures. However, in 2017 South Florida ranked No. 21 for the highest foreclosure rate among the nation’s metro areas. Foreclosure filings dropped 37.9 percent in South Florida during 2017, according to Attom Data Solutions.

There were 20,019 properties with foreclosure filings in South Florida during 2017, or one in every 124 houses. The rate was higher in Miami-Dade County at one in 110 houses, followed by Broward County at one in 127 houses, and Palm Beach County at one in 149 houses.

Nationally, foreclosures were down 27 percent in 2017 and were at the lowest level since 2005, according to Attom. The metro regions with the highest foreclosure rates in 2017 were Atlantic City, New Jersey; Trenton, New Jersey; Philadelphia; Fayetteville, North Carolina; and Rockford, Illinois.

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