TALLAHASSEE
Homeowners would be forced to quickly mount a defense to prevent foreclosure on their property under proposals that Florida lawmakers are considering to speed up the legal process in Florida’s still-recovering real estate market.
The legislation would allow for fewer hearings and less likelihood of slowing down a final foreclosure judgment. Condominium and homeowners associations would also be given authority to push foreclosures along by demanding hearings, defaults and final judgments. Greater efforts would be made to determine if properties are abandoned, with private process servers empowered to handle investigations.
Rep. Greg Steube, the Manatee County Republican who is co-sponsoring the bill, said many of the legal changes address problems he has encountered as a lawyer handling hundreds of foreclosure cases in recent years.
“If this bill passes it will have a significant effect on the cases that have just been sitting there for years and years,” Steube said.
But consumer advocates are protesting the changes as an erosion of homeowners’ legal rights.
“This would be a huge burden and just a horribly unlevel playing field for a homeowner,” said Alice Vickers, an attorney for the Florida Consumer Action Network.
The legislation has passed two House committees so far, but its prospects for passage this spring are uncertain. Opponents have scheduled a protest at the Capitol Thursday to try to derail it.
No committee hearings were scheduled on the legislation this week in the House or Senate, a sign the bill could be in trouble.
Four years into the cycle of blighted neighborhoods and clogged courts, Florida’s foreclosure crisis has defied easy solutions. Lawmakers have toyed with changes to the foreclosure process since 2008, when former Gov. Charlie Crist convened a task force on the issue amid a collapsing economy and spiking foreclosure rates.
The problem peaked in 2009 and 2010 during the height of the real estate meltdown as banks began foreclosing on thousands of homes each month. Courts struggled to handle a flood of cases. Nearly 400,000 new foreclosures were filed across Florida in 2009 alone.
The court process slowed even further after 2010 when banks and law firms began facing widespread accusations of improper foreclosure filings. Many cases stalled.
The average Florida foreclosure now takes 676 days compared with the national average of 318 days, according to a legislative analysis.
Many experts argue that real estate prices are unlikely to rise significantly, and home building unlikely to fully recover, until foreclosures ease and the current glut is pushed through the court system.
Steube said he routinely sees cases from three or four years ago that are still working through the courts.
Lawmakers have considered moving the state to a non-judicial foreclosure process — an idea supported by Gov. Rick Scott — but the system would not clear Florida’s current foreclosure backlog and has failed to gain much traction.