WEAR 3 NEWS TOP STORIES VIDEO
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TALLAHASSEE – Bankers in Florida have been pushing legislation to reduce the amount of time it takes to foreclose on a home, but concerns seemed to have stopped the legislation dead in its tracks.
A busload of home owners facing foreclosure came to the Capitol Wednesday to drive a stake in the heart of the bill.
Florida bankers have been trying to get lawmakers to reduce the time it takes to foreclose from as long as two years to as little as 90 days.
The proposal has upset homeowners who are facing foreclosure from across the state. They came to the Capitol with signs and stories of being misled and mistreated.
Lisa Epstein / Homeowner: “Before this debacle happened in my personal life, I had never paid a bill late.”
Lisa came from Palm Beach, Elisa Slack from Pensacola.
Elisa Shack / Facing Foreclosure: “You could lose your house in as little as 30 days without having to go to court, so you wouldn’t even get heard by a judge. Who wins in that case? The banks do.”
After telling their stories, organizers gave them their marching orders.
Mark Weidner / Attorney: “Every single one of you are going to go and meet your legislators. You’re going to explain to them the problem, you’re going to tell them why you are up here.”
Inside the Capitol, they searched for friendly faces.
The legislation is all but dead here on the Capitol’s fourth floor. The bankers are pleading for mercy, saying “we’re being misunderstood.” Bankers are defending their push, saying homeowners will decide if a foreclosure gets on the fast track or not. They also argue that foreclosure reform is the path to a healthier economy.
Anthony De Marco / FL. Bankers Assn.: “If we get the property back faster with title, we can pay the condo dues that are owed, we can start maintaining the home, or better yet, sell it to someone who will move in.”
While the legislation is on life support, the bankers are also pushing for more judges to handle the backlog of cases.
The legislation could also give some much-needed relief to the court system, which is backed up with an estimated half-million foreclosure cases.
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April 20, 2010
To whom it may concern,
Due to Hurricane Ivan and an immediate job loss, my husband (Jackie Glen Waldon) and I (Imanda Carroll Waldon) got behind on our mortgage payment. I made numerous calls to Citi Mortgage to modify our mortgage loan. Since we have been with this mortgage company, we have been paying 11% interest and hardly any money has come off the principal. Our home address is 8175 Couey Road, Milton, Fl. We have lived in our home for 16 years. Citi Mortgage proceeded with the foreclosure process. We hired a Chapter 13 attorney/Foreclosure Representative to assist us in fighting the mortgage company to dismiss the accelerated interest fees; our total debt not including our mortgage was less than $17,000.00. We went from owing one mortgage payment to owing the mortgage company over $11,000.00. Because of this, we were forced into a Chapter 13 to save our home. My husband and I believe in paying our debt, we went in the Chapter 13 to pay 100%. Fifty three months later and pure hell, we have paid over $31,000.00 to the Chapter 13 program and we have paid Citi Mortgage over $30,000.00. This has not included the cost of living and raising a teenage child. My husband and I only make fifty thousand dollars a year. We have been so strapped by this program and our mortgage company charging us so much interest. We can’t even afford to pay our property taxes and insurance because most all of our money goes to the Trustee and Mortgage Company. I have pleaded with the mortgage company to re-evaluate our mortgage and include our taxes and insurance. After paying over $60,000.00 in cash to save our home, on December 31, 2009, CitiMortgage has proceeded forward in foreclosure. (We only owe $62,000.00 on our home). January 2010, I called to make our monthly mortgage payment and they would not accept the payment. We have been making our mortgage payments each month along with our Chapter 13 payment. The Trustee is stating that we will be out of the Chapter 13 in October 2010, about $38,000.00. My husband and I don’t understand why we are paying so much money that we didn’t owe. The Trustee states that they can allocate additional interest to debtors and we feel like we are being raped not to mention could still lose our home. We have been making our payments. With the economy so bad and foreclosures ski high, why would they not work with us and not accept our money. The Trustee has already paid Citi Mortgage over $11,000.00 in accelerated interest fees of our money. None of that money came off our mortgage. To date, we have paid the mortgage company over $40,000.00 in cash and within 53 months. We are asking for help to help us modify our loan to an acceptable interest rate to include our insurance and property taxes. We love our home! We have raised our children in our home. I have recently lost my job due to the mental stress and exhaustion this has put on us. We can’t continue to throw our money away. We are in our mid forties and we are trying to plan for our future.
Thank you in advance for consideration of our case. We have paid our debt in full and we need to save our home. The Chapter 13 attorney did not advise us that we will still have 10 years of bad credit ONCE /IF we are discharged from this Chapter 13. These programs should be illegal and mortgage companies should not be allowed to charge interest rates that WILL NOT ALLOW YOU TO PAY OFF YOUR HOME! These folks are getting rich because of people like us and what happens to the little folks….ALMOST HOMELESS IN MILTON, FLORIDA. Please contact me waldon.imanda@yahoo.com for further details and information.