We Can Help You Fight Foreclosure
If you have just missed a mortgage payment – or even if you have received a notice of default from the bank – the one thing you must know is that you can fight to keep your home. The bank has a right to foreclose when you have gone into default and fail to exercise your right of redemption by curing the mortgage, but this does not mean that they will succeed. The fact is that you have rights in this situation too, and you will be pleased to learn that Florida's foreclosure laws actually favor the homeowner in many cases. Take your first step now by coming to The Law Offices of Justin McMurray, P.A. for a free, initial consultation with an Ocala foreclosure defense lawyer from our team. We can review your situation to determine the most strategy for you and will be prepared to take immediate action on your behalf.
We Make the Bank Prove Its Case
One of the most common approaches to fighting a foreclosure in court is to mount an outright challenge to the bank's possession of a lien on the property. This might sound outrageous, but it is a valid legal strategy. You probably are under the assumption that, because you have been paying the bank, it must have a mortgage on your home, so of course it has the right to foreclose, right? The truth is that a large percentage of mortgages are chopped up and sold off by the original lender and bundled together with other loans in order to sell mortgage-backed securities. You don't have to worry about understanding the complexities of the situation. All it means to you is that the bank may not actually be able to prove that it owns your mortgage and that it has a lien on your property.
Are you a victim of predatory lending?
Another strategy is to counter the bank's foreclosure lawsuit with allegations of predatory lending. If it has been less than three years since you purchased the home, for example, it might be possible to accuse the lender of a failure to disclose important terms of the loan, a TILA violation which may serve as grounds to rescind on the loan. In some cases, the most appropriate strategy is to declare bankruptcy under Chapter 7 or Chapter 13. Bankruptcy will not get rid of your mortgage debt, but it will stop the foreclosure with an automatic stay against creditor actions, as well as freeing up your income by wiping out other debts and therefore making it easier for you to afford your mortgage. If you use Chapter 13, you may even be able to roll your missed mortgage payments in to the repayment plan, which would give you up to five years to cure the mortgage.