One of the best foreclosure defenses in Florida is to legally prove the lender is pursuing a wrongful foreclosure. According to the Law Offices of Joseph J. Mancuso, in a wrongful foreclosure, a lender tries to illegally foreclosure on a borrowers home. In some cases, lenders receive partial or full mortgage payments from burrowers but, mistakenly, initiate a foreclosure process. In other cases, lenders initiate a legitimate foreclosure but continue the foreclosure process after the borrower has declared bankruptcy. Other wrongful foreclosures occur when lenders apply an “incorrect amount of interest” toward a borrowers mortgage.
If you’ve been the victim of a wrongful foreclosure, the first thing your attorney will do is file an injunction to stop the foreclosure. According to the DeWitt Law Firm, they will, then, file a lawsuit against the mortgage lender to prove the foreclosure is illegal. The lawsuit can take anywhere from ten to twenty-four months.
During the wrongful foreclosure lawsuit, your lawyer can investigate the lender to prove the foreclosure is unlawful. According to Jacobs Keeley, your attorney has the right to determine who “actually owns the promissory note.” They can also review the lenders internal paperwork and question its employees under oath. This process makes the foreclosure more expensive and time-consuming for the lender. For this reason, when facing a wrongful foreclosure lawsuit, many lenders are willing to explore loan modification, waive deficiency judgements or accept “a payoff for less that what is owed on the mortgage.”
If you think you might be the victim of a wrongful foreclosure, contact us.
