Mediation and Arbitration

FORECLOSURE

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FORECLOSURE INFORMATION

Write your contract, do not give it to a stranger (the judge) to write for you !

Administrative Order 2010-025: Mortgage Foreclosure Procedures

For Pasco & Pinellas.

IN THE THIRTEENTH JUDICIAL CIRCUIT HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, FLORIDA ...

For Hillsborough

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Plaintiff(s),

REF:

v. UCN:

Defendant(s).

BORROWER’S REQUEST FOR

LENDER’S DISCLOSURE FOR MEDIATION

___________________________, as the Defendant/Borrower on the mortgage sued upon in this case, hereby requests the following information and disclosures from the Plaintiff/Lender pursuant to Sixth Judicial Circuit Administrative Order 2010-025 PA/PI-CIR (mark the information and documents requested):

_______ Documentary evidence that the Plaintiff/Lender is the owner and holder in due course of the note and mortgage sued upon.

_______ A history showing the application of all payments made by the Defendant/Borrower during the life of the loan.

_______ A statement of the Plaintiff/Lender’s position on the present net value of the mortgage loan.

_______ The most current appraisal of the property available to the Plaintiff/Lender.

DATED:

(Signature)

Defendant/Borrower or Attorney for the Defendant/Borrower

Address

Direct telephone number

Fax number

Florida Bar No.

CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE

I certify that a copy hereof has been furnished to: _______________________________

(name or names, address of delivery, fax number if delivered by fax, email address if delivered by email) by hand delivery, U.S. Mail, email, or fax on (date).

(Signature)

Circuit Court of the Sixth Judicial Circuit In and For Pasco andPinellas Counties issued a well thought local Administrative Order No. 2010-025 PA/PI-CIR that governs Mortgage Foreclosure Procedures. A very important part of this new Administrative Order requires foreclosing lenders, as of July 1, 2010, to file a verified “Form A” with their Complaint and serve the “Form A”, (which is the document that will initially allow the Court to determine whether or not the homeowner is entitled to participate in the Circuit’sForeclosure Mediation Program) to the homeowner along with the complaint.

There are several factors that will determine whether or not a homeowner is automatically entitled to participate in the mediation program, and one of the important factos is whether the property is the homeowner’s “Homesteaded” property. If it is, the homeowner is allowed to participate in the mediation program, which means the foreclosing lender must pay a mediation fee and must actively work with the homeowner and in a mediation to see what can be done to help save the home. Of course, the initial referral to mediation is based on the Plaintiff filing a verified, i.e., under oath form called “Form A” that tells the court if the homeowner’s property is homestead or not. If not, the homeower is automatically considered ineligible for the mediation program.

So, guess what is happening in all of my client’s cases that have been filed since July 1st? Mysteriously, every one of them has been told that they do not qualify for the mediation program because their property is not Homesteaded, at least according the “Verified” Form A filed by lender’s counsel. The only problem here of course is that every one of these client’s properties ARE THEIR HOMESTEAD. Now in addition to filing a response to the Complaint, we are having to file motions with the Court to prove something that these lenders already know; that these properties are homestead properties and the homeowners are entitled to participate in the mediation program.

Anyway, just a heads up for everyone out there to keep an eye out for this. Looks like we are heading into the next layer of Fraud where the banks and their attorneys have absolutely no problem at all filing “Verified” documents under oath that are complete lies!!

From Jon Coats Law Blog
2010
More than a decade ago

Peak House Prices Will Return to Sand States after 2025: Fiserv

by DIANA GOLOBAY Friday, April 9th, 2010, 3:53 pm

[Written more than a decade ago, & notice how much faster events happen now.]

Housing markets that experienced the greatest inflation in house prices — including certain metro areas in sand states California, Florida, Arizona and Nevada — will not see a return of peak-level home prices before 2025, according to financial services technology provider Fiserv.

"Nationally, Fiserv Case-Shiller data points to a further 7% decline in home prices through the end of this year, with a prolonged recovery beginning early in 2011. In many markets, the emphasis is on the word 'prolonged,'" said Fiserv chief economist David Stiff in a statement this week.

Other factors besides a run-up in house prices are dragging down recovery times in the industrial Midwest — including Michigan, Indiana and Ohio — where steep job losses in the manufacturing sector could keep housing demand low for some time.

But the data is not "uniformly grim" across all states, Stiff added.

A number of trends have defined initial signs of recovery in the housing market in recent months, including rising home sales. In particular, Pittsburgh, PA; Columbia, SC; and several metropolitan areas in Texas, Washington and upstate New York could see peak-level prices return within the next few years.

MIT-Harvard Study: Foreclosure drops house value by 27%

by KERRY CURRY

Monday, July 26th, 2010, 2:58 pm

A foreclosure reduces the value of a house by 27%, on average, and accounts for a much steeper price drop than other forced sales, according to a study by an Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) economist and two Harvard University researchers.

In comparison, when a house is sold after the death of an owner, the price drops 5% to 7% on average. When an owner declares bankruptcy, the value sinks 3%, according to the report.

The research, “Forced Sales and House Prices,” has been accepted for publication in the American Economic Review.

In the study, MIT economist Parag Pathak and Harvard researchers John Y. Campbell and Stefano Giglio examined 1.8m home sales in Massachusetts from 1987 through March 2009.

The researchers believe their discovery of the gaps between the price reductions is key to isolating the effects of foreclosures. Because the declines in value are so disparate, yet occur among comparable homes in the same times and places, the reductions in value are not all attributable to the same overarching economic conditions, the researchers believe.

“It’s not surprising that there is a discount due to foreclosure,” said Pathak. “But it is surprising that it’s so large.”

In addition, sellers trying to sell their non-distressed, occupied properties in a neighborhood that has a foreclosed home on the market will take a price hit, according to the report. The researchers estimated the value of a home drops by 1%, on average, if it is within roughly 250 feet of a foreclosed home. MIT said the paper represents the first time economists have been able to clearly quantify how much nearby foreclosures affects prices of inhabited homes.

“This can happen for multiple reasons,” Pathak said. First of all, he notes, “If you live near a foreclosed house, it may not be maintained.”

Neighborhood appearance enhances real estate value. Secondly, even without visible deterioration, such homes, when resold quickly for a discount, can affect neighborhood values because homebuyers and real estate brokers look at comparable sales when making an offer.

“First, houses are productive only when people are living in them,” the report said. “Owning an empty house is equivalent to throwing away the dividend on a financial asset. Second, houses are fragile assets that need maintenance, and are vulnerable to vandalism. Unoccupied houses are particularly vulnerable and expensive to protect. Third, short-term rental contracts involve high transactions costs, resulting from the moving costs of renters and the need of homeowners to protect their property against damage,” the report said.

Christopher Mayer, dean of the Columbia Business School in New York, said in a press release on MIT’s website that he believes the study will open up more research on whether foreclosures cause other foreclosures, a process he calls “contagion.”

Although the paper suggested only minor decreases in values of neighboring homes, Mayer questions whether there may be a tipping point “at which a neighborhood starts to fall apart.”