Florida foreclosure law
A lender cannot foreclose on your property overnight. Foreclosure litigation typically takes several months to be resolved. During that time, our attorneys can work with you to develop a plan to prevent the foreclosure—or, at the very least, to make sure that its negative impact on your finances is minimized as much as possible.
Florida is a judicial foreclosure state. This means that the mortgage company must file a lawsuit against you and successfully prosecute it to final judgment. This requires the mortgage company to personally serve the lawsuit on you and allow you twenty (20) days to respond to the foreclosure complaint. In most cases, there are defenses that can be asserted on your behalf that will make it more difficult for the mortgage company to complete the foreclosure. In some cases, there are defenses that will prevent a foreclosure judgment from ever being entered against you.
Chapman & Plymale Law, P.A., has defended hundreds of foreclosure cases. We have successfully obtained home loan modification under the Home Affordable Modification Program (“HAMP”) and under individual lenders’ in-house modification programs. In some cases, we have obtained principal reductions for our clients that reduced the principal to current value. In other cases, we have successfully short sold our clients’ homes or investment properties and obtained waivers of the lenders’ right to seek a deficiency judgment. This means the client is no longer obligated to pay any remaining balance of the debt. We have also negotiated “cash for keys” deals on behalf of our clients. In these cases, our clients were paid to leave their homes and forgiven from the balance of the debt.
Often times we have found lenders willing to work something out with our clients. In our experience this does not happen unless you adequately defend yourself in court.
If you are facing the possibility of foreclosure, call us to discuss your options.
How filing for bankruptcy affects foreclosure proceedings
In some cases, our clients come to us when it is too late to adequately defend a pending foreclosure. In such cases, we may suggest filing for bankruptcy to delay or permanently halt the foreclosure proceeding. This delay results from the imposition of the “automatic stay” that goes into effect upon the filing of the bankruptcy case.
When a foreclosure nears completion, bankruptcy becomes a last resort effort and offers different options to allow an individual to keep their home. If you are nearing the end of a foreclosure or if the defense of your foreclosure is not successful, call us to discuss how a bankruptcy may allow you to keep your home.
How an attorney helps with the foreclosure process
Many of our clients are surprised that they need a Stuart foreclosure attorney to help with foreclosure proceedings. Appearing before a judge and explaining your financial hardship may elicit real, personal sympathy, but the judge must uphold the law.
That means that if the bank proves each aspect of its claim with admissible evidence and you are unable to defend yourself with a properly filed affidavit that shows there is a factual mistake in the bank’s claim, the judge has to rule in favor of the bank.
Please contact our firm to begin preparing your foreclosure defense in Martin County, St. Lucie County, Palm Beach County, Indian River County and Okeechobee County, as well as Palm City, Port St. Lucie, Stuart, Ft. Pierce or other areas of Florida today.
Call 772-283-2626 for foreclosure defense in Martin County, St. Lucie County, Indian River County, Okeechobee County and Palm Beach County as well as Stuart, Palm City, Hobe Sound, Port St. Lucie, Ft. Pierce, Jupiter and Okeechobee.
Please contact our offices today for a confidential consultation to learn how we can assist with foreclosure defense. We can explain your legal options and let you know what to expect. Call 772-283-2626 or contact us online for a free consultation from the Florida attorneys at Chapman & Plymale
