Florida Leads in Undead Foreclosures
Zombie foreclosures still haunt Florida’s housing market with 48,630 lurking in the court system and abandoned by their owners.
RealtyTrac, the Irvine-Calif.-based company that tracks zombie foreclosures, says the high number in Florida puts it at the top of the nation for zombie properties with South Florida ranking second highest among large urban metros. South Florida has 12,958 zombies still marring neighborhoods.
Zombie foreclosures are defined as homes that entered the foreclosure process, have been abandoned by their owners, but have yet to be repossessed by the bank.
They are a “lingering legacy of the recent housing crisis, a byproduct of lengthy foreclosure timelines and changing state foreclosure statutes,” RealtyTrac says.
More here…
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My Brother’s sudden death in 2009, not only left us horrified, but also no valid will. His home was
modest yet underwater with only about $50,000 owed. Investigating the possibility of siblings taking over the mortgage resulted in finding the banks proving their power to ignore. Attempts to maintain the property became impossible due to squatters,thefts, deliberate damage,threats etc. The bank taking over the maintenance included continued theft, deliberate damage etc. The bank who listed MERs in it’s assignments, recently assigned the property to FNMA. Also, apparently because I inquired about the property they served me as a defendant, The fines and costs as well as serious damage are 2 to 4 times that of when I notified them in 2010. Recently they finally responded to me – by way of a collection agency.
I am fighting BoA, AKA, Countrywide. The courts in florida are bought and paid for by the banks and Gov. Scott. These Hearing Officers/Magistrates are put into place to do the dirty work. If not for one Judge , I would swear they are all corrupt. Unfortunately this Judge is not in Foreclosure or Family court. These substitute wanna be judges always violate federal and state laws, which in many cases violate your civil rights and deny your rights to DUE PROCESS. i HAD ONE FLAT OUT TELL ME HE DID NOT WANT TO HEAR ANYTHING I HAD TO SAY AND HE WOULD NOT LOOK AT ANY EVIDENCE I HAD TO PRESENT. AND THEN TOLD ME IF I DIDNOT LIKE IT, I COULD FILE AN EXCEPTION, WHICH I DID, BUT A JUDGE THAT HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH THE CASE APPROVED HIS RECOMMENDATION, AND THEN ANOTHER JUDGE, 30 DAYS LATER DENIED MY EXCEPTIONS. WOW! WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON? IF YOU HAVEN’T GUESSED THIS IS SEMINOLE COUNTY (SANFORD) FLORIDA HOME OF THE TREVON TRAVISTY. IF YOU CANNOT BUY JUSTICE, YOU ARE GUILTY.
Friday, I received a call from the Florida Attorney General’s office on their decision with reference to the 300 plus page Complaint I filed in March after the Appeal Court failed to reach a positive outcome after 2 years. Instead of ruling in my favor, the Court filed a MANDATE without an “OPINION” thus stopping me from going to the Supreme Court, so, I filed with the AG! What a joke! After providing 18 pages of the forgery, fraud and wrongful foreclosure practices of the foreclosure king, DAVID STERNS, on a Bank I never heard of and 4 different banks that all had their fingerprint on my loan from the date I bought my retirement home in 2006 and a foreclosure complaint filed in March of 2008 after I was told I could not be considered for a loan modification unless I was 3 months behind. After 3 months, we received the foreclosure complaint. Anyway, finally in April of 2012, a fake TRIAL was held and no matter the false documents, forged assignments and underhanded BS by the banks new attorney, I come to find out on Friday…that none of this matters because the National Settlement Agreement signed by all 50 AG’s, is in 2 pieces…One was the 25 Billion Dollars to help the homeowners (I received $500!!) and the other was to move forward with the banks promising to stop their “bad behavior” with new servicing guidelines. The cut off date was December 11, 2011 for any fraud to be considered from January 1, 2008 to December 11, 2011…my foreclose trial and judgment was 4 months after the deadline. Of course I was told that I have the right to sue the banks but I’m beat…beat up and there really is no way to win…it just doesn’t matter!! If you are fighting a case that is after the December 11, 2011 date…forget it! The banks are forgiven for any fraud they did from January 1, 2008 to December 11, 2011…NO ONE WILL DO ANYTHING and we can’t win in the courts, the AG, the OCC, District Attorney, Police, Sherriff, FBI or the Department Of Justice!! I’m letting go! I can’t swim up stream any longer!! It’s all rigged against us so don’t waste any time or money…Get whatever you can out of your house, tie it up in these corrupt courts and rent it out so you can get as much as you can…once the court is finished, so are you! Over and OUT!
Sorry to hear about what has happened to you. I am now facing foreclosure and know that they do not have the proper documents, legally done, to foreclose the right way. However, I have read enough of these cases, including yours, to know that you are right about fighting a losing battle. The lawyers seem so helpless too and I was kind of mad with them until I read about the retired judges that are being used to clear up the backlog of foreclosed properties. The things I have read of their total disregard for the rights of the homeowners have made me lose faith in the system. This is the new America and I can’t wait to leave it behind.
My best wishes to you and hope you can find and afford another home for your retirement.
Jen
FLORIDA has 6 out of 10 of the RealtyTrac top 10 list …
I for one am very interested in how the list was compiled… I would like to find a nice juicy EASILY DEFENDED foreclosure in the $1M+ range that has already been abandoned … should be a fairly simple matter to find the owners and offer then a few thousand for litigation rights and a quit claim…
Any ideas on how this list was created?