Florida Bankers Want To Eliminate Homeowners Right to a Judicial Foreclosure To Speed Up Foreclosures

In an attempt to circumvent a recent Florida Supreme Court order that requires banks to mediate a foreclosure dispute, Florida Bankers are attempting to ram through the Florida Legislature a bill that will convert Florida from a judicial foreclosure state to a non-judicial foreclosure state.

What does this mean? It means you the homeowner won’t automatically get your day in court if your lender tries to take your house away. The way it works right now is the lender is required by law to file a civil lawsuit against you in order to foreclose. You then have to answer it. If you don’t answer it or don’t show up to court, the judge issues a summary judgment against you. In a non-judicial foreclosure, everything is administratively and your right to due process is compromised and you have to beg for your day in court.

There is another problem with a non-judicial foreclosure, if you suspect you are a victim of fraudulent lending practices or attempt to defend yourself against foreclosure, you have to become the plaintiff in the suit. This means the burden of proof is on you the homeowner. This means you have to file the lawsuit. You have to prove your case not simply show the faults of the lender’s actions. This costs you the homeowner between 5 to 10 times what it normally cost you to defend your home. Florida bankers are hoping they can scare you out of your home by making it cost prohibitive for you to fight them. They want to enforce a mortgage that in most cases, they don’t even own. I know the nightmare these homeowners go through in non-judicial foreclosure states because I do business in 3 of them.

As Florida residents, we need to send a clear signal to Charlie Crist, Mark Rubio, Bill McCollum, Larry Cretul and other members of the Florida Legislature. If you support HB 1523, we won’t support you on Election Day.

You can find out your representative is by going to the Florida Legislature website below and click on their name. That will give you their contact information.

http://www.myfloridahouse.gov/Sections/Representatives/representatives.aspx

Call them! Hound them like bill collectors! Have your neighbors call them! Make them do their job! Nothing scares politicians more than a political fight in their district.

The Florida bankers already destroyed millions of lives across Florida and the USA by creating this mess. These banks use their muscle to bully or use their deep pockets to buy off politicians and now they want to use these same tactics in Tallahassee. People have died to give you the right to stand up to your government! — USE IT!