MORTGAGE FRAUD PROTECTION

Many unscrupulous companies and individuals are taking advantage of the desperate situation our state’s homeowners are facing. These companies promise they can help save homes, then take outrageous up-front fees from our homeowners facing foreclosure. The companies often keep the fees, take no additional action, and let the homes fall into foreclosure.  By the time the homeowners discover the fraud, it is TOO LATE.

What Should Consumers Do?

• Homeowners should NEVER pay any up-front fees and should avoid any high-pressure sales tactics. Fees may only be collected AFTER services are completed.
• Homeowners should first try talking to their lenders or a lawyer before contracting with any third-party company for rescue or modification services.
• If a homeowner believes he or she has been taken advantage of by a disreputable company, he or she should call the Florida Attorney General’s fraud hotline at  1-866-9-NO-SCAM or 1-866-9-NO-SCAM or file a complaint online at www.myfloridalegal.com. The complaint will be reviewed by the Attorney General’s Mortgage Fraud Task Force.

Additional Resources

Distressed Homeowners
A brochure with a collection of helpful agencies and their contact information to help you find answers to your questions.

Making Home Affordable
The Obama Administration’s consumer website provides homeowners with information about the Financial Stability Plan and the Home Affordable Refinance Program to address key problems, including self-assessment tools and calculators to empower borrowers with resources to determine whether they might be eligible for a modification or a refinance under the Administration’s program.

HOPE for Homeowners (H4H)
The HOPE for Homeowners (H4H) program was created by Congress to help those at risk of default and foreclosure refinance into more affordable, sustainable loans HOPE for Homeowners.

FASH
Florida Attorneys Saving Homes (FASH) is a collaborative effort of The Florida Bar, The Florida Bar Foundation, Florida Legal Services, and the Real Property Probate and Trust Law Section designed to provide pro bono (free) assistance to qualified homeowners. Pro bono lawyers negotiate with lenders on behalf of the homeowner with the hope of creating a relationship where the lender and the homeowner can together create a loan that allows the homeowner to remain in the home.

FTC
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has a number of resources to help you spread the word about these scams, including the video “Real People, Real Stories” to encourage at-risk homeowners to get the help they need. The video is available online at http://www.ftc.gov/YourHome.

Also available is a flyer about foreclosure rescue scams, in English at http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/homes/rea16.pdf and in Spanish at http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/bookmarks/bmk13.pdf.

Web Resources
The Florida Bar is making mortgage-related information available to attorneys, including training, liability, ethics, and resources for clients. The website also features information for consumers including a calendar of foreclosure, bankruptcy, and housing help workshops and clinics being held in Florida; information about the Florida Attorneys Saving Home program, The Florida Bar Lawyer Referral Service, and legal aid agencies throughout Florida; and tips to avoid scams.

Clerk of Courts
One of the functions of the Clerk of the Court is to process foreclosure cases. Find your local Clerk of Court’s website by selecting your county.

Resources Available To Distressed Homeowners

MyFlorida.com Online Help, Sources & Suggestions Download brochure

The Florida Bar
The Florida Bar is a regulatory arm of the Supreme Court of Florida. Specific Bar activities include lawyer regulation, the attorney-consumer assistance program, and the unauthorized practice of law. Public Website: www.flabar.org  Find a lawyer and disciplinary history for the past ten years, links to Florida Attorneys Saving Homes, and consumer/attorney information on foreclosures

Lawyer Referral Service  1-800-342-8011 (helps consumers find a lawyer to defend foreclosure).

Florida Attorneys Saving Homes    1-866-607-2187  (weekdays 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.) (helps consumers before a foreclosure action is filed).

My Florida Legal   For consumer complaints www.myfloridalegal.com/mortgagefraud  Consumers can call:   1-866-9-NOSCAM.

Florida Department of Law Enforcement
The FDLE provides criminal justice services that prevent, investigate, and solve crimes to protect Florida’s citizens and visitors, including the economic crime of mortgage fraud. Because mortgage fraud encompasses a wide range of complex activities with multiple victims and has an enormous negative impact on the state’s citizens and economy, investigative teams work in conjunction with other agencies.  http://www.fdle.state.fl.us/Content/home.aspx

The Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR)
The DBPR’s Division of Real Estate is responsible for the examination, licensing and regulation of real estate and appraisal professionals, real estate schools, and real estate/appraiser instructors. Complaints are processed through the division’s Legal Section, which presents all investigated complaints before a full Panel or Board for a determination as to whether there has been a violation of law.  www.myfloridalicense.com/dbpr/re/index.html

Florida License  www.myfloridalicense.com: To find & file complaint forms and obtain disciplinary information
Consumers can call: 850-487-1395.

The Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD)
Attorney General Bill McCollum initiated an agency-wide Mortgage Fraud Task Force in 2007 to combat the pervasive mortgage fraud problem. Under the authority Chapter 501, Florida Statutes, the office investigates companies suspected of preying on Florida consumers, files lawsuits, and shuts companies down, where appropriate.

Public Website: www.hud.gov

Foreclosure Prevention – Making Home Affordable
Lower interest rates
Help homeowners refinance
Help homeowners modify their loans
www.makinghomeaffordable.gov/

Requirements for Making Home Affordable Mortgage refinance:
Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac loans
Up to 125% LTV
Current on mortgage
You have income sufficient to support the new mortgage payments

Requirements for Making Home Affordable Loan Modification Program:
Increase in current mortgage payment or decrease in income
Obtained current mortgage before Jan 2009
Housing payment grater then 31% of gross income

HUD Approved Housing Counseling:
FREE Service
Direct contacts with servicers
1-888-995-HOPE

The Division of Insurance Fraud
The Division’s investigators help investigate and prosecute title agents. Because these investigators are considered state law enforcement officers, they have the power to execute arrest warrants and search warrants; to serve subpoenas issued for the examination, investigation, and trial of all offenses; and to arrest upon probable cause without warrant any person found in the act of violating any of the provisions of applicable laws.

• Public Website: http://www.myfloridacfo.com/Data/AAR_ALIS1/index.htm – To search Agents
• Consumers can file a complaint form: https://apps.fldfs.com/eservice/home.aspx
• Consumers can call:  1-877-693-5236        

Local Sheriff Offices
The Florida Sheriffs are represented in all 67 counties in the state, providing fullservice public safety services to local communities.

Public Website: http://www.flsheriffs.org/index.cfm/referer/content.contentList/ID/320/

Office of Financial Regulation (OFR)
The OFR safeguards the private financial interests of the public by licensing, chartering, examining and regulating depository and non-depository financial institutions and financial service companies in the State of Florida. The OFR also conducts examinations of the books and records of mortgage brokers, mortgage brokerage businesses and mortgage lenders to ensure compliance with the appropriate rules and statutes.

Public Website: www.flofr.com – To file a complaint and search for license information.  Consumers can call: 1-800-848-3792.

Office of Statewide Prosecution (OSP)
The OSP has jurisdiction to investigate and prosecute a long list of crimes affecting two or more judicial circuits. This jurisdiction includes RICO and any crime involving, or resulting in, fraud or deceit upon any person. The prosecutors in the Office regularly work with their federal and state counterparts to coordinate efforts against criminal mortgage activity.

Public Website: www.myfloridalegal.com/swp
Consumers complaint form: www.myfloridalegal.com/contact  Consumers can call: 1-866-966-7226.

The Law Foreclosure Rescue Business
In 2008 the legislature enacted a new law at the urging of the Attorney General to specifically address foreclosure rescue businesses and their potentially abusive practices.

The law prohibits businesses or individuals from collecting up-front fees from the homeowner prior to completing all services contained in the contract. This includes foreclosure rescue services or loan modification services related to foreclosures.

The law also requires that a written contract must be executed by both parties before the consultant can initiate services. The contract must contain specific terms and conditions, a specific notice of the homeowner’s right to cancel and other disclosures.

The law applies to all businesses located within the state and to out-of-state businesses that provide services to Florida consumers.

The law further regulates businesses or individuals who perform foreclosure related rescue transactions. These transactions involve the actual purchase of the property facing foreclosure, leasing back the property to the original owner, and giving the owner the right to repurchase the property after a period of time. The law requires a written agreement before instrument transferring title can be given to homeowner to sign, requires a notice on the cover page of the written agreement of the consumer’s right to cancel and requires that the purchaser verify the homeowner’s ability to make the payments required to repurchase the home. If the homeowner’s monthly payments for primary housing expenses and regular monthly principal and interest payments on other personal debt do not exceed 60 percent of the homeowner’s monthly gross income, there is a presumption there is the ability to pay. The law also provides that the repurchase price cannot be unconscionable. There is a presumption that price is unconscionable if it exceeds 25 to 30 % of actual costs incurred by the purchaser.

Read the full text of the new law provided by the Florida Statutes listed below:

• F.S. 501.1377
  Violations involving homeowners during the course of residential foreclosure proceedings.
• F.S. 501.212
  Application of the law

Debt Help & Relief                 Debt & Mortgage Scam Alert

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