BANKS SLOWING FORECLOSURE PROCESS

You may have recently heard that the banks are temporarily halting their foreclosures. What does this mean and why are they doing it?

When banks like Countrywide went under, the mortgages and promissory notes were "mis-placed". The assets of Countrywide were sold to other banks. When they sold the assets, the mortgages were supposed to go with them. In the rush to get the assets transferred, especially the mortgages (after all, your payments had to go to someone) the banks got sloppy with the paperwork. What the banks got was your electronic information, but not the actual papers.

Then homeowners got in financial trouble and could not pay the debt. The banks stopped receiving payments so they had to foreclose. The problem is, to foreclose in Florida (and most other states), you actually must have the note and mortgage. In a rush to foreclose, the banks hurriedly stamped the notes or tried less honest approaches to foreclosing the property. Although attorneys challenged the ownership of the mortgages, it wasn't until the banks' law firms started getting into trouble that the banks decided to take a deep breathe and review the paperwork.

This leaves mortgages in a state of flux. The question is, who owns the note and mortgage? There are many attorneys out there making a living off homeowners during this process. Some might even be saying that you may never have to pay for your home. This falls under the "too good to be true" category. If you want to eventually give up your home, then stay in it, fight the good fight and stay as long as you can and leave at the end of the process.

I am afraid many homeowners will buy into the chance that they will own their house without having to pay for it. Then, one day, after not having paid the mortgage for two years, they will be shocked when their home is sold in a foreclosure sale.