Florida Foreclosure Process: 8 Things You Need to Know

So you’ve defaulted on your mortgage and now your bank is coming after you and pursuing a foreclosure on your South Florida home. First, don’t freak out! These things happen…all the time! Luckily you have time to figure out a solution but you want to start figuring out your plan of action right away. Here are some important things you should know…

Foreclosure Start Date in Florida

Under federal law, your mortgage loan servicer has to wait at least 120 days after your loan has been delinquent before they can start foreclosure proceedings. There are a few exceptions, but this is generally how long it takes.

Lender Officially Files Foreclosure

Your loan servicer will formally file a summons complaint and issue you what’s called a ‘Lis Pendens’ that they are looking to foreclose on your South Florida property.

Once filed, you’ll have 20 days to file an ‘Answer’ to the Lis Pendens. This can be done on your own or through an attorney…most people will hire an attorney to handle their case.

Start or Continue Loss Mitigation

Once you receive the Lis Pendens and officially get served, your case is in motion. If you haven’t started already, now is the time to start working with your lender on the loss mitigation options they have in order to restructure your loan (this is assuming you want to keep your home).

It’s VERY important that you provide ALL the required documents to them if pursuing some type of assistance. If your paperwork is incomplete, it could result in a loan modification denial.

Wait on Approval or Pay the Balance Due

Loan restructuring usually takes about 30 days to get approved. If you are able to come up with the back payments, penalties and fees to become current and reinstate the loan, then the foreclosure will be disposed. If you’re approved for a loan modification, the servicer will request to dismiss and dispose of the LIs Pendens and end the foreclosure.

Summary Judgement

If you are unable to work out a solution with your lender, your loan servicer will issue a ‘Final Summary Judgement’ and a foreclosure sale will be scheduled.

Foreclosure Sale

The loan servicer is required to publish the notice of foreclosure sale in the local newspaper and the sale must occur 20 to 35 days after the summary judgement date - unless the court specifics otherwise.

Eviction

Once the sale goes through at auction to the highest bidder, they will get a ‘right to possession’ and the courts will grant a motion for ‘writ of possession’ formally allowing the Sheriff’s office to remove you and your possessions from the property if you have not vacated by that time.

Deficiency Judgement

If the loan servicer can not collect the full amount owed on your balance through the foreclosure sale - which will include lates fees, penalties and even their attorney fees - they will issue a personal deficiency judgment. In Florida, this allows the servicer to come after you for the remaining balance.

We Can Help!

The good news is we have a full team in place to guide you through this whole process and we do so for FREE! Even if you have an attorney we can still help. It’s important to know that an attorney can not stop a foreclosure from happening. All they can do is delay the process until you resolve the issue - all while charging you! We’ll say it again because we can not stress this enough - your attorney CAN NOT STOP FORECLOSURES …but WE CAN!

Contact us today and learn more about how we can help you avoid foreclosure in South Florida!