Attorneys Vow to Challenge Old Foreclosures, Auctions

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A self-imposed moratorium on foreclosures earlier this month may have given defense attorneys grounds to seek compensation or set aside old foreclosure cases.

Florida attorneys Sackrin & Tolchinsky, P.A., say they intend to examine the circumstances surrounding the filing of affidavits in old foreclosure cases filed by Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, and GMAC all of whom have indicated that they are investigating whether they may have improperly filed faulty documents in pending foreclosure cases.

When filing affidavits in those cases, the person signing the document is making a legally binding declaration that they have personal knowledge of the information contained in the affidavit. If, in fact they do not, this error may permit the reopening of old foreclosure cases even after the property was sold at auction, according to Mr.Tolchinsky, who notes, If a fraud on the court has been committed, then there may be grounds to have old foreclosures cases set aside and allow previous homeowners to seek compensation from the foreclosing party.

This may be true no matter how much time has elapsed since the bank took ownership of the property.

Mr. Tolchinsky will be handling these cases throughout Florida without charging clients a legal fee or cost unless his clients are successful. He asserts that the actions by the banks may have violated numerous state and federal laws which afford financial relief for the homeowners, including an award of attorney fees if they prevail.

Bank of American has just announced that it is suspending the moratorium in 23 states, and will be seeking to foreclose on about 100,000 there over the next week. The decision was made to proceed with foreclosures because it claims that the review of the files in these states failed to produce evidence of any wrongful foreclosures. These 23 states each require a court order to proceed with a foreclosure. The moratorium remains in effect in the other 27 states.

See our feature, Is Foreclosure Moratorium a Good Idea?

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