News About Properties

In Palm Beach, property owners who own more than one adjacent condominium can combine them into a single home but, once done, they are prohibited by the town from splitting them back into the original number of units unless they can meet parking and density requirements.

The law is consistent with the town comprehensive plan’s objectives to decrease density and reduce the need for parking over time. But it does limit the rights of property owners, including subsequent buyers who are bound by the unity of title.

via Council may study condo law that prevents owners from splitting joined units.

Osprey Cove, a condominium in Estero, was dealing with a wave of foreclosures that cut off maintenance fees from many of its units.

The community’s property manager, Hayden & Associates, had to deal with “huge delinquencies” and traditional ways of dealing with them weren’t promising, Ken Hayden said.

“You throw them in the collections meat grinder with an attorney and I just don’t think the legal profession was prepared for it or adequately staffed for it,” he said. "We set out to find an alternative way.”

via Stressed condos find help .

For Geeta Ramcharitar, the ordeal began with a past due balance of $4.70 owed to her condominium association in Melbourne’s Venetian Village — and ballooned from there.

The threatened end: foreclosure on her two-bedroom condo.

The 56-year-old grandmother got lucky. County Court Judge William McLuan tossed out the foreclosure case brought by her condo association, ordering each side to pay their own attorney’s fees.

via Grandmother nearly loses condo to foreclosure after $4.70 fee balloons to nearly $3,000.

Federal mortgage giant Fannie Mae was told in 2006 about faulty court documents filed by Florida foreclosure attorneys acting on its behalf but did nothing to correct the practices, an inspector general found.

A report issued Friday by the Federal Housing Finance Agency Office of Inspector General said an outside law firm Fannie Mae hired to investigate allegations of wrongdoing confirmed “unlawful” practices and stated that foreclosure attorneys were sacrificing accuracy for speed by filing false documents.

After learning of the attorney misconduct in 2006, Fannie Mae failed to make any improvements in its oversight of the firms.

via Fannie Mae ignored robo-signing abuses in Florida foreclosures, investigation finds.

Innkeepers USA Trust won approval to extend control over its bankruptcy amid a dispute with Cerberus Capital Management LP and Chatham Lodging Trust over whether they will buy 64 of its hotels.

The new deadline to file a Chapter 11 plan will be Nov. 10 once a formal order is submitted, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Shelley Chapman said today in Manhattan. Control over the case had been set to expire Oct. 1. Innkeepers scaled back a request to extend the date to Jan. 19, saying it would revisit the issue Nov. 9 if needed.

The operator of 71 hotels, including Residence Inns, Marriott hotels and Hampton Inns, received court approval of a plan in June, before Cerberus and Chatham sought to cancel their $1.1 billion purchase citing a change in market conditions or Innkeepers’ business. Innkeepers sued, saying there has been no such change since reaching the binding agreement May 16.

via Innkeepers Wins Approval to Extend Control of Bankruptcy.

Homeowners in foreclosure are increasingly plotting a graceful landing that leaves them not in dire straits following an eviction, but with the same or even better living standards than before they defaulted.

A study released this summer by a Federal Reserve Board discussion group found that homeowners post-foreclosure are bucking conventional wisdom that dictates they defray expenses by moving in with extended family members or into crowded apartments in poorer neighborhoods.

Instead, the report titled “The Post Foreclosure Experience of U.S. Households" found the majority of people following a foreclosure end up sharing a home with the same number of people in a similar, or the same, community.

via Many survive foreclosure in style.