Florida is currently the U.S.’s busiest state of foreclosures. Last year’s robo-signing fiasco, wherein mortgage servicers’ employees signed off on hundreds of loans daily and claimed to have personally reviewed the paperwork that gave banks the right to foreclose on a property, has led Florida officials to require lenders to swear that they were providing accurate information in their foreclosure lawsuits.
Jumble of foreclosures has lawmakers requiring lenders to swear that they are providing accurate information.
Having to attest to accurate information makes it easier for judges to deal with clear flaws in documents provided by servicers; for example, when a loan amount doesn’t match the number in the lawsuit, a judge can quickly pounce on this discrepancy.
However, other issues exist for judges, such as a lack of authority to go beyond the information asserted in affidavits and to thoroughly question all parties involved in a suit. Judges are also not allowed to stand up for the borrower regardless of their feeling on a case.
One Florida Judge expressed a lack of confidence in the accuracy of any of the documentation he was receiving on mass foreclosures.
The responsibility to challenge foreclosures is upon the attorney for a borrower who may thoroughly investigate the matter, even demand depositions. The problems, of course, is that there are not very many borrowers who actually retain lawyers.
A foreclosure case is very rarely thrown out unless there are serious and obvious flaws. Usually the lender is simply required to re-file on a foreclosure as soon as the documentation issues are resolved. Yet, since last fall there have been fewer resubmissions by lenders after an initial rejection due to errors in documentation.