Florida Repo Homes for Sale to Soar with Foreclosure Bill

Repo homes for sale in Florida will certainly climb up higher in number once a bill backed by the Florida Bankers Association is passed.

The 500-member association has been lobbying for a bill that would allow non-judicial foreclosure proceedings in Florida starting July 1 this year. Non-judicial foreclosures would allow mortgage banks to foreclose on delinquent homeowners without filing cases in court.

In effect, judges would no longer have a say on foreclosures. Lenders can immediately foreclose on borrowers in default and can force them out of their houses quickly, in as short a time as three months.

Florida, which has been known for being fierce in protecting homeowner rights, is one of several states that have been implementing judicial foreclosure for decades. California, Texas, Alabama, Georgia and 33 other states have already approved non-judicial foreclosures.

With the lobbying power and determination of the banking association, they could get their way and add thousands more to the almost 517,000 foreclosure cases already filed statewide in 2009.

As travel- and tourism-related businesses slowed down in Florida and as the unemployment rate rose over the past several months, the number of repo homes for sale also increased. In December, the unemployment rate rose to 11.8 percent, up from 11.5 percent in November. It meant that more than one million Floridians were out of work as of December, out of a 9.18-million labor force.

Based on the provisions included in the bill, non-judicial foreclosure proceedings must be completed in not less than 3 months and not more than one year. With court involvement, foreclosures can take one year or two years to get done, and longer if lawyers launch an additional legal strategy.

The bill would also effectively nullify the mandatory mediation initiative recently launched by the state Supreme Court. The bill only provides for informal talks between lenders and borrowers.

The bankers also proposed to have the right to pursue delinquent homeowners for the unpaid portion of the mortgage debt even if they have already been evicted from their homes. They nevertheless provided a waiver under which they will forgive the full amount of the loan if borrowers do not trash the properties after they are foreclosed.

According to banking association head Alex Sanchez, the bankers want to help communities manage repo homes for sale, help housing associations collect dues from delinquent properties and to help courts overwhelmed by thousands of foreclosure and bankruptcy cases.

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