FLORIDA GOV SCOTT & LEGISLATURE MAKES MOVES TO LEGALIZE FRAUDCLOSURE OUTSIDE THE COURTS

We are going to need everyone to help on this one.

 

This is extremely alarming.

 

From the St. Petersburg Times here:

 

Gov. Rick Scott, House Speaker Dean Cannon and Senate President Mike Haridopolos all say they are interested in considering legislation to change Florida laws so judges won’t have to referee foreclosures.

 

And the House Civil Justice Subcommittee on Tuesday heard a presentation on foreclosures detailing states that include courts in the process versus those that don’t.

 

Bottom line: Foreclosures take longer and are more expensive in states that involve courts, said state economist Amy Baker. (That damn due process and the time it takes) St. Petersburg Times

 

And Please sign the petition

 

Even the Title Industry relies on judicial foreclosures as highlighted in the recent Florida Bar News article on land record fraud, fraud upon the courts, foreclosure fraud, and securitization fail here.

 

Pat Jones, associate general counsel and vice president for underwriting for Attorneys’ Title Fund Services, said while robosigning and other document problems “are troublesome, we have not heard of many instances where the information on the affidavits is flawed or inaccurate as to the indebtedness itself. The improper execution of documents in a foreclosure action is not something that a title examiner can readily identify.”

Due process protections of the foreclosure process are important, she said, because it means that owners have been served and have a chance to challenge the validity of a foreclosure, including supporting documents. That’s one reason that judicial foreclosures, in the Fund’s opinion, are more worthy of underwriting than nonjudicial foreclosures.

“The Fund firmly believes judicial foreclosure gives borrowers every opportunity to raise all defenses, procedural and substantive, that they might have to an attempted foreclosure of their property,” Jones said.

“It is those due process protections that provide confidence to purchasers of foreclosed property.”

 

I don't think Passidomo's bill has a House number yet.  I just called the committee & asked them if there will be an archived video link to yesterday's meeting on foreclosures that was discussed in the St Pete article.  If not, one can do a public records request for the audio on CD.  The cost is about $10.  One way or another, we can should be able to hear what was discussed at that meeting.

We were strong opponent activists (blogging, calls, emails, faxes, arranging buses up to Tallahassee for a day of protest) against this in the spring of 2010  (Grady in the house, Bennett in the Senate), the winter of 2011 (Passidomo in the House and Latvala in the Senate), and now..........it's back for winter 2012.  We have email threads from Mayanne Downs (former president of the FL Bar and House Rep. George Moratis strongly supporting the "throw the deadbeats out" stance.)

Believe or not, the bill intro'd in 2010 was called "Homeowner Relief and Housing Recovery Act".  Last year it had the same name as the one slated for this year "Fair Foreclosure Act."

I have the links to the committee meetings from last session when the same type legislation, albeit without a gubernatorial shove, was under consideration.  These meetings covered foreclosure fraud issues as they were breaking in the news.  I can tell you from personal experience that land record fraud and foreclosure fraud was thought to be so rare as to be inconsequential.  The strong message from Speaker Canon, Sen. Joe Negron, Rep. George Moratis, and Rep Kathleen Passidomo was that the state's economic recovery is dependent on more, faster, easier foreclosures.

FL HOUSE on FEB 24, 2011  http://www.myfloridahouse.gov/FileStores/AdHoc/PodCasts/02_24_2011/...

FL SENATE on DEC 8, 2010  http://www.flsenate.gov/PublishedContent/Committees/2010-2012/BI/Me...

FL SENATE JAN 11, 2011  http://www.flsenate.gov/PublishedContent/Committees/2010-2012/BI/Me...