The Florida Foreclosure Fraud Weblog

About to enter foreclosure and not sure what to do?  The Florida Bar has announced a new program designed to divert people homeowners from foreclosure and help them negotiate a work-out with their lenders.

The Statewide effort called FLASH (Florida Attorneys Saving Homes) has launched a toll-free hot line (866-607-2187) and will take calls from 8 a.m. through 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. Callers who fear that they soon won’t be able to make their mortgage payments or who have already missed payments but are not yet in foreclosure are urged to call. Hot line callers will answer a few initial questions to ensure accurate placement with pro bono attorneys, who will then negotiate with lenders on behalf of homeowners.

The full announcement can be found on the Florida Bar website.

Tomorrow night I’ll be speaking to the North Tampa chapter of the Tampa Bay Real Estate Investors Association on “Defending Foreclosures.” Anyone who’s in the North Tampa area (near Carrollwood) and is curious about the topic should come and hear the presentation. Admission, I believe, is free.

The details:

Wed. July 9, 2008, 7:00 p.m.

At Beef O’Brady’s

8810 N Himes Ave Tampa, FL 33614

You can get more information about the North Tampa Chapter here.

Because this is an investor-focused group, I’ll be talking primarily about the foreclosure process and the universal defenses that any borrower could raise, without touching on any of the consumer-oriented defenses such as the Truth In Lending Act.