Legal Process

The State of Florida has a very long and drawn out legal process with foreclosures.  Depending on the lender(s) and the courts, the foreclosure legal process can take 6 months to 2 years.  You will get plenty of phone calls from creditors seeking payment as well as letters in the mail regarding the issue, so you will know that the lender is taking action against you and starting the foreclosure process.  However, understand the process, the court proceedings, hearings, and documents that they send you is sometimes very difficult.

Here are some basic facts about the Florida Foreclosure legal process:

• Florida does only judicial foreclosures, no non-judicial foreclosures are available.
• Florida also allows deficiency judgments to be filed against you, which means that even after your foreclosure is over with, your mortgage lender can still come back and sue you years later in an attempt to obtain the deficiency.
• In the State of Florida, all mortgages are foreclosed in equity.  Additionally, in a mortgage foreclosure action, the courts sever all counterclaims against the foreclosing lender.

To view the Florida Statutes regarding foreclosure, click here.

The good news is that there are many ways to stop and/or avoid foreclosure altogether.  Read about your options on this site, or contact us and we'll be glad to point you in the right direction.