A home foreclosure is a situation where a bank repossess a home whose owner has defaulted making loan payments for his mortgage.
Home foreclosures in Florida are judicial, meaning that the plaintiff must file a lawsuit against you in a State Court. After the complaint, you have 20 days to file an answer. If you don’t respond within this period, the lender wins the case.
If you file an answer, the plaintiff can file a motion for summary judgment. The assumption here is that you have no solid defense to justify your non-payment. If that’s the case, you lose the case. However, the judge can deny the motion for summary of judgment and progress it to the foreclosure trial. If you cannot defend yourself, the court will pass judgment of foreclosure.
After the foreclosure judgment, the court schedules a date for the sale of the property, which is between 20 and 35 days. The plaintiff’s defense can request for more time.
Sale of the Premises
The lender must publish the sale of property notice in the newspapers for two consecutive weeks with the second publication on five or more days before the date of sale. On the sale date, the highest bidder buys the property, or it becomes Real Estate Owned (REO), meaning owned by the bank. You have ten days to object to the bid amount.
Eviction
If you do not vacate after the foreclosure sale, the new property owner can offer you cash for you to leave. The owner files for injunction of possession. The sheriff then posts it on the premises and gives you 24 hours to vacate. If you don’t, you are forcefully evicted. Contact us to get the best advice.
