News About Properties

Around Tampa Bay, foreclosure means never having to leave [Central Florida]

When his lender started to foreclose in 2003, Jeffrey De­Mauro appealed for time to resolve his financial problems.

“I sincerely want to work this situation out and get back on track and save my home,'’ De­Mauro wrote to Pinellas County court officials. “I have two children and do not want to be put out of our house and on the street.'’

The DeMauros are still in foreclosure. But by declaring bankruptcy 11 times, they have managed to hang on to their house and to continue living there — seven years after they made their last regular mortgage payment.

Though an extreme example, the couple’s story is an increasingly common one among distressed Tampa Bay homeowners. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, are staying in their houses long after defaulting because they declare bankruptcy, challenge the foreclosure or simply sit back as their cases grind through an overloaded court system.

Mortgage, tax bills ultimately come back to haunt walkaways

While foreclosures and loan modifications have made it tough for overwhelmed banks to go after walkaway borrowers, there’s evidence they are starting to crack down.

Lenders are hiring collection agencies. They also are getting deficiency judgments — court orders that allow banks to collect on mortgage balances. Once an order is in place, lenders can garnish wages, tap bank accounts, seize tax refunds and put liens on other assets to satisfy the debt. These judgments also show up on credit reports.

If the lender sells the home after a foreclosure for less than what is owed on the loan, the bank can come after the borrower for the deficiency balance.

Many states give mortgage holders as long as five years to seek a deficiency judgment. If a judgment is granted, the bank gets up to 20 years to collect and the option to renew for another 20 years if the debt isn’t paid. In Michigan, lenders have six years from the date the last payment was due — or 36 years on a 30-year mortgage, said Southfield real estate attorney John E. Jacobs.

Desperate condo, homeowner groups given new way to grab overdue fees

Revenue-starved condominium and homeowners associations struggling to keep the taps running and the lawns mowed have found a novel way to squeeze money from units that don’t pay what they owe.

It’s called a reverse foreclosure, a tool that can force banks to pay association maintenance fees when unit owners don’t.

It’s a way for associations to halt the decline that begins when one owner quits paying maintenance fees, followed by another, then another, forcing a reduction in general maintenance, driving down property values even more, and leaving a community riddled with vacancies and vandalism.

Also, it’s a way for associations to stick it to banks — who they are convinced have been sticking it to them since the real estate meltdown began.

Richard White: Reserves help associations, owners plan for the future

Q. I live in a small HOA. In November our board approved the budget for 2010. It included funds for painting, but the painting is not scheduled for three years. The funds are being placed in a line item called reserves for the use of people who are not owners as yet.

Our turnover shows that we will have 30 percent new owners when the painting is scheduled. I read FS 720 about the budget should be each year close to zero dollars.

If we are not painting for three years, the reserves should not be collected as the money can be misused and maybe squirreled away as it cannot be controlled.

Am I correct that this is illegal to force me to pay for future expenses?

Florida Foreclosure Auction Web Sites Confuse Consumers

Over the past year, I’ve covered Florida’s deep foreclosure problem on multiple occasions. To attempt to cope with the growing foreclosure inventory, the state government has turned to an eBay-like online foreclosure auction system. While utilizing the Internet may be a smart means for making the auction process easier, it also opens up these auctions to a much wider, less experienced pool of potential buyers — anyone with an Internet connection. But some of those new users who think they’re getting an incredible deal on a foreclosed property are actually getting ripped off instead.

Florida’s housing market was one of the most brutalized by the housing bubble’s pop. The state’s economy was very dependent on its real estate industry. In 2009 alone it recorded over a half-million foreclosures, according to RealtyTrac. In Florida 26% of all mortgages are at least one payment past due, reports the Mortgage Bankers Association. So you can see why the state needs to do something to whittle down its growing inventory of foreclosed properties.

The state government is trying to do just that through its new online auction system, administered through realauction.com. First rolled out late last year, counties across the state are slowly adopting these online auction systems accessed through their Clerk of Court’s webites. Miami-Dade’s site went live in January.

Weak insurers put Floridians at risk

Millions of Floridians now bet their homes on property insurers that teeter on the edge of financial failure, a Herald-Tribune investigation has found.

These companies look nothing like the Allstates and State Farms that insure the rest of America — legacy carriers that command bankrolls the size of small nations.

Instead, because State Farm and Allstate are fleeing Florida, a growing number of homeowners get their insurance from tiny, untested companies that have a few million dollars in the bank but insure billions worth of property they could never hope to rebuild on their own.

No one knows what will happen when the next big storm strikes Florida shores. But the signs are not promising.