Matt Weidner – Fighting For The American People

Archive for July, 2009

In March, 2009 the Obama administration announced a new program with the goal of slowing foreclosures and keeping more homeowner’s in their homes.   The program, called the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP), generally requires lenders to participate in counseling programs with borrowers and  encourages those lenders to agree to terms that will allow a homeowner to stay in their home in most cases.

The program has wide application and all Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac approved servicers are ordered through their servicing guides and bulletins to implement HAMP with respect to “mortgage loans owned, securitized, or guaranteed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac (the “GSE Loans”).  Details of the program may be found at Frequently Asked Questions which provides information about the new program.

Mortgage modification activity dropped 5.1% in June, while repayment plans jumped 44.9%, according to the HOPE NOW Alliance’s most recent monthly data. In total, more than 310,000 homeowners completed workouts during the month – a 25% increase over May.

Most homeowners should qualify for a HAMP Modification.  If your lender has not offered you the opportunity to apply for a HAMP modification or if you have questions about how the program operates, visit my website at www.mattweidnerlaw.com!

Records obtained from the Pinellas County Clerk of Court reflect that 1369 foreclosures were filed in Pinellas County from July 1, 2009 until July 30, 2009.  This is a massive number of foreclosures and the impact of so many foreclosures filed will affect not just those who are served with foreclosure but anyone who owns property in the county.  This staggering number is matched by an equally troubling number–more than 400 foreclosure auction sales were held during that same period of time.  The vast majority of those foreclosure auctions will result in the property being returned to the bank or lender only to be liquidated at some point in time for a fraction of the amount owed to the lender.

The most unfortunate thing about the nubmer of foreclosures filed is that the vast majority of property owners do not retain an attorney to assist with their foreclosure case.  Homeowners who don’t retain an attorney risk losing their home in a matter of weeks.  Homeowners who do retain an experienced foreclosure attorney are often able to obtain a favorable resolution to their case that they would not otherwise have been able to obtain.  For more information on the foreclosure process or resources available to you visit http://www.pinellascounty.org/foreclosure/default.htm or contact my office directly at 727/894-3159.

Downtown St. Petersburg currently has three significant condo projects that were completed some time ago, but sales of the individual units have slowed considerably. The largest development is Signature Place Condominium with 244 units and approximately 37 sales, followed by The Sage Condominium with 112 units and approximately 32 sales and 400 Beach Drive with 93 units and approximately 45 sales. The sales figures are approximate because it’s frankly too time consuming to research each sale and exclude duplicate or other sales anomalies.
The important thing any person interested in purchasing in the aforementioned projects should consider is the effect all the unsold units will have on each unit owner’s investment in their unit. When a developer builds a project, a budget for the building’s operating fees is developed and each unit is assessed its pro-rata share of those budgeted fees. A prudent developer will build in reserves to cover the sales period, but it is highly unlikely that any developer considered reserves to cover the significant lack of sales we’re seeing in this depressed market.
Although sales of units are certainly not keeping pace with budgeted estimates, the built in, unavoidable costs associated with buildings of the magnitude described above continue to add up every day.
Examples of these costs include property taxes, liability and casualty insurance and maintenance and repairs. Another major expense is the debt service that accrues each day, but for purposes of this discussion this major expense can be excluded.
The bottom line is that every day these buildings sit with less than full sales, the current unit owners risk assuming liability for the costs associated with those empty units and the expenses related to the building itself.  The built in fees will be borne by someone and other unforeseen fees related to maintenance and other special assessments may be assessed against current owners.
Because of this major risk–and many others–prospective purchasers of these units (or any other partially sold development) should carefully consider the liability they face prior to purchasing in such a situation. For more information, visit my website at www.mattweidnerlaw.com.

The easy answer to the question is, No you don’ need an attorney to draft your will, power of attorney or health care surrogate. Any person is free to go online, visit a document preparation service or pick some form out of a book and attempt to make a will or other estate planning document. Sure you may save a few bucks in doing your documents this way, but in my experience you can wind up paying far more for this in the long run.
The reason I say you will probably wind up paying far more money in the long run is there is a very good chance you will do something wrong at some point in time in either putting the proper language into the documents or you will make one or many errors in executing or signing the documents.
Wills, Powers of Attorney, Trusts and other legal documents are technical and complex documents and the slightest errors at any stage in the preparation process can make the entire document invalid. While this is certainly bad enough an even more excruciating consequence is that an improperly drafted document can cause heartache, pain and expense for your friends and loved ones.
I’ve been practicing law for nearly ten years and over the course of my practice, the most contentious and costly estate cases were caused by improperly drafted documents.  Oftentimes the parties fighting each honestly believe they are fighting for what the deceased wanted. In cases where this is true both competing sides feel it is their moral duty to their deceased love one or friend to carry out their wishes, no matter the emotional or financial cost.
When I work with a client to draft a will, power of attorney, trust or any other estate planning document I do far more than just fill in blanks on a form. I spend on average two hours meeting with the client to consider both the financial and many other personal elements that go into the drafting of these documents. Many times in the course of examining these areas, we uncover other issues and liabilities that a client has never considered but we are able to address these issues before they become problematic.
I charge only a few hundred dollars to draft all these documents, and while you could get them done cheaper elsewhere, in the long run you’re better off visiting my website where you’ll find more information about estate planning and litigation or contact my office directly at 727/542-5571.  In addition, please visit the website of the Florida Bar where you can find a wealth of information on a variety of estate planning topics. The website can be accessed at www.floridabar.org/tfb/TFBConsum.nsf/48e76203493b82ad852567090070c9b9/a0091ab18d4875d085256b2f006c5b75?OpenDocument

Just last week, I attended an auction for two penthouse condos at a condominium complex in downtown St. Petersburg. If you’ve never attended a real auction of any sort, you should seek one out just to experience the drama and interesting dynamics that occur at a real auction. The units in question had previously sold for more than $600,000 in a brand new striking building located in downtown St. Petersburg. The units up for auction were beautiful and while those conducting the auction continued to refer to how much the units had previously sold for, I could care less that some poor sap dramatically overpaid and this overpayment didn’t factor in one bit to what I determined an appropriate high bid price would be.
The reality is the building has been completed for more than one year and the developer had not been able to sell 30% of the units in total…that 70% remaining inventory poses real problems for the 30% current owners and the “lucky” high bidders at the auction. When considering buying into any condominium complex in this economic climate it is critical for any buyer to determine just how many units have sold and just how many units are paying their maintenance fees lest the new purchaser be saddled with greater condo fees and assessments based on the failure of enough other sales to cover all association fees.
In this particular case, the successful bidders were probably unaware of the rumor that the developer had recently transferred the remaining units over to the lender that held the financing on the building. If the rumor is correct, the developer essentially cried uncle, gave up and walked away from the project, leaving it up to the bank to do whatever they can to limit their losses, cut their liability, sell units to get out. I would expect this would mean fire sale prices to unload the remaining units….prices far below the prices paid at this auction.
In this market the buyer really has to beware…before you bid or contract to buy, hire an experienced real estate attorney to guide you. Visit my website at www.mattweidnerlaw.com.

In nearly every foreclosure case filed in Florida, the lawfirms include a count in the lawsuit to “re-establish a lost note”.  In order to prevail in a foreclosure case, the lender must present to the court the original promissory note singed by the borrower at closing.  Because these note are often lost, a techincal legal procedure was developed which allows the plaintiff to present to the court a copy of that note and ask the court to rule that the copy presented is just as good as the original note.

In many cases, the Plaintiffs will be able to produce a copy of the note that was “lost”, at some point in time in the proceedings.  In this case, the lost note count is dropped and the foreclosure case moves forward without this techincal problem.  In some cases however, the Plaintiff either cannot even produce a copy of the promissory note or the promissory note signed by the borrower does not fit the precise legal definition of a “negotiable instrument” that is subject to the techincal reestablishment procedures.

In either of these cases, the Plaintiff is going to have a very hard time proceeding with their forecloure case and they have very few easy options which would allow them to prevail in their foreclosure case…confronting this reality should encourage the lender to enter into very favorable mortgage modifcation discussions with the borrower, but more often than not it seems the attorneys just abandon the case leaving the homeowner in a home with noone to make a mortgage payment to and nonone calling or making any attempts to get them to pay.

The lost note issue is complicated and technical, but an experienced foreclosure defense attorney may be able to use this to great benefit for a homeowner–if you are served with foreclosure and you have a lost note count…contact an attorney immediately.