Florida's Governor Signs Foreclosure Bill

This past week Florida’s governor signed a much debated foreclosure bill.  This bill now is enacting a series of provisions aimed at speeding up the default process in the state.  This is a huge change and the bill is getting a lot of attention.

New requirements, both legal and procedural, for attorneys working within the foreclosure space note House Bill 87. Critics refer to it as the 'rocket docket' legislation, because it is designed to quicken the foreclosure review system previously in place. However, with any new legislation there are many procedural caveats that could make that comparison less appropriate. Here are just two of the sections of the bill:

• The office of Florida attorney Daniel Consuegra even published an alert for attorneys advising them that HB 87 reduces the statute of limitations for filing a deficiency action to only one year from the sale or date of the acceptance of a deed-in-lieu.
• That section of the bill takes effect July 1.
  
  

"As a result you will need to act quickly and secure your deficiency judgment," Consuegra said.

Furthermore, according to Daniel Consuegra, attorneys says the bill:

• requires additional items to be presented with the foreclosure complaint specifically a certification of possession of the original note, or a lost note affidavit filed concurrently with the complaint.

To meet the demands of the new bill, it is clear that some forms used in the process are likely to require modification, and it could take time to adopt them or modify them. Since HB 87 also changes state law to so now any named party can move for "an order to show cause", not just a plaintiff, there are other changes that lawyers much recognize.  According to Consuegra, "This presents some interesting challenges and opportunities that should be prepared for."

Consuegra also stated that "Further, the changes in the law provide an avenue for plaintiff's, for property other than owner occupied, to request the court to enter an order to show cause why an order to make payments or order to vacate the premises should not be entered. This could be an effective tool in dealing with litigious owners who are renting the properties."

The HB 87 bill also establishes adequate protection for lost notes and is designed to prevent what Consuegra calls  "collateral attacks on foreclosure judgments by borrowers who were served in the action when the property has been acquired for value by a third party and all time periods to appeal have expired."

It is clear this new bill is going to take not only some adjustment, but some time to settle before the real effects can clearly be evaluated by both homeowners, attorneys and lawmakers.