Loan Modification

Fighting Foreclosure ? Keep Meticulous Notes Of Conversations

By Carmen Dellutri

As a mortgage foreclosure defense attorney, I get asked quite a few questions about the foreclosure process. Fighting Foreclosure is one of the hottest topics in the legal world today.  The best part of fighting foreclosure is the great facts that we hear from our clients.  The best cases are the ones where the clients keep meticulous notes of their conversations with the mortgage companies.

In Florida, we have Judicial Foreclosure.  This means that the lender must file a lawsuit and use the judicial process to foreclose out the homeowners interest by obtaining a final judgment of foreclosure.  Here is a perfect example:  The other day we had the opportunity to challenge a lender’s motion for summary judgment.  A motion for summary judgment asks the Judge to make a determination on the law because there are no factual issues to be resolved.  If there were factual issues to be resolved, then the Judge could not grant a summary judgment.

In this example, there were many factual issues.  One of which was that the lender had told the client to stop making the monthly payments for 90 days so that the lender could perform a mortgage modification.  So, the homeowner followed the directions of the lender and guess what happened?  The lender started the foreclosure and alleged that the homeowner willfully violated the terms of the mortgage and note by failing to make the required payments.

So, needless to say, the Judge found there were factual issues and gave a stern warning to counsel for the lender about such motions when there were indeed glaring factual issues.

The reason that I stress taking meticulous notes when speaking with the lender is that it is very doubtful that you will ever get the same person on the phone twice, and it is very doubtful that you will ever get the same answer from the second, third, fourth and fifth person that you speak with.

Remember:  The more ammunition you bring to your attorney, the more he has in his arsenal to fight the lender.

This post was submitted by Carmen Dellutri, Esq. of The Dellutri Law Group, P.A.

Related posts:

1. Fighting Back: One Small Step At A Time
2. Should you trust your mortgage company when in foreclosure? Go with your gut.
3. What is a judge?s role in a foreclosure case?

Full post as published by Mortgage Law Network on January 19, 2010 (boomark / email).