Forclousure

I respectfully disagree. The Florida foreclosure will likely eventually result in a Florida deficiency judgment against you. Once that occurs, that judgment can be domesticated in Pennsylvania (or any other state), and then can be levied upon in that state.

Depending on what your PA home is, whether it is your homestead and how title is held, and how they were to go about execution, it may or may not be exempt. You need to speak to an attorney in PA to ensure that you have done all that is necessary to document that it is your homestead (if it is) and to determine to what extent the homesteadl exemption will protect you. However, even if you do manage to protect your PA home, your other non-exempt assets there (and anywhere else) will be at risk from a deficiency judgment.

People in many states bought property in Florida, and now many of those are in foreclosure or at risk for foreclosure. It is critical that everyone in that situation understand that Florida law is VERY liberal with respect to the ability to obtain deficiency judgments. Count on the fact that the creditor WILL be looking for deficiency judgment if you do not force them to do otherwise. I am defending some deficiency judgment claims right now and anticipate many more. The climate here is very favorable for Plaintiffs - they have a 5 year statute of limitations post liquidation of the debt. All recently filed foreclosure Complaints, specifically ask the court to reserve jurisdiction for the purpose of entry of a deficiency decree.

Right now the servicers and foreclosure firms are currently focused on (and gridlocked in) what I call "Phase I" - liquidating the loan - by either foreclosure, deed in lieu or short sale. Once they work through that, since they have such a long time here, I am positive they WILL pursue many of them - the numbers are big since so many people are so upside down.

There are clues that they are focusing on that: the recent policy shift by BoA / Countrywide where, when they give short sale approval, they specifically reassert their right to a deficiency judgment; the feedback I get from those I know who close short sales wherein lenders are including demands that borrowers sign notes for the amount of the deficiency; the now standard request to the court in foreclosure cases to retain jurisdiction for the entry of deficiency judgment. All of these things point to the fact that they are laying the foundation for pursuit of the excess claims.

If you properly defend against foreclosure, it may well be possible to negotiate an outcome that entails a deficiency judgment waiver, but if you don't, you're toast. Defending against a deficiency judgment claim AFTER they have taken your property is much more difficult at not necessarily possible - harder than to wrestle with them during the foreclosure process, althoug that is still far from easy. Every one I am defending now on a deficiency judgment claim did not defend against foreclosure in the mistaken belief that they had no further exposure. They did - and you will too. These lenders sue people over $500 credit card balances, why would they not come after you for a much larger debt ? Answer: they will. Your debt will continue to expand with missed payments, advances they make for taxes, insurance, legal fees, etc. etc. They will not ignore your obligation.

My expectation is that the large servicers (BoA, Chase) will pursue these themselves, the smaller ones may sell the deficiency judgment claims to debt buyers and let them do the dirty work. But one way or another, they are never going to turn their backs on potentially sizeable judgments.

Our contact information is on our web site, www.golantlaw.com - we handle foreclosure defense in Florida, and have expanded the geographical area where we defend these cases throughout many of the counties in the state due to the emergency conditions facing Florida property owners.