Chapter 13 standoff thwarts foreclosure on St. Petersburg house for years

Chapter 13 standoff thwarts foreclosure on St. Petersburg house for years [Tampa Bay Area]

With the economy tumbling, thousands of Floridians have filed bankruptcies in a last-ditch bid to keep their homes from foreclosure.

Among them was 55-year-old Rose King. In the end, she was unable to save her home, but it certainly wasn’t for lack of trying.

Between 1999 and last January, King filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy protection eight times — a move that kept lenders from forcing the sale of her St. Petersburg bungalow. And when she finally moved out in March, she took everything, including the kitchen sink.

“She lived two years for free, I can tell you that,” says Kelly Goff, who held the most recent mortgage and had to schedule foreclosure sales four times. “I’ve never had anything like it, and I’ve had hundreds of loans. It’s luck of the draw that I happened to get somebody who knew how to abuse the system and used it.”

HOA Lawyer In Risky Business

HOA Lawyer In Risky Business

Bob Tankel wants you to know that he’s not Snidely Whiplash.

As an attorney for more than 500 homeowners associations, Tankel is foreclosing on people’s homes for unpaid association dues with surprising frequency. Although some are investors, others live in the homes and lose them because of a few hundred dollars in back dues, he says.

That makes Tankel an unsympathetic figure. He jokingly says people sometimes compare him to Snidely Whiplash, the top-hatted villain with the handlebar mustache in the old Dudley Do-Right cartoons.

But Tankel insists he’s not a bad guy and doesn’t want to take people’s homes away from them.

Hard times for Merco Group [South Florida]

Hard times for Merco Group [South Florida]

Starting with one earthquake-damaged building in downtown Los Angeles, the Meruelo family spent nearly four decades building a real estate empire stretching from California to Florida.

But even as family-owned properties like the Grand Bay hotel in Coconut Grove and high-rise condominiums attest to the family’s success, the Meruelo-owned companies now face mounting financial problems and a stack of lawsuits.

The collapse of the housing boom has caught up with many South Florida developers as land and commercial property values have tumbled and financing has dried up. The travails of the Merco Group and its affiliates — the Florida real estate holdings built up by Belinda and Homero Meruelo and their eldest son Homero Jr. — are emblematic of the drama engulfing Florida’s real estate market.

Already South Florida’s largest credit union, a global hotel management company, a waterfront property seller and more than a dozen angry condo buyers have taken Merco companies and their owners to court and won some $50 million in judgments.

Village offers cash so you’ll take Manhattan [Chicago]

Village offers cash so you’ll take Manhattan

Not long ago, it was news when builders and home sellers were looking to spice up their deals by dangling, say, a flat-screen television in front of prospective buyers.

But that’s sooooo 2007.

Take, for example, south suburban Manhattan, where it’s the village government giving the incentives.

The town’s “economic-stimulus program” offers a rebate at closing of up to $5,000 to anyone who constructs a new single-family home there by July 2009. Buy a new-construction townhouse or duplex, and you’ll get $3,500. The rebates will be financed through developer-paid building permits.

Floods expose homeowners to big insurance risk

Floods expose homeowners to big insurance risk

David Spicer gutted his one-story home after a nearby creek flooded last weekend.

He and some friends ripped out soggy insulation and removed the ruined furnace. He even carved away a couple feet of flood-damaged drywall to fight mold.

Now, he must figure out how he’ll pay to replace everything. Spicer, like most of his neighbors, has no flood insurance.

“We’re kind of hoping that the government and FEMA will do something,” he said. “It’s pretty devastating.”

County judge accuses friend of fraud in real estate deal

County judge accuses friend of fraud in real estate deal

An Allegheny County judge accuses a longtime family friend of defrauding him out of more than $500,000 in phony Florida real estate deals, according to his lawyer and a federal lawsuit made public Friday.

Common Pleas Judge Robert P. Horgos, 60, of Sewickley Hills claims Alfredo J. Sararo III, 38, persuaded him to invest in buy-low, sell-high properties on Florida’s Gulf Coast at inflated prices.

Horgos claims he lost money after Sararo, a former county corrections officer, and 11 co-defendants lied to him and forged his signature on documents.

Sararo’s Miami lawyer, Robert Rosenblatt, denied the claims in the 20-page lawsuit, which accuses the defendants of conspiracy, fraud and racketeering, among other claims.