When a Melbourne, Florida resident hired our firm to defend
the foreclosure action filed in 2010 against her home she never expected to win
her case. The recession had wiped
out the client’s employment, savings and the value of her home. The client owned well over twice what
her home was worth, and without her regular employed and quickly depleting
savings, she could no longer afford her mortgage. The client’s attempts to obtain a real loan modification
from Astoria were unsuccessful.
The client felt that her back was up against the wall and that she had
no choice but to stop paying her mortgage.
After extensive research to find skilled and compatible
foreclosure defense attorney, she ultimately interviewed multiple attorneys
before choosing the Space Coast office of Shuster & Saben to defend her
case. Her goal in 2010, was to
simply stay in the home as long as possible. While aggressively litigating the case, we tried to obtain a
loan modification with principal reduction or a waiver of deficiency but
Astoria wanted the client’s home and either her money or a deficiency
judgment. Astoria Bank would not
be backing down. Now our back was
against the wall to. Time to work
hard and hit harder.
When the client interviewed various law firms to choose the
right attorney, one of the things that impressed her about Shuster & Saben,
were the issues and defenses our firm spotted during the initial consultation,
that were missed by other lawyers (or paralegals) at other firms she consulted
with. One of the issues that later
arose in her case was the fact that the demand letter (also known as a notice
of acceleration) did not tell the homeowner how much to pay to bring the
account current. The letter merely
instructed the homeowner to call Astoria to find out how much to pay. Paragraph 22 of the homeowner’s
mortgage required that the Notice Specify (a) the default; and (b) the action
required to cure the default…
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