Episode 49 - Will Foreclosures Increase in Florida?

In Episode 49 of the Podcast, I discuss the case Bartram v. US Bank National Association, which was decided by the Florida Supreme Court in November 2016. Bartram is a significant decision in Florida because the FL Supreme Court holds that the bank can file a second foreclosure case, after dismissing its first foreclosure case, even if the date that the borrowers stopped making payments is beyond Florida's five-year statute of limitations. For whatever reason, some banks decide to dismiss foreclosure cases when those cases have a technical deficiency (ownership of the promissory note for example). If it took the bank too long to fix that issue, so that the date of default became more than five years old, some courts in Florida held that the bank could not foreclose again (because the default date was more than 5 years old).  Bartram reversed that line of thinking and, because it was decided by the Supreme Court of the State of Florida, that is now the "law of the land" in Florida. The Court did say that any payments that were past due more than 5 years are uncollectible as being beyond the 5-year statute of limitations, but the foreclosure itself could proceed as long as the bank alleged a default date that was within the five years - meaning the bank would simply waive any late payments that are more than five years past due and continue their foreclosure.  Already we've seen a slight increase in foreclosure filed under these circumstances. To learn more, please visit our website at www.yesnerlaw.com.  Or if you have questions, please email me directly at [email protected]. Also note we are changing the name and branding of the Podcast to Crushing Debt.  You'll hear the name change in Episodes 53 and beyond.  We've updated the logo with this episode and would appreciate any feedback!