South Florida Law Blog

The Mortgage Debt Relief Forgiveness Act of 2007 was enacted by Congress to exempt homeowners from having to pay taxes on forgiven mortgage debt by foreclosure sale, short sale or a deed-in-lieu of foreclosure. Last year, President Obama extended the this law through December 31, 2016.  Unless Congress can agree to retroactively extend the Act, homeowners will be taxed on […]

The following article was written by Paul Owers Sun Sentinel and republished in the South Florida Law and Legal Blog with excerpts and opinion from real estate defense attorney Roy Oppenheim, Oppenheim Law – Weston, FL Summary: The Florida Supreme Court has declared that where a first foreclosure lawsuit is dismissed voluntarily or involuntarily by the court, such dismissal  does not trigger the […]

As many of you know by now Thanksgiving is one of my most favorite holidays as well as times of the year. This year, as I collect my thoughts for Thanksgiving which is about a week away, I do so as I celebrate my 30th anniversary with my partner and wife Ellen from halfway around the world!  By the time […]

Summary: Filing Bankruptcy during a Fla. residential foreclosure case? The Eleventh Circuit holds that in a Chapter 7 Bankruptcy, when a debtor decides to surrender the property, that surrender is both a surrender to the trustee as well as to the creditor. Which means, that surrender means surrender . . . to effectively give up the property and give up your […]

Complicated Breakdown of New Florida Foreclosure Real Estate Law Every so often, a client facing a second, third or even fourth foreclosure lawsuit asks me a question: could the bank keep filing foreclosure actions against me even though the first lawsuit was filed more than five years ago? The Florida 5-year Statute of limitation rule is complex; however, Florida Supreme […]

After much anticipation, the Florida Supreme Court has finally issued its written opinion in US Bank v. Bartram.  The crux of this seminal case was whether the Banks after facing an involuntary dismissal of a prior foreclosure action are precluded from filing a subsequent foreclosure lawsuit more than five (5) years after the loan was accelerated.  As you can imagine, […]

So Now We May Know the Rest of the Story It’s been a year now that Bartram, the case involving the 5-Year Statute of Limitations on foreclosures was argued before the Florida Supreme Court. Almost all lawyers expected a decision prior to summer and then in the early Fall. Then when no opinion was issued, many of us started to […]