ACTION ALERT! BANKSTERS, FL LEGISLATURE ARE TRYING TO TAKE AWAY YOUR CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS!
Cross-posted from the Law Offices of Evan M. Rosen
For the fourth year in a row, elected lawmakers in the Florida legislature have introduced a bill designed to bypass your constitutional rights and speed up the process of taking people’s property away and throwing them into the street. This bill is given a tricky name meant to fool people into thinking it is good for Floridians. The “Fair Foreclosure Act”, House Bill 87, has been introduced into the Florida House of Representatives by Representative Kathleen Passidomo (R-Naples). We call it the “UNfair Foreclosure Act” to more accurately portray the intention and goals of the bill. This is the third year Rep. Passidomo has introduced her bill. She just won’t give up. She believes that faster foreclosures that kick more Floridian families out of their homes will speed up the recovery of Florida economy. This bill will have a twin in the Florida Senate, to be introduced by Senator Jack Latvala (R-Clearwater).
What will change if this bill passes? The law will affect every single pending foreclosure case in the state because it is retroactive. The banks only need to submit certain documents and then it is up to the homeowner to prove there are issues of fact. However, the judge can ignore the owner’s issues and enter a ruling anyway! The traditional rule of law, where a person who sues another must prove their case by “the greater weight of the evidence” will be dead for foreclosure cases. Banks can take your home away, quickly and easily… They can continue to fabricate documents as they have been caught doing countless times, file them in court, and then the homeowner has only 20 days to raise doubt, which again, the judge can ignore! The homeowner is not allowed to take time to ask for bank records or payment history to help prove bank misconduct or a wrongful foreclosure. Lastly, if a house is wrongfully foreclosed, in certain circumstances a homeowner cannot sue to get their house back!
Over the next month, the bills will move through committees in the Florida House and the Florida Senate where our elected representatives will vote on the bills. If the “YES” votes outnumber the “NO” votes in each committee, then the bills will go to a floor vote in both chambers of the Florida legislature (the Florida House of Representatives and the Florida Senate). If those “YES” votes outnumber the “NO” votes in both chambers and the Governor signs off, the bill becomes a law.
We need your help! We’ll be making new blog posts and sending out regular email updates and Action Alerts to our clients and will also be posting them on this blog. Please take action by following the instructions to call and email your elected representatives to urge them to OPPOSE this bill! Encourage your friends and family to also take action. The only hope of defeating this bill and preventing it from becoming Florida law is to raise mass citizen opposition.
For an idea of what we are up against, on Thursday, February 7, 2013, House Bill 87 was up for its first committee vote. The results (here) were ten YES votes to only three NO votes. Ten to three. See where this is going?
Before a subcommittee votes, they hold a hearing where citizens and lobbyists can speak for or against the proposed legislation. You can watch a video link of the February 7, 2013 committee hearing here, start at 16:15 to watch Representative Kathleen Passidomo discuss her “foreclosure reform” bill followed by speakers deliver comments in response and then finally the committee members vote overwhelmingly to pass the bill to move it on to the next committee vote. Keep in mind, every year, this bill has included some requirements that are citizen friendly. As the bill moves through different committees, those parts are weakened or completely removed after powerful and connected bank lobbyists demand changes. Don’t be fooled!
TODAY’S ACTION ALERT: Look up your Florida representative here. Call them NOW (during business hours) and leave a short message to OPPOSE House Bill 87. If you get a voice mail, leave a message with your name, county, zip code and instructions to OPPOSE HO– USE BILL 87. Also, please log in to sign this petition.
We know the bill is headed to the House Justice Appropriations Subcommittee next. Stay tuned for the action alert to call and email the members of that committee next.
~
If you are in South Florida and are looking for help with debt, foreclosure, real estate or want more information about bankruptcy law, call (754) 400-5150 or fill out the online form for a FREE CONSULTATION. Let the lawyers and staff at the Law Offices of Evan M. Rosen serve you!
The Law Offices of Evan M. Rosen is a debt relief agency. In addition to other legal services, the Law Offices of Evan M. Rosen help clients file for bankruptcy relief under the Bankruptcy Code.
~
You are just nut! Bank of America STOLEN my mo. payments for three years and …. then FORECLOSURE. iS IT SIMPLE?
Our forefathers would have honored their obligations and paid their mortgages. If they didnt, they wouldn’t have expected the court to not allow the other party to enforce the binding contract.
Your argument just doesn’t make any sense….what exactly is it about a bank enforcing a contract that would have our forefathers reeling in their graves?
why dont you post the ACTUAL BILL and people decide its merits on their own instead of telling everyone how to think?
If this law was so bad, where was the outrage the last the 4 years it was introduced?
Pay your mortgage payments, or they have the right to tale your home. its that simple
This is not what Our Forefathers had in mind! The lawmakers today are lawbreakers!! This is not what our forefathers had in mind! I am sure they are all reeling from their graves!
Please Don’t throw us under the bus!
I called both my state house and state Senate representatives’ offices. The staff wrote down the information but on both calls, I had to explain what HR 87 was! The house staffer told me my representative wasn’t on the HR 87 committee, I had to explain, “please let him know that when it reaches the floor of house for a vote, I would like him to vote against it because it deprives homeowners of due process when defending their homes in court.
Best I could do,
May you ask your Rep who are in the HR 87 Committee? So every one can call even you are not in his/her district.
Thanks for this posting alert! I will start calling representatives we have to stop this nonsense.
While I appreciate the Lee Camp videos – issues like this are much more important and they should be in a format readily available – to hear/see – people are sick of all these words, words, words, please put stuff in a format – Matt always records himself from his own computer – have him put this in a format we can digest by listening and seeing him – don’t make us read – we have enough with mountains of paperwork from cases, articles, hearings, etc. This message will get lost because readers are sick of reading – you guys can tape something like this can’t you – or have a link to where this is perhaps recorded as a videographed message . . . thanks!