The amount of delinquent Florida loans foreclosed and sold on courthouse steps has slowed down. Some of the slowdown can be attributed to the new law that requires arbitration befoe filing suit.
Another reason is that the process can be delayed by homeowners demanding proof of who really owns their loan. A major foreclosure law firm in Florida is being sued for attempting to get around this "proof of ownership" issue. This excerpt from an article from the 8/4/2010 Florida Realtor News newsletter helps explain why it is hard to determing just who owns your mortgage ..derivitives!
THE EXERPT:
"... The suit, filed last month in U.S. District Court, Southern District of Florida, says David J. Stern and his Plantation-based legal team violated the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act by generating fraudulent mortgage assignments when pursuing foreclosures.
An assignment is held by the entity that has the right to receive mortgage payments.
Stern’s practice, which the lawsuit claims filed up to 7,000 new foreclosure cases in Florida every month last year, is also alleged to have pursued foreclosures for lenders that didn’t own the debt on the homes.
“There really is no proper plaintiff to sue and foreclose and that’s what this charade is designed to cover,” said Fort Lauderdale Attorney Kenneth Eric Trent, who is seeking class action status and filed the suit on behalf of Oakland Park resident Ignacio Damian Figueroa. “There is no real holder of the note and the mortgage anymore because they broke it up and sold it to 10, 12, 20 people.”
During the real estate boom, loans traded hands often, sometimes being bundled or split up and sold to investors.
Tracking the true owner of the debt sometimes can be a challenge. When pressed for proof of debt ownership, Trent said Stern’s office would create an assignment signed by a Stern employee instead of a representative of the lender attempting to foreclose."
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