News About Properties

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.

Like thousands of local homeowners in their golden years, Rosemary Chandler took out a reverse mortgage in 2005 to help pay her expenses and remain in the Elk Grove home that’s been in her family since the 1940s.

The decision worked out fine during her lifetime. But since her death in January 2010, it has created a legal mess for her son, who now faces foreclosure and eviction from the family home.

This month, Robert Chandler, 66, filed a class-action lawsuit against Wells Fargo Bank in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, alleging that the San Francisco banking giant routinely violated federal rules on reverse mortgages, forcing the homes of deceased borrowers to go into foreclosure instead of allowing family members to purchase them from the bank.

via Reverse mortgage turns sour for heir – San Jose Mercury News.

Q: If a 1985 amendment to our condominium bylaws provides for staggered terms, but our association did not hold a vote to affirm staggered terms in 2008 or any subsequent year, is our association in violation of the law if we still use staggered terms?

A: Yes. Section 718.112(2)(d)1 of the Florida Condominium Act was amended in 2008 to provide that “in the event the bylaws permit staggered terms of no more than 2 years and upon approval of a majority of the total voting interests, the association board members may serve 2-year staggered terms.”

via Community Law: Owners must OK staggered terms for condo board.