With Broward County and Miami-Dade County ranking at the top of the charts in the number of foreclosures filed, many homeowners face the unsettling fact that their home is in foreclosure or will soon be in foreclosure. Whether your property is located in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood, Weston, Coral Springs or anywhere in between, Harris Howard, Esq., will protect your legal rights and help to save your home. DO NOT lose your home without a fight. Call for a free consultation with an attorney.
If your home is in foreclosure, you must learn what legal rights you have. You may be able to modify your loan, short sale your property or enter into a deed in lieu with your lender. These options do take time to get approved. During the process, you MUST defend the foreclosure lawsuit filed against you. If you do not respond to the foreclosure complaint filed by your lender, you will lose your home at a foreclosure sale. Call Harris Howard to learn about the foreclosure process.
The largest investment most people will make in their lives is their home. The possibility of losing that investment can be terrifying, and trying to understand the legal process and the documents can be overwhelming. If you are faced with the horrifying possibility of losing your home to a Bank or Mortgage Company, call Harris Howard, P.A. for a free consultation to better understand your rights. We have worked with homeowners across South Florida in defending their foreclosure lawsuit.
In Florida, a foreclosure lawsuit must go through the judicial system. The foreclosure process begins when your bank or lender brings a lawsuit against you in the Circuit Court in the County where the property being foreclosed is located. When you receive a Summons and Complaintm a foreclosure has begun. You have 20 days to respond to the complaint or you lose many of your legal rights. If you do not file any response, the bank will be entilted to a default final judgment and in approximately 3-4 months a sale date will be set.
Do not lose your home without a fight. If your home is being foreclosed on by your lender, you need to know that you have significant federal and state law rights. A Foreclosure Defense Attorney may be able to keep you in your home.
DO NOT listen to the banks when they tell you they will "modify your mortgage" or "will work with you to avoid foreclosure". These lies have cost many Florida residents their property. While the bank tells you they are working to modify your loan, their litigation department is going ahead with the foreclosure process. The bank will not tell you that the mortgage servicer often makes MORE money when you are in default. This is why the bank has been telling you for months that they are about to accept your modification request and it never happens. Consult an attorney who understands the foreclosure laws.
Harris Howard will use proven and effective legal strategies to help defend your foreclosure including:
- Standing/Assignment
- Default Servicing Obligations
- Truth in Lending Act Violations (TILA)
- Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act Violations (RESPA)
- Fair Debt Collections Practices Act
- Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices
Often the bank that is suing you or threatening to sue you, is not the proper party to initiate such a suit. Because the lender that gave you your loan likely assigned the mortgage or transferred the mortgage, you must make sure the bank properly executed and recorded these documents. Harris Howard will force the bank to prove they are the proper party to enforce the loan documents you are being sued on. If the Plaintiff suing you has no standing, the case must be dismissed.
Many notes issued between 2001 and 2008 have been lost or destroyed, which means that the lender cannot prove that they are the owner of the instrument. Harris Howard will make the bank prove they have the original note or are able to legally reestablish the lost note.
Unfortunately, the banks that lent you money often engaged in fraudulent and secretive practices encouraging borrowers to take loans they could not repay. These deceptive practices violate several laws and the banks need to be punished for doing so. Your lender was required to give you certain information regarding your loan at the time you signed an agreement to get a loan. According to a federal law called the Truth in Lending Act (TILA), the bank needed to tell you the amount of interest you will pay over the life of the loan and how the interest would be calculated. Harris Howard, P.A. works with an outside TILA expert that will prepare a TILA evaluation that will show all violations that the lender committed. Violations of the Truth in Lending Act could give rise to you having a cause of action against the bank. This means YOU SUE THE BANK. If such violations are found, suing the bank gives you enormous bargaining power in dealing with the banks and getting the terms of the loan reduced.
Another federal law that the lender must comply with is the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) before they are allowed to sue you. This law ensures the lender or debt collector is not engaging in abusive practices to collect a debt.
Most of the mortgages entered into between 2000 and 2008 were securitized. This means the loans were packaged with other loans into pools and sold as investments. Many banks bought these loans and put them into trusts with inflated values. These trusts have services and other parties working with your loan. This explains why the party suing you often says "Bank of America as trustee for the XYZ Trust 2005." Because the loans were inflated in value, the banks destroyed the note to cover up their criminal acts. This is why you may see a count in your complaint titled "reestablishment of lost note". This means that the party suing you to pay them money does not own the instrument that actually requires you to pay that money. There are certain laws that govern trusts in Florida and the lenders usually did not comply with these laws either.
While your foreclosure case is pending, you will not have a mortgage payment. Use a portion of these savings to pay an attorney to help keep you in your home.
Call Harris Howard, P.A. at (954) 610-2975 or email me at HarrisHowardLAW@gmail.com for a free consultation and learn what your legal options are.
BANKRUPTCY
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Bankruptcy may be an option for you if you have significant debts. If your property is lost in the foreclosure process, the bank sells your property to the highest bidder at a public sale. The amount of money you owe the bank less the sale price is the amount of deficiency you owe the bank. The banks can come after you for the deficiency for up to 5 years after the sale date. This deficiency debt can be eliminated in a bankruptcy. Other debts like Credit Card debt, home equity line debt, car loan debt, can be discharged in a bankruptcy.
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Payment Plans.
ALL Attorney fees are negotiable.
If we defend your foreclosure, you will be able to afford attorney fees because you will NOT be paying your mortgage while you are being represented.
For a more complete description of the fee structure, please see the Costs and Resources page.
Harris Howard, P.A. offers free initial consultations.
Please call us at (954) 610-2975 or email us at HarrisHowardLAW@gmail.com to set up an appointment.
Our services include:
- Foreclosure Defense
- Family Law
- Bankruptcy
- Real Estate
- Business Transactions
- Criminal Defense
- Estate Planning / Probate
- Civil Litigation
The information presented at this site should not be construed to be formal legal advice nor the formation of a lawyer/client relationship.
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