The economy is up, foreclosures are down but re-foreclosures are also up
Tue Jun 10, 2014 by Oppenheim Law on Florida Law News
As the Florida real estate and general economy are improving, with average sales prices increasing, the number of foreclosures dropping and unemployment also increasing a funny thing happened as we continue through this recovery: re-foreclosures are up. Re-foreclosures you ask? That’s right.
A re-foreclosure is when the bank for whatever reason dismissed the first foreclosure or in some cases homeowners were successful in beating the bank on the first foreclosure. Many homeowners had hoped that over time they would end up with the home for free if in fact the bank did not rebring the foreclosure or if the five-year statute of limitations has kicked in. In most cases, neither of those events indeed have occurred.
Banks are starting to re-foreclose
In fact what has occurred is that the banks slowly but surely are starting to reforeclose on these properties where homeowners originally had the first foreclosure dismissed.
You see that while the first foreclosure may have been dismissed the mortgage remained on the property and thus while the homeowner was not free to sell the property or even refinance the property (unless they did a modification with their current bank), homeowners of course were free to rent the property out or to enjoy ownership of the property for many years.
Advent of the re-foreclosure
But now all of a sudden we, as well a few other foreclosure defense firms, are starting to see the advent of the re-foreclosure. Banks are starting all over again to foreclose on the same homes they previously foreclosed upon. This time, however, they are doing it with more expertise and with wind behind their back. With less other foreclosures to cloud the docket and with the court being mandated to proceed as fast as they possibly can with rocket dockets these foreclosures are going through with tremendous speed and agility.
Legal rights trampled Upon
Thus, if you are facing a re-foreclosure it is your duty and obligation to make sure you do not stand alone and that you make sure that you obtain the best possible legal representation so that your legal rights are not trampled upon by the banks.
In many cases the previous foreclosure can be used as evidence to support either fraud or some other argument concerning the bank’s lack of standing to proceed with the second foreclosure. Legal inconsistencies can be typically exploited and used many times to help win the day.
One interesting note is that you could get lucky if you beat the bank again in the re-foreclosure process. In some situations the banks will not be able to re-foreclose a third time because they may only get two bites at the apple. So, if you are facing a reforeclosure and have been served by your bank for a second time you know who to call.
From the Trenches,
Roy Oppenheim
The re – foreclosure will be a second chance for every home owners who failed in first
foreclosure. In this re-foreclosure, bank is not supposed to do anything against you. Usually, a short sale will be a very best for avoiding foreclosure issues.
Thank you for your comments. It will be interesting to see what happens in the re-foreclosure process.
As a loan officer I have encountered something new this year with my clients regarding their past foreclosures. They now have collection agency’s going after them for even double the foreclosed amount that was on the mortgage loan. Is it safe to say that this is the re-foreclosing issue that you wrote about? If not, then it is definitely something new to me, because I haven’t seen anything like this until this year, and the borrowers are still responsible for the loan balance even with the home has already been sold to someone else. http://www.bestmortgageloan.net
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