A compendium of articles about Florida Deficiency Judgments, including discussion about the current state of the law. Created by Sackrin & Tolchinsky, P.A., publishers of the AboutFloridaLaw.com For more information or to discuss a problem you need help resolved, call us at (954) 458-8655 or visit us at our website at HallandaleLaw.com.

1. Are you facing a deficiency
judgment in Florida?
A Collection of Helpful Articles.
Sackrin & Tolchinsky, P.A.
“Good lawyers are, first and foremost, good people…”

2. - Read more at:
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2014 Surprise for Florida Underwater Mortgages:
Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act Tax Break Has
Not Been Extended – Deficiency Will Be Taxed in 2014
What happens now, in Florida and across the nation, is that
anyone who negotiates their underwater home in a short
sale, or who has their home sold in a foreclosure sale, will
face not only the loss of their home but the reality of
possibly paying taxes on the balance left on that mortgage.

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July 2014 Deadline for Older Foreclosure Deficiency
Judgments – Small South Florida Banks and Credit
Unions Increasingly Aggressive on Deficiency Collection
Efforts
According to the new Florida Fair Foreclosure legislation,
the deadline for a bank to sue a defaulting home owner for
the amount left on a mortgage after a foreclosure (the
deficiency) was changed from 5 years to 1 year, regardless
of when the cause of action accrued.

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Are Florida Short Sales a Favorite With Florida Lenders?:
Florida Sellers Have Great Deals for Buyers – How Florida
Short Sale Lawyers Can Help.
Short sales historically have been good buys for Florida
buyers because they get a property for less than its true
market value. Sellers are relieved of the burden of an
underwater house and are able to get on with their lives, and
banks get the property off their books, and deal with the
seller on the deficiency issue.

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Florida Deficiency Foreclosure Claims: Banks Now Have
One Year Statute of Limitations Deadline to Pursue the
Deficiency
In Florida, when the mortgage balance is more than the
sales price of a home in foreclosure, there is a ―deficiency‖
– stated another way – the deficiency is the amount due the
lender when the sale proceeds in a short sale are not enough
to pay the loan balance.

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Deficiency Judgments and Past Due Condo Association
Payments
In Florida, one result of the past few year’s foreclosure
fraud crisis has been chaos for condo associations across the
state as Florida condo unit owners have become delinquent
in paying assessments. Often, strapped condo owners make
arrangements with their lenders regarding deficiency
judgments but fail to do the same with their condo
associations. It’s a very risky road to take.

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What Happens When Out of State Homeowners Who
Owned Florida Real Estate Face Bank Collection Efforts in
Their Home State (or Country) Because of a Florida
Foreclosure Judgment?: Domesticating Judgments
For those who live outside of the State of Florida but who
own or owned Florida real estate subject to foreclosure, the
possibility of that foreclosure’s deficiency judgment being
collected in your resident state is real.

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Florida Legislature Annual Session Begins Today:
Proposed Laws That Impact South Florida Home Owners
In a Big Way Are on the Table
The 60-day annual session of the Florida Legislature
begins, and the entire country is watching. The next nine
weeks are going to be a very important time for Floridians,
especially Florida home owners. Things began with
Governor Rick Scott’s State of the State address.

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Florida House Bill 87 and “Foreclosure Reform” Passes
Florida House’s Civil Justice Subcommittee: HB 87 is
One Step Closer to Ending Judicial Foreclosures in
Florida – This is Dangerous for Florida Home Owners
and Florida Real Estate
There’s a proposed law being pushed up in Tallahassee once
again this year that aims to end Florida’s long-standing judicial
foreclosure process, and this year it seems to be gaining strength,
though it died a pretty quick death in its earlier version last year.

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Fast Florida Short Sales: Freddie Mac VP Forecasts
Freddie Mac Short Sales Will Zip Through to
Closing in the Future – What About the
Deficiencies?
The Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (FHLMC),
commonly known by its nickname Freddie Mac, is under
the control of the federal government these days as the
Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) took over
conservatorship of both Freddie Mac and Fannie Mac in
September 2008. Freddie Mac is under the oversight of this
federal agency.

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Florida Short Sales and Florida Foreclosure
Defense Deadline for Tax Benefits is Now
December 31, 2013 After Fiscal Cliff Legislation
Signed Into Law Today
When you hear the talking heads discuss how Washington
has ―kicked the can down the road,‖ for Florida home
owners and those Floridians interested in short sales or
mortgage foreclosure defense this means one thing: they’ve
got one more year to get their property sold.

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Florida Short Sales, Deficiencies, and Taxes: Will 2012
Fiscal Cliff Bring End to Income Tax Forgiveness on
Deficiencies or Will Florida Short Sales in 2013 Have
Forgiven Mortgage Debt as Taxable?
For many months now, we’ve been monitoring the FIT situation
for underwater mortgages, as well as those homeowners facing
foreclosure, regarding Florida short sales and the current income
exclusion from federal income taxes. In short, back in 2007 a
law was passed that excluded any write-off, or forgiven debt, in a
foreclosure, short sale, or mortgage loan modification, from
being considered taxable income.

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Short Sale Hardship Letters to South Florida Banks and
Proving Home Owner Financial Hardship for Short Sale
Bank Approval: Things to Consider
The news is out for October 2012, and once again Florida
ranks number one in foreclosures in the United States
according to RealtyTrac research. It seems that one in
every 312 housing units in Florida was hit with a
foreclosure filing in October 2012.

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Florida Short Sale Programs – List of Short Sale
Packages Offered to South Florida Underwater Mortgage
Home Owners: 2012 Short Sale Programs in Broward
County
Short sales in South Florida are very, very popular these
days. Particularly in places like Miramar, Hallandale,
Hollywood, Pembroke Pines, Davie, and Fort Lauderdale,
more and more short sales are being offered with mortgage
banks coming on board to help get these short sale deals
done.

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Florida Strategic Defaults: Attitudes Are Changing and
Strategic Defaults on Underwater Mortgages May be On
the Rise in Florida – Why You Need a Lawyer in a
Strategic Default
Last week, TIME Magazine’s Martha C. White wrote an
article asking the following question, ―Is the Stigma of
Ditching Your Underwater Mortgage Fading? ‖ and the
conclusion reached in that piece shouldn’t be much of a
surprise to most anyone living here in foreclosure filled
South Florida. The answer is Yes.

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Federal Housing Finance Agency Pushes Banks to Go
After Home Owner Borrowers for Deficiencies:
October 17 Report Wants More Revenue to Fannie
Mae and Freddie Mac From Deficiency Collections
Watch out: yesterday a new report was released by the
Federal Housing Finance Agency (FNFA) (you can read it
online here) that finds mortgage bank agencies Fannie Mae
and Freddie Mac could increase their revenue by
aggressively going after collection of deficiencies on home
loans and on deficiency judgments.

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Florida Short Sales Success: Home Owners Need to Be
Smart and Shrewd in Short Sale Strategies to Get to
Closing Before December 31, 2012: Don’t Get Burned in
the Fever
With pressure building to get short sales done before the
end of the year (when the tax exemption for deficiencies
expires), it’s becoming more and more important to help
buyers find Florida short sale properties as well as helping
sellers promote their short sale deals.

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Florida Short Sales: New GSE Short Sale Rules from
Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae – How a Short Sale in 2012
Helps Sellers Now and When They Buy a Home in the
Future
Effective November 1, 2012, anyone with a government-
sponsored-enterprise (GSE) mortgage home loan that can
prove one of the hardships recognized by the federal
government may short sell their home even if they are
current in their mortgage payments.

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Florida Foreclosure: Why You Shouldn’t Procrastinate If Your
Florida Home is Facing Foreclosure, or If You Have an
Underwater Mortgage.
This post is important: people are getting hurt from lack of
knowledge and it needs to stop. It’s not just our Florida real
estate firm here in Broward County that has lawyers wanting to
bang their heads against walls or pull their hair out: all too often,
clients come to visit foreclosure defense attorneys all over
Florida late in the game – so late in fact, that for some they’ve
already lost part of their case. Waiting to deal with Florida
foreclosure issues is not only unwise, it can cause real harm to
you and your family.

20. - Read more at:
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Florida Deficiency Judgment Overturned by Florida Court:
Bank Loses Deficiency Because it Fails to Provide Valid
Evidence of Fair Market Value
Deficiency judgments are a real concern for home owners
facing foreclosure or dealing with short sales here in South
Florida. Under Florida law, even after the home has been
sold and the sales price used to pay down the mortgage
amount, the lender still has the legal right to come after the
assets held by the home owner in a ―deficiency lawsuit.‖

21. - Read more at:
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Florida Short Sales Are Booming in Broward County in
2012: 30% Increase From Last Year According to
RealtyTrac (and a 18% Boost in 2012 Short Sales
Statewide)
Short sales in Florida are happening more and more often;
in fact, the good news out of Broward County, Florida, is
that short sales have topped the number of foreclosures that
were filed in the first quarter of 2012 – and this is big, big
news since that hasn’t happened since 2008.

22. - Read more at:
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Underwater Mortgages Are Huge Problem Per New Zillow
Negative Equity Report: Will Florida Banks and the
Powers That Be Do More for Florida Home Owner Short
Sales and Loan Modifications?
Today, Zillow.com released its research study on the United
States’ housing market, ―Zillow Negative Equity Report,‖
and it’s not good news for anyone. From the Zillow
experts, in the first three months of 2012: 31.4 percent of
U.S. homeowners with a mortgage are underwater.

23. - Read more at:
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Florida Home Owners Stress Levels on the Rise: New
Laws Mean Flood of 1099Cs, Foreclosure Upswing in
2012 – 2013
It’s very stressful to be a Florida home owner dealing with
an underwater mortgage or defaulting on a home loan. Your
credit rating is getting zapped, there are all the collection
practices by the mortgage lender to juggle, and then there’s
the legal process itself – strategizing with your lawyer on
your home and mortgage debt, making decisions after
weighing the consequences, planning for the future.

24. - Read more at:
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Future of Florida Deficiency Judgments on Florida Home
Mortgages – Will New Laws Limit or End Bank’s Ability to
Sue for Unpaid Mortgage Balance?
This week, the proposed Florida Fair Foreclosure Act got
one step closer to becoming law when the Florida State
Senate Judiciary Committee okayed the foreclosure bill. In
the near future, the Florida Legislature should be voting on
this proposal and you can track the progress of this bill (SB
1890) online here.

25. - Read more at:
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Bank Foreclosure Fraud Settlement with the State
Attorneys General: How Much Trickles Down to Help
South Florida Homeowners? Not Much.
The joint task force investigating foreclosure fraud by banks
and mortgage servicers in this country, which brought
together the top attorneys for each state in the country, i.e.,
their Attorneys General, has made a settlement deal
according to a news release by the AGs.

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Florida Mortgage Holders: Has Anyone Explained to You About
the CollectionEfforts That You’ll Face When You Stop Making
Your Home Mortgage Payments? Unfair Collection Activities
in Florida Mortgage Defaults and Deficiencies
A nice article appeared in Reuters this week entitled, ―What
Happens When You Walk Away From Your Home?‖ that includes
a brief discussion of things we post about here
regularly: underwater mortgages in Florida and elsewhere and
the various issues that go into deciding whether or not to stop
making mortgage payments on a home that is valued so much
less than the amount left due on the home loan.

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Florida Home Owners Need to Short Sale Now Because
Income Tax Benefit Goes Away End of 2012: The Mortgage
Debt Relief Act of 2007 Expires This Year
Florida home owners concerned about foreclosure and
pondering a short sale should get busy and get that short
sale process started. Why? There is a countdown to the
expiration date of a federal law that will impact them badly
if they wait until after the end of 2012 to close on that short
sale of their home.

28. - Read more at:
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Five Things To Know About The Income Tax Break For
Short Sales, Foreclosures, and Loan Modifications
That Ends December 2012
As discussed in our earlier post, a major tax break will end
on December 31, 2012, that helps Florida home owners
facing foreclosures, negotiating loan modifications, or
working on a short sale of their home.

29. - Read more at:
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New Pew Study Finds Many Americans Think It’s Okay
to Default on an Underwater Mortgage: Evaluating Your
Options
The Pew Research Center is one of the country’s most
respected research firms, and here at year end, many are
listening to what Pew is reporting regarding Americans’
take on the foreclosure crisis and people not paying their
mortgages.

30. - Read more at:
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Congress Fixing Foreclosure Mess: New Bill Proposes to
Limit or Nix Deficiency Judgments on Homes in Proposed
Fairness in Foreclosures Act
It’s being called the Fairness in Foreclosures Act of 2011,
although it’s proceeding through the United States House of
Representatives as House Resolution 3566, and it’s a big
deal to a lot of homeowners in trouble all across the
country.

31. - Read more at:
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Florida Deficiency Lawsuits Against Florida
Homeowners Who Walked Away From Their
Mortgages: Are You About to be Sued for the
Deficiency Balance Left on Your Florida Mortgage?
Florida has been in tough economic times for a long while
now, and lots of Florida homeowners, stressed and
frustrated, have chosen to move on — walking away from
their homes and their mortgages

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Florida Foreclosure Crisis This Week: Feds Intro New
Underwater Mortgage Help Via HARP and Florida
Supreme Court Foreclosure Mediation Report is
Released
HARP was revised this week by the federal government in
the hopes that up to 1 million Americans with underwater
mortgages can get refinancing through a program overseen
by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

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Do Florida Home Owners Need to Fight a Deficiency
Judgment When Their is Fraud in Their Foreclosure?:
Does Foreclosure Fraud Stop a Deficiency Judgment?
Florida homeowners in trouble with their mortgages
oftentimes do not realize that just because they lose the
burden of the house itself, they are not free and clear of the
debt.

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Robosigning Is Still Happening – Shocking Expose by
Reuters Reveals Banks Are Still Filing Bad Paperwork:
Foreclosure Fraud Is Not Over
Robo-signing, where official legal documents are
fraudulently created and then filed by banks and their
attorneys when they are attempting to foreclose on homes in
Florida and elsewhere, has been one of the major reasons
for the national Foreclosure Fraud crisis.

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89 Different Florida Appraisers Are Listed in FDIC’s
Claims of Fraudulent Appraisals in Lawsuit against
Lender Processing Service: Is Your Appraiser on the List?
In the pleadings filed in the lawsuit filed by the FDIC
against Jacksonville’s Lender Processing Services, it has
become part of the public record that 89 different Florida
appraisers are listed by name as being involved in this
lawsuit, and out of those 89 appraisers, 35 have been in
disciplinary actions before the Florida Real Estate Appraisal
Board.

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Bankers Warned to Think Twice Before Going After
Deficiency Judgments After Last Week’s News of
Overestimated Number of Strategic Defaults
Deficiency judgments are sometimes sought in lawsuits
brought by banks when a home goes through a foreclosure
sale and afterwards there is still an amount left owing on the
mortgage note. Being left with money still owed to the
financial institution after already losing one’s home in a
foreclosure is a true nightmare for many Americans these
days.

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What is HAFA, What are the Feb 2011 HAFA Changes, and
How Can HAFA Help You If You’re Facing Foreclosure? –
Deficiency Judgment Relief
HAFA stands for a federal government program named ―the
Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives Program‖ which
was created to compliment another government program,
the ―Making Home Affordable Program.‖ Both are under
the supervision of the U.S. Treasury Department as part of
the TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program).

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Can the Bank Garnish My Wages During a Florida
Foreclosure?
A subject that is a recent area of inquiry from my clients is
Wage Garnishment. Wage Garnishment, as I explained in
previous posts, is the lenders ability to deduct money
directly from your salary if they obtain a deficiency
judgment against you.

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Suspected Lender Fraud Opens Doors for Homeowners
Who Have Lost Their Homes to Claim Wrongful
Foreclosure
If you read this blog regularly, you know that I represent a
variety of people in South Florida who are facing
foreclosure proceedings on their homes. Please be sure to
read this if you’ve already lost your home, because you may
be entitled to receive compensation if your home was
wrongfully taken away based on false assertions in Court
documents .

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Bank of America Foreclosures – Homeowners’ lawsuits
seeking compensation for wrongful foreclosure
Documents filed by Bank of America, along with JP
Morgan Chase, GMAC, may allow homeowners who have
lost their home to foreclosure to receive compensation –
Foreclosure defense attorneys will be asserting that the
filing of the affidavits was a fraud on the Court allowing the
time to bring a lawsuit to set aside old foreclosure actions to
be extended beyond the date the property was sold at
auction

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Banks Suspend Foreclosures – Possible Fraud on Courts
– Homeowners May Be Entitled to Compensation
Freezing of foreclosures by Bank of America, JP Morgan
Chase and GMAC may lead to a new foreclosure crisis
affecting the banking sector and title insurance
industry. Possible faulty documents are causing banks to
halt foreclosures and causing title insurers to stop issuing
title insurance on bank owned real estate.

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False Documents in Florida Foreclosure Cases – Getting
the Word Out
An article in today’s Sarasota Herald Tribune discusses how
the Florida Attorney General’s office is investigating
whether Florida Default Law Group in Tampa, one of the
largest Florida foreclosure firms, is using fake or
misleading documents in their foreclosure cases.

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Charges against Goldman Sachs can Help Foreclosure
Defenses on Main Street
The Securities and Exchanges Commission announced
charges against Goldman Sachs for failing to disclose
information to investors about the sale of mortgage
investment vehicles which are at the center of today’s
foreclosure crisis. While this is a good first step in
uncovering some of the abuses that occurred in the
mortgage meltdown we still need to go further.

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Lenders Beware – Foreclosure Lawsuits are Going to
Trial!
It used to be when a homeowner fell into default, the bank
could feel pretty secure that foreclosure proceedings would
eventually lead to forfeiture of the property in
question. Back then, a competent attorney could possibly
forestall forfeiture of the home for a period of time before
foreclosure proceedings usually ended in a judgment for the
Bank.

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Can the Bank Garnish my Wages after Foreclosure if they
are seeking a Deficiency Judgment against me?
A question that often comes up in my practice is whether,
and to what extent, creditors can garnish a client’s wages if
a deficiency judgment is sought by a creditor after
foreclosure. Under §77.01, Florida Statutes, every
judgment creditor has a right to a writ of garnishment.

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Are Foreclosure Defenses Stopping Mortgage
Foreclosures?
The sad reality of today’s housing market is that a vast
majority of homeowners are unaware that lawyers around
the country are raising defenses that are effectively stopping
mortgage foreclosures in their tracks. Banks are hoping that
this message doesn’t reach the masses because they know
this could bring the financial system to its knees.

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Are Prime Borrowers in Florida The Most at Risk for a
Deficiency Judgment?
I have written several blog posts relating to foreclosure and
deficiency judgments. Generally, most of the people who
are in foreclosure have very little assets outside of their
home and most are unemployed, which makes the
possibility of a deficiency judgment unlikely.

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Larry Tolchinsky contributes to a Bloomberg.com article
on Deficiency Judgments
Insight from attorney Larry Tolchinsky contributed to a
recent article on Bloomberg.com entitled ―Lenders Pursue
Mortgage Payoffs Long After Homeowners Default.‖ The
article, written by Kathleen M. Howley, summarizes the
concept of deficiency judgments and raises the question
whether this issue will be the next big crisis for consumers.

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Florida Deficiency Judgments – What is Fair Market
Value?
A deficiency in the Florida mortgage foreclosure setting is
the difference between the value of a lien on real property
(the amount due to fully satisfy a debt) and the price
obtained by the creditor-mortgagee after foreclosing on the
property.

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Who is Liable for The Mortgage Deficiency? Heirs or the
Estate?
A client contacted me the other day with a very interesting
situation. His father was a citizen of Canada and maintained
a winter home in South Florida. His father had named him
on the deed to the property so that it would pass to him
upon his father’s death.

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Walking away from your Home Mortgage: Can You Do So
Without Consequences?
As the value of real estate is continuously depreciating,
more and more people are resorting to ―self-help‖ measures
to get out of sky-high mortgages – except that such
measures are not only harmful to their own interests, but are
also further devastating the economy.

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Florida Deficiency Judgments: What is The Rest of the
Story?
As a follow-up to my earlier post on deficiency judgments,
I wanted to discuss some elements that I did not previously
cover and which I have been asked by clients. A
bank/lender that obtains a deficiency judgment, also known
as a judgment creditor, has many avenues to collect on its
judgment.

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Deficiency Judgments in Florida: What Are They and Will
I have to Pay?
A deficiency in the mortgage foreclosure setting is the
difference between the value of a lien on real estate (the
amount due to fully satisfy a debt) and the price obtained by
the Bank after foreclosing on the property (or the fair
market value of the property).