South Florida foreclosure cases Archives

Florida Supreme Court Decision Could Cause a ‘New Wave’ of Foreclosures

Posted on November 9, 2016by Admin

In a recent decision made by the Florida Supreme Court, servicers may now file new foreclosure actions against borrowers who won foreclosure cases more than five years ago if the borrowers default again within five years of the first case’s dismissal. That means the lender can make another attempt to collect, as long as it is within the next five-year period and the borrower had started paying again and then stopped.

The case, Lewis Brooke Bartram v. U.S Bank National Association was decided in favor of the mortgage servicers as borrowers argued a five-year statute of limitations should apply.

The court’s ruling, authored by Justice Barbra Pariente, determined that when foreclosure actions are dismissed, servicers and borrowers return to their ‘pre-foreclosure’ complaint status. This allows homeowners to continue to pay back their loans in installments, rather than all at once. But it also revives the lender’s right to seek acceleration and foreclosure based on any subsequent defaults, saying:

Accordingly, the statute of limitations does not continue to run on the amount due under the note and mortgage.

This decision is expected to cause a new wave of foreclosure cases within the next year or so, basically giving the banks a ‘do-over.’ The ruling applies to tens of thousands of foreclosures in South Florida alone, those hardest hit by the Great Recession.

Florida was ranked No. 1 in the country for completed foreclosures in 2015-16, with 55,000 actions, according to real estate data tracking firm CoreLogic.

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.

Related Resources:

http://floridapolitics.com/archives/226274-supreme-court-new-wave

http://www.dsnews.com/daily-dose/11-06-2016/state-spotlight-floridas-supreme-court-ruling-win-servicers

Debt Relief, Foreclosures, Timothy Kingcade Posts

6 Percent Increase in New South Florida Foreclosure Cases

Posted on September 26, 2016by Admin

For the past six months, new foreclosure cases have increased 6 percent in South Florida. Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties had 7,354 new cases from March through August, compared with 6,934 during the same period of 2015, according to a report from ATTOM Data Solutions.

The recent increase is a sign that there is still distress in the South Florida housing market. Despite the increase, the number of new cases still remains below pre-recession levels. The number of foreclosures peaked in South Florida during 2009, when 133,250 new cases were filed, according to ATTOM Data Solutions.

Home prices bottomed out by the end of 2011, causing an increase in sales to buyers looking to capitalize on the bargains, which ultimately helped the housing market recover. During that time, the job market and the economy improved as well. With home sales leveling in recent months, some analysts predict the housing market has peaked and is facing an inevitable slowdown, which could mean more delinquencies.

But thanks to better underwriting standards, interest rates remaining low and incomes gradually increasing; this will not come close to mirroring the housing collapse of 2006-2011.

Click here to read more on this story.

Foreclosures, Timothy Kingcade Posts

New Florida Rule to Expedite Foreclosure Cases

Posted on April 10, 2015by Admin

The court system’s backlog of foreclosure cases in Florida has inspired a proposed rule that would expedite foreclosure cases by considering them “abandoned” if not set for hearing (or heard) within 90 days. South Florida courts have been flooded with foreclosure cases since the 2008 housing bubble burst and has been one of the hardest hit regions for foreclosures. In 2009, there were more than 64,000 foreclosure suits filed in Miami-Dade County alone.

In an attempt to conserve judicial resources, the court has proposed a new rule that will push cases through much faster by using an administrative order to automatically dispense homeowners’ motions as abandoned.

This rule will be devastating for homeowners trying to save their homes. Their cases will not be looked at individually and cases where lenders are looking to stop or delay the foreclosure process over objections will still be pushed through the system.

A recent change to the system has allowed case managers to perform administrative tasks that judges once performed. This has already caused a lot of cases to be pushed through the system that lenders themselves have attempted to stop.

The good news for homeowners is that the market is on the mend and the backlog of foreclosure cases is just a small portion of what it was in 2009 and 2010. Nonetheless, judges say that a docket of more than 20,000 foreclosure cases creates a crisis in the judicial system.

Click here to read more on Florida’s new proposed rule to expedite foreclosure cases.