Florida Foreclosure Laws

If you are planning on purchasing distressed property in the state of Florida, then you should be knowledgeable of the foreclosure laws. Please find the quick facts:

•  Timeline: Typically 180 days
•  Right of Redemption: Yes
•  Deficiency Judgments Allowed: Yes
•  Primary Security Instruments: Mortgage
•  Judicial Foreclosure Available: Yes
•  Non-Judicial Foreclosure Available: No

All mortgages are foreclosed in equity. The foreclosure claim shall, if tried, be tried in the court without a jury. In a mortgage foreclosure action, the court severs, for separate trial, all counterclaims against the foreclosing lender.

The court order of foreclosure is required to specify how the foreclosure must take place, and the foreclosure must take place on those terms. When a legal advertisement or notice of the foreclosure is required to be placed in the newspaper, then it is the responsibility of the lender or their representative to place such an advertisement or notice.

Equitable Right of Redemption ends at the foreclosure sale. There is a period of time after the sale that “the court reviews the sale to ensure that a fair price has been paid.” This period of time, which is typically ten days, allows parties to object to the sale on the basis that proper procedures were not followed or collusion existed between bidders, for example. Following this period of time, the Certificate of Sale is filed and the sale is confirmed. If the sale is not confirmed, then another sale is ordered. Following the confirmation of the sale, the lender may sue the former borrower to obtain a deficiency judgment.

Recently, mortgage law experts claimed that the incentive to walk away from a home loan is highest in states that have anti-deficiency statutes, which prohibit lenders from suing borrowers for additional funds following foreclosure. This handful of non-recourse mortgage states includes the high-foreclosure states of Florida, California and Arizona. According to Donald Lampe, a North Carolina based mortgage lending attorney “the statutes generally prohibit or limit a lender’s ability to go after the borrower’s assets to satisfy unpaid mortgage debt.”

For more information on buying a foreclosure or bank owned property in Miami, please do not hesitate to contact us at info@miamiangelproperties.com or 305.673.5300.