Legal Advocates To Homeowners Facing Foreclosure: Stay Put & Fight Back; Clogged Courts, Budget Cuts Have Cases Moving At Snail's Pace

In Central Florida, the Sarasota Herald Tribune reports:

• Phil Agnes and other lawyers have two words for homeowners facing foreclosure: Stay put. The flood of foreclosures has clogged the courts, allowing homeowners to stay in their homes while the paperwork goes through the system. Many homeowners are unaware that they can remain at home for months while the foreclosure is in court, attorneys say.

• And homeowners willing to challenge the foreclosure sometimes can remain in their homes for more than a year, sometimes more than two years, just by filing a few basic legal documents. "It's in everyone's best interest to stay in the home," said Agnes, an attorney who volunteers at Gulf Coast Legal Services Inc.

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• The Manatee and Sarasota court records are full of cases in which the banks waited months to move forward, even if the owner did not respond. Agnes said he has two cases where he responded for the homeowners, and the bank has not filed anything in almost a year. "And they're still in the house," he said.

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• Adding to the clog, the lenders often pay law firms a flat fee for each judgment they obtain, so they focus on the easier cases, foreclosure defense attorneys who work in the system say. When a homeowner files paperwork(1) that takes the case out of the fast track and into the traditional court, lender attorneys sometimes seem to put the case aside. "They don't have time to necessarily fight these cases," Agnes said. [...] And any motion that requires the banks to produce information can delay the case for months. The more difficult the request, the longer the delay. The going time lag for banks to respond when a homeowner asks to see some types of paperwork? Up to six months.

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• Requesting records from the lenders is more than just a stalling tactic, attorneys say. Homeowners have every right to force lenders to prove they really own the home loan. An unprecedented number of mortgages were repackaged together and sold as securities, which provides the best opportunities to homeowners trying to fight. The facts in every case differ, so there are no guarantees on how long a homeowner can stay after they stop paying the mortgage.

For more, see Attorneys advise clients to stay in their homes.

For a story that reflects the massive budget cuts and personnel layoffs being imposed on court systems throughout Florida, see The Florida Times Union: Florida court clerks face stiff budget cuts (A new law slashes budgets, leading to some counties' layoffs and office closings):

• Pointing to stacks of foreclosure [...] cases waiting to be filed, [Duval County Clerk of Courts Jim Fuller, who is president of the Florida Association of Court Clerks] said fewer employees probably will mean a longer lag time in filing cases.

(1) Go here for links to Sample Foreclosure Defense Legal Documents that some use when demanding that lenders produce the proper paperwork (ie. promissory notes, etc.), and who are otherwise fighting foreclosures. EpsilonMissingDocsMtg