RESCUE MY HOME: Foreclosure Defense and Debt Solutions Blog
A community of free information sharing provided to the public by your friends at the Law Offices of Bilu & Bilu. "Your home is your castle and under the law you are entitled to defend it."
More Fun in Tallahassee
Feb 22nd
There has been a lot of talk about this new bil, “The Fair Foreclosure Act” that is making its way through the Florida Legislature. Critics decry it as an assault on Florida Homewoner’s due process rights, supporters point out that it also places more stringent requirements on Foreclosing Lenders. The truth is that there is some good, some bad, and some things that don’t matter. I like the fact that Lenders need to have all of their paperwork in order before they file. The provisions allwoing for expedited foreclosures of abandoned non-residential properties may be useful in freeing up judicial resources, with, and this is a big caveat, PROPER JUDICIAL OVERSIGHT! The provision reducing the amount of time a lender has to seek a deficiency judgment from 5 years to one year will no doubt benefit Florida Homeowners who have been foreclosed on. The provisions affecting Condo and Homeowners Association are redundant as they are already law. Finally, alot of people are making a big deal about the provision that limits a homeowners’ ability to vacate a judgment after a sale of the property to a third party. What a lot of critics don’t realize is that this actually restates current Florida Case law which already protects a “Bona Fide Purchaser for Value”- a legal principle which actually dates back several centuries. What will happen in the end, who knows? What will the effects be if this passes or fails?- That’s anybody’s guess.
A Brief History Lesson
Feb 15th
So Keith Horowitz downgraded good ol’ BOA’s stock because he felt that “other analysts were too optimistic in predicting profit growth over the next two years.” No huge surprise, but what is amazing is just how myopic the rest of these analysts can be. Let me explain– One of the main reasons for the great recession is the crash of the Real Estate Market, that much is a given. What often goes unrecognized is that 2 of the major contributing factors were in fact caused by over-optimism in the prediction of profits. (1) All of the banks and insurance companies behind CDOs based their analyses on the prediction that Real Estate values would continue to rise at the same meteoric rates they had in 2003-2006. (2) Based on these unrealistic predictions, lenders encouraged mortgage brokers to put borrowers into negatively amortizatizing loans so they could stake a claim in the growing equity in the houses they were using as collateral (they also used their accounting wizardry to add those negatively amortizing balances to their balance sheets and artificially inflate their stock prices- making the executives’ options that much more valuable— but that is a matter for another post). Long story short- Santayana said it best- “Those who fail to learn form history are doomed to repeat it”
And the Hits Keep Coming…
Feb 10th
Here is some more on the impact of the big foreclosure settlement on Florida. I am sticking with my initial reaction of “Too Little Too Late.” The estimated $1800 (the number seems to keep going down!) to homeowners who lost their homes due to illegal and criminal foreclosure practices is a joke (and not a funny one, at that!) And now they are estimating that underwater homeowners will get a $20,…000 principal write-down. Considering how many of my clients have properties that are underwater by $100,000 or more, this really is a band-aid being applied to a bullet wound. And of course, this deal doesn’t apply to Fannie Mae or Freddie MAc loans–which only account for about 50% of outstanding loans!!! This “Landmark Deal” is really more of a “Landfill Deal”! That being said– we are still going to fight to get our clients get every penny they can. While the settlements are paltry, I know I’d rather the money be in my clients’ pockets then the Bank’s.
An Exercise in Futility
Feb 9th
Here are some more details about the settlement. From what I have read, Florida will be receiving an estimated $8.5B as part of the settlement. To put that in perspective that is $8,500,000,000.00. Here is what i don’t get, according to the government website, an adminstrator will be contacting homeowners who were wrongly foreclosed on in order to get them their woefully small settlements (see my previous post for more on that). Ummm… how exactly is this administrator going to know where they are?!??! They lost their houses, right? What’s next, free eyeglasses for the blind. Great Job, Pam Bondi- thanks!
Duh!
Deal with the Devil
Feb 9th
Still waiting for a lot of the details to be released, but here is my take so far. (1) a $2,000 payment to a wrongly foreclosed homeowner- essentially they are saying, “Hey, sorry we perjured ourselves so we could take your house a few months earlier, here is a check that should cover one month’s rent in your new place.” (2) States are giving up the ability to pursue Civil Charges againt Lenders-… considering the sheer number of State and Federal violations involved, the settlement to the states is merely a pittance. Individuals will now have to go after banks seperately for each violation, which can be cost prohibitive and time consuming– way to look out for your constituents AG’s! (3) I am lookng to forward to getting more details about the roughly $20B that will be going towards reducing principal, state assistance programs, and refinancing efforts. We will keep on top of the latest developments so we can assist our clients is getting what they are entitled to!
In the Times of the Roman Senate
Feb 7th
Ladies and Gentlemen, it is time for a history lesson! Take a good look at the history of Roman Senate and you will see that at the time of fall of the Empire, that August Body (pun intended) knew of the massive debt problems it was facing, knew that it’s colonial economic system could no longer sustain itself- and yet they did nothing! It was easier to do nothing as long as the gold was rolling …in from the outer fringes of the Empire, but once that dried up, there was nothing but Chaos left. Fannie and Freddie, as Government Sponsored Entities, acted just like our government does now– identify the problem, acknowledge that there is a problem that calls for tough solutions and do nothng about it!
Knowledge is only power if you use it
Bovine Backed Derivatives
Jan 26th
Great– so the next thing that we will find out is that 5 Guys does not actually use meat in its burgers, but rather it invests in BBDs (Bovine Backed Derivatives) which are publicly traded at the slaughterhouse exchange. I could go on making jokes about this all day, but the truth of the matter is that David Stern will continue to profit from his wrongdoing until someone in the government exercises its authority and files RICO charges against him, LPS, and DJS as well as a civil suit for the forfeiture of those ill-gotten gains.
3 Nightmares
Jan 20th
So with regards to story #3– i had a client come in today that had the exact same thing happen to her. It’s amazing– when you enter in to a trial plan as the first step of a Loan Modification, your payment is due on the 1st of the month– there is no grace period. However, if you pay too early, you also run the risk of your payment not being properly credited. I believe that is the definition of a Catch 22
Surrogate Signing is Never Acceptable
Jan 16th
Utterly mind-blowing! Let’s just assume for a second (and only a second) that the Inspector General was correct in the determination that “surrogate signing” is acceptable. Even if that was true (which its not), the notaries that notarized the surrogate signatures have admitted to committing multiple felonies in the State of Florida (See Section 117 of the Florida Statutes). I guess it was more politically expedient to fire the whistle-blowers than than to prosecute the wrong-doers.
The Shadow Inventory is Bigger than You Think!
Jan 12th
There are a lot of numbers to digest in this post (not to mention the methodology that the author makes transparent), but it is really interesting. I have been saying throughout this crisis that the Banks will do only what is best for them, not what is best for the US economy or the American taxpayer- and the proof is in the pudding. The same way lenders like Countrywide and World Savings lied from 2004-2007 about how they were using negatively amortizing loans to artificially boost their “assets”, and (not) coincidentally inflate their stock prices they are now lying about the extent of their shadow inventory and the fact that they are actually the worst culprits when it comes to unreasonably delaying foreclosure sales when they think it is in their best interest. You need to look out for your own best interests, because no one else will do it for you!
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