The Florida House has passed a bill aimed at speeding up the
foreclosure process and relieves the legislature from a glut of homes waiting
to move through the system. The Bill is
now ready to go to the Senate for a vote.
The House bill would allow a mortgage processor to move more
quickly on a defaulted mortgage loan if the property has been abandoned or a
homeowner does not have a legitimate defense. Under this law homeowners have
only 20 days to retain a foreclosure lawyer and file a worthy defense.
This provision has drawn criticism from advocates because it limits the
time that a person has to examine foreclosure documents for any
inconsistencies.
The bill would also
reduce the time a bank has to recover any deficiency judgments; typically they
have up to five years to recover the loan balance after a foreclosure sale.
This law would reduce that time to one year.
Opponents of the bill say that homeowner will get caught up
in a quick foreclosure, not giving them or their foreclosure attorneys time to review documents. The Palm Beach Post
spoke to a local attorney Henry Trawick who said the bill will face
constitutional challenges on the provision that would allow faster foreclosures
for abandoned homes.
Trawick also asserted that the law is unnecessary since he
believes the foreclosure delays are the cause of the bank’s foreclosure lawyers. Trawick also told
the Post the law was unnecessary because the current law has many of the same
provisions.
If the law is passed by the Senate, it will take effect July
1st.
