“Anyone remember the Bert J. Harris, Jr. Act? It provides that an act of the government that causes an “inordinate burden” on the use of real property in the state gives the property owner the right to sue the government for compensation… Certainly, the value of property that’s no longer protected from fraudulent foreclosures is worth a lot less.”
~
Florida’s foreclosure fast-track bill may expose state to billions of dollars in liability under Bert Harris Act
The Florida legislature is once again considering a bill to fast-track foreclosure cases in the judicial system—even though no one wants to use the expedited procedure that already exists—and one of the most dangerous provisions the bill contains is the so-called “Finality of judgment” section.
The finality provision
This finality provision is backed by well-funded title insurance who might find themselves on the hook for fraudulent foreclosures completed in the last five years, and would deprive Florida homeowners of the right to recover property wrongfully lost through fraud or due process violations—exactly the kind of misdeeds that killed the careers and law firms of David J. Stern, Henry Adorno, and Mark Ben-Ezra (with more to come).
At first blush, this is a solution looking for a problem. There hasn’t exactly been a huge wave of innocent buyers losing property they purchased after a fraudulent foreclosure. At least not yet. But the title industry seems to think this wave is coming, and that’s why they are backing this bill.
More here…
~
No Comment