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Increasing numbers of homeowners are falling behind on their mortgages for several reasons including:

• Loss of income due to loss of job, medical problems, or divorce.
• Higher mortgage payments due to rising interest rates.  Homeowners with variable mortgages, equity lines, and negative amoritzation mortgages are seeing their payments increase.
• Rising property taxes and great increases in property insurance.

If you are falling behind on your payments, try and communicate with your lender before it proceeds to file a foreclosure. You may be able to enter a work-out and avoid owing the bank attorney's fees and costs that it will charge you once the lender sends your case to an attorney to file the foreclosure. 

It is very important to understand that Florida has a judicial foreclosure system.  This means that the lender must complete a court process to finish its foreclosure. This process takes months to complete.  What must the lender do to complete the foreclosure process?

• First, a process server will come to your door to deliver a summons and complaint of foreclosure. Do not panic, because there is still plenty of time and several options to save your home. 
• A response must be filed with the court within 20 days of service of the complaint to raise any defenses.  You should contact your attorney immediately after being served.  But even if no response is filed within 20 days, this does not mean that the home will be foreclosed on the 21st day.
•  The lender must file a motion with the court with advanced notice to the homeowner for a court date to obtain a judgment of foreclosure.
• The judgment of foreclosure will provide for a foreclosure sale date in approximately 30 days(there must be an publication of a notice that the property will be sold at auction).  The homeowner does not lose the property until the foreclosure sale takes place.

We can provide you assistance during this time. We can represent you during the court foreclosure case by reviewing the complaint, filing a motion to extend time with the court to undertake a review of your defenses, making sure that the lender properly takes the necessary steps to foreclose, and asking the court to schedule the foreclosure sale longer than the usual 30 days after the judgment.

During this time, we can consult with you and provide representation to save your home from foreclosure.  Options include:

Though usually a last resort, sometimes filing a chapter 13 bankruptcy is the only way to save the home. A chapter 13 bankruptcy must be filed prior to the foreclosure sale.  Though homeowners should not wait to the last minute to consult with an attorney about filing Chapter 13 bankruptcy, we are able to file a bankruptcy petition on short notice. (The new bankruptcy law requires that the debtor must receive a certificate of completion of a credit counseling course from an approved agency prior to the day of the filing of the bankruptcy).

The chapter 13 bankruptcy provides an opportunity to the borrower to reinstate the mortgage during a period of time of up to 5 years by paying the regular monthly payment plus an additional amount to catch up.  By filing Chapter 13, the borrower also has additional time to try to sell or refinance. Contact us: Click Here.