Florida House Passes Streamlined Foreclosure Bill

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 1^st.