Florida Foreclosure Case- Homeowners Win in Appeal
A Florida appeals court sided with homeowners Cesar and Ruth Vidal in Broward County in south Florida. They have a home in North Lauderdale. The bank foreclosed on their home.
The homeowners took their case to the County Circuit Court where they lost and that court favored in behalf of the lender.
Then the homeowners appealed their case in the Fourth District Court of Appeals who ruled that the foreclosure must be overturned.
This is not the first homeowner that has won a case in Florida courts regarding their foreclosure.
Florida is a judicial state. We are also a deed state. This means that the banks must go through a judicial process of suing the homeowner in court, called a lis pendens filing, and then the homeowner becomes the defendant. As the defendant the homeowner gets to bring forth a defense and a case to the judge about why the bank should not foreclose on them.
Now the fact is that it is not easy for the homeowner to win a case. If you are not making your mortgage payments you have defaulted on your promise to pay back the money you borrowed from your bank to buy your home. At the end of the day, the piper must be paid.
But this is why the judicial process is so important for us who own property in Florida. Be mindful of that and do what you can to keep supporting us to have a judicial foreclosure system. There are times when banks err and in non recourse states you don't have a prayer.
The judge in the appeals court in this case also rules that the Vidals could continue to seek damages and try to have their mortgage canceled on the grounds that their lender, Liquidation Properties Inc allegedly violated the Truth in Lending Act.
We know of a couple other cases where judges have canceled the homeowners mortgage because of harassment and violations of the Fair Credit Act. These cases are rare though so don't go starting to make a case like this without good evidence in your favor.
Some people use the judicial process to delay the ultimate end reality that they are going to have to move out of their home. Again, this is better than not having a judicial process.
The banks complain that the judicial process takes too long here in Florida, the average time is over 800 days now. Some people want this to hurry up to stop the bleeding however we must always be careful of the unintended consequences of quick solutions. Stay vigilant in our rights to keep our judicial process.
The Vidal case though, could set a precedent and could affect thousands of homeowners which is a win for homeowners.
We are not attorneys and we are NOT giving any legal advice, we are just reporting the news.
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