foreclosure proceeding

Foreclosure By Facebook

August 1, 2011 by Elliot Schlissel

Foreclosure proceedings must work their way through the courts in the United States. Some legal experts expect that lenders will obtain the right to start initiate foreclosure proceedings by serving the foreclosed legal documents through Facebook. Although this has not taken place yet in the United States, it has already happened in Australia.

A couple in Australia defaulted on a mortgage loan. The lender’s lawyers found them on Facebook. The lawyer served the couple their legal papers through Facebook. The matter was litigated in the courts in Australia. The court upheld the lenders right to send foreclosure notices via Facebook! The court found the couple’s privacy rights were not violated and that they received adequate notice by service through Facebook.

Canada, New Zealand and United Kingdom Accept Service By Facebook

There have been cases in New Zealand, Canada and the United Kingdom where homeowners have been served foreclosure notices through Facebook.

Service of Foreclosure Papers By E – Mail

Courts in general have not accepted e – mail service of legal notices to be either reliable or appropriate. Courts are concerned that the end users will assume the e – mails are junk mail and not open them.

New York City and Long Island Foreclosure Defense

If you are served with a summons and complaint in a foreclosure proceeding in the State of New York you must quickly take action. The service of the summons personally upon you requires you to submit a written answer within twenty days. If you are served through any other means other than by personal service you have thirty days to submit a written answer. The answer to the summons and complaint must either admit or deny the allegations in the complaint. The answer must be served on the attorney for the financial institution and an additional copy must be mailed to the court. The copy mailed to the court must contain an affidavit stating you served a copy of the answer on the bank’s lawyer. You will thereafter receive notice of a foreclosure court conference.

Long Island and New York City Area Foreclosure Defense Lawyers

If you’re home is in foreclosure we can help you. We can assist you in obtaining a mortgage modification. We can help you litigate your foreclosure proceeding. We will attend the foreclosure court conferences on your behalf and press your lender to approve a mortgage modification for you. If you contact us for a consultation we will meet with you and discuss your foreclosure options. These options may also include foreclosure related bankruptcy filings. These options may include filing either a Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 bankruptcy. We appreciate your visiting our foreclosure blog.

Foreclosure Notice Rules Must be Complied With

June 14, 2011 by Elliot S. Schlissel

Judge Angiolillo, sitting in the Appellate Division of the Second Department, has ruled that lenders must strictly comply with foreclosure notice rules. In 2008, foreclosure notice rules were enacted to protect homeowners confronted with foreclosure. Judge Angiolillo’s recent ruling requires that these rules be strictly complied with.

Foreclosure Proceeding

Aurora Loan Services sued Mr. Weisblum in a foreclosure proceeding. Justice Angiolillo found that the notice that was provided by Aurora Loan Services to Mr. Weisblum did not “substantially comply” with the requirements of the 2008 statute. The notice required that a minimum of five counseling agencies regarding foreclosure issues had to be provided to homeowners whose mortgages were past due. Justice Angiolillo further stated that the 2008 law, which was modified and expanded in 2010, was to “preserve and guard the precious asset of home equity.” In this case, Justice Angiolillo wrote that the mortgage company had neglected to submit an appropriate affidavit, which showed there was proper service of documents on Mr. Weisblum. Justice Angiolillo wrote for a unanimous panel of the Appellate Division.

Foreclosure Defense In New York

If your house is in foreclosure, we can help you. We’ve been fighting foreclosures for more than two decades. We litigate defective mortgages, defective foreclosure lawsuits, predatory lending, violations of federal laws and other real estate issues. We can help you obtain mortgage modifications and we can counsel you concerning mortgage modification programs that fail to meet your needs.

We also assist our clients with foreclosure related bankruptcies. These bankruptcies can either be a Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 bankruptcy. We will explain to you why filing bankruptcy may be the best route to deal with your foreclosure issues and the types of bankruptcies that are available to you. Filing the bankruptcy stops foreclosure proceedings from moving forward. It also stops other debt collection activities involving credit cards and other debts.

Feel free to schedule a free consultation. We will explain your foreclosure options to you. Thank you for visiting our foreclosure blog.

Filed Under: Foreclosure Defense, Mortgage Modification Tagged With: foreclosure, foreclosure defense, Foreclosure Defense New York, foreclosure notice rules, foreclosure proceeding, homeowners foreclosure, New York foreclosure attorney, New York foreclosure defense lawyers

Proposed Law Protects Homeowners Who Have Mortgages

May 23, 2011 by Elliot S. Schlissel

There is currently a bill in the New York State Legislature to protect homeowner. The statute states that a bank or other financial institution cannot commence a foreclosure proceeding unless they have an original mortgage document. This means that a prerequisite for the financial institution to commence a foreclosure proceeding will be that it must allege and prove ownership of the note and the mortgage. These documents also must be filed by the bank, with the Summons and Complaint, when the foreclosure action is initiated.

Illegal Foreclosure Proceedings

There has been a series of cases in the past few years where banks who are not the mortgage holders have illegally foreclosed on homes and sold them at auction. This new law will codify the rulings of court cases that have held that institutions must have standing to initiate mortgage foreclosure proceedings.

When a homeowner receives the Summons and Complaint in foreclosure, they are usually frightened. Since homeowners are not lawyers and are generally not familiar with this area of the law, they do not know what their rights are. If a homeowner is sued by a bank that doesn’t own his or her mortgage, they have a right to claim that the bank doesn’t have standing to sue them. Unfortunately, if the homeowner doesn’t submit a written answer alleging lack of standing, this defense to the lawsuit is waived.

This new statute helps homeowners by making the homeowner’s defense that the bank has lack of standing to bring the foreclosure lawsuit non-waivable. This gives the homeowner a complete defense to the lawsuit. It also allows counsel for the homeowner to use this defense as a tactic in defending the foreclosure lawsuit.

Stopping Foreclosure

Foreclosures can be stopped in a number of ways. The filing of an Answer on behalf of the homeowner stops the foreclosure case from going forward. There are specific defenses that can be alleged in the answers, such as predatory lending, the mortgage was defective, the foreclosure lawsuit is defective, and other real estate related defenses. Another foreclosure defense option is to file a Chapter 7 bankruptcy or a Chapter 13 bankruptcy. The filing of either of these bankruptcies gives the homeowner an automatic stay that immediately stops the foreclosure lawsuit from going forward.

Many homeowners are under the false belief that filing for a mortgage modification stops a foreclosure from going forward. This is incorrect! The mortgage modification process has nothing to do with the litigation in the courts of foreclosures. Most mortgage modification programs fail to provide the homeowners with the relief they are seeking. The large majority of homeowners are denied mortgage modifications! Feel free to call us for a free consultation regarding foreclosure defense and bankruptcy matters. Thank you for visiting our foreclosure blog.

Filed Under: Current Events, Foreclosure Defense, Mortgage Modification Tagged With: denied mortgage modifications, foreclosure action, foreclosure defense attorneys, foreclosure proceeding, homeowners, homeowners mortgages, Illegal Foreclosure Proceedings, mortgage foreclosure proceedings, mortgage modification, mortgage modification process, New York foreclosure attorney, New York foreclosure attorneys, New York foreclosure defense lawyers, Stopping Foreclosure, summons and complaint

Mortgage Company Attorney Sanctioned Over False Statements

April 27, 2011 by Elliot S. Schlissel

Judge Fairgrieve, sitting in the District Court located in Nassau County, fined a foreclosure attorney named Steven J. Baum P.C. Mr. Baum was sanctioned $14,000 in attorneys fees and and additional $5,000 payable to the Lawyers Fund for Civil Protection with regard to the case of Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. vs. Raia, which was decided on November 23, 2010.

Attorney Criticized by the Court

Steven J. Baum, P.C., is one of the largest foreclosure law firms in the state of New York. Mr. Baum’s law office litigates foreclosure matters throughout New York.

The court noted in this case that many of the sworn allegations in the foreclosure proceeding were found to be false. The Judge ordered a hearing to determine appropriate sanctions, due to the fact that the mortgage company lacked a possessory interest in the premises. The attorneys for Steven J. Baum, P.C., argued that the allegations in the petition, although they were incorrect, were not material and that sanctioning the foreclosure law firm would not be appropriate. Judge Fairgrieve, in his decision, stated that the false statements dealt with the issue of standing to bring the foreclosure proceeding. He went on to state that a lawyer is guilty of professional misconduct if he makes false statements to a court under the rules of professional conduct that lawyers must abide by.

Judge Fairgrieve found that Steven J. Baum, P.C., was professionally irresponsible and impeded the proper administration of justice. He noted in his decision that this was not the first time that this law office had acted inappropriately. The judge indicated in his decision that in a similar case three years ago, Steven J. Baum’s law office was to be sanctioned.

Foreclosure Defense Lawyers

The Law Offices of Schlissel DeCorpo provides foreclosure defense regarding cases in Nassau and Suffolk Counties on Long Island, the five boroughs of the City of New York and Westchester County. Our office has numerous cases pending where we are defending homeowners from foreclosure. In these cases, we help our clients stay in their homes. We litigate defective mortgages, defective foreclosure lawsuits, predatory lending and other real estate related issues. We also assist our clients in the preparation of mortgage modification applications and we deal with mortgage modification programs that fail to meet our client’s needs. We attend foreclosure court conferences on behalf of our clients and seek to put pressure on the mortgage companies and banks to provide our clients with mortgage modifications. Call us for a free consultation at 516-561-6645, 718-350-2802 or 1-800-344-6431.

Filed Under: Current Events, Foreclosure Defense, Mortgage Modification Tagged With: foreclosure, foreclosure defense, foreclosure litigation, foreclosure litigation attorney, foreclosure proceeding, Lawyers Fund for Civil Protection, mortgage, Mortgage Company, Nassau County mortgage, New York foreclosure attorney, New York foreclosure defense lawyers

Foreclosure By Facebook

Foreclosure Notice Rules Must be Complied With

Proposed Law Protects Homeowners Who Have Mortgages

Mortgage Company Attorney Sanctioned Over False Statements

Contact Us

Categories

LINKS

OUR WEBSITES

Latest Blogs

Foreclosure Strategies

Foreclosure And Your Credit Score

CONTACT INFO

View Our General Web Site

View Our Child Protective Website

View Our Fathers Rights Web Site

View Our Wills & Trusts Website

View Our Bankruptcy Web Site