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| Firm Attorneys Purvi Patel and Richard Shuster are suing Wells Fargo again. |
After keeping our disabled client his home for nearly four years, after Wells Fargo filed a foreclosure action against him, we reached a settlement to resolve his foreclosure case. Our client, due to his disability, was not a viable candidate for a loan modification and Wells Fargo had a very strong case. As such, when we conveyed Wells Fargo’s settlement offer to the client of a waiver of deficiency, 120 day sale date, and $3,500.00 cash-for-keys, it was clear that the settlement was in the client’s best interest. After the client instructed us to accept the offer, we executed the settlement documents which were then counter-signed by Wells Fargo’s law firm, Ronald Wolfe and Associates, and filed with the Court. Our client did his part by moving out of his home shortly before the sale date and leaving the property in good condition. We waited patiently for the check to arrive, then some two months later started with polite reminders by E-mail and phone. Several more months past, and the bank’s lawyers assured us that the matter was being “escalated” and that we would have a check in a few weeks. After the bank’s lawyer’s pants caught fire we knew we had to do something.
Our first line of attack was to file a motion for sanctions
to enforce the settlement agreement.
We wanted the foreclosure judge to see the nearly ten pages of E-mails
requesting payment and the multiple broken promises from Wells Fargo and and their lawyers. When we filed the motion for sanctions the bank’s lawyers shot back an E-mail asserting that the Court has lost
jurisdiction because it had been more than thirty days since final judgment of
foreclosure had been entered.
Rather than debate that point we simply filed a new lawsuit against
Wells Fargo to collect the $3,500.00 of cash for keys together with interest
and attorney’s fees. To see a redacted copy of the law suit we filed and many of the E-mails we sent click here.
Our new case is in County Court where judges only deal with civil cases
involving disputes of less than $15,000.00. Three thousand dollars might not be a bid deal to Wells
Fargo but it is a big deal to a disabled veteran.
We realize that banks and loan servicers often fail to pay cash-for-keys in a timely manner.
We have had many cases where it took numerous calls and e-mails to
obtain cash for keys checks and many more where we had to file a motion to
enforce the settlement agreement in order to get our clients paid. We regularly hear complaints about this
from other foreclosure defenses lawyers and from Pro Se litigants. So we are
going to do something about it.
Starting today, our firm will sue banks and loan servicers
that breach cash-for-keys agreements even if we did not handle the underlying
foreclosure case. Since our
firm has offices in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Satellite Beach, St. Petersburg and
Jacksonville we can handle such cases in most Florida counties. We will accept
such cases on a pure contingency fee basis, where the only fee we receive is a
bank paid fee as ordered by the Court.
Under such a retainer the client will still receive 100% of their agreed
cash for keys settlement. We will
also accept referrals from other foreclosure lawyers who don’t enjoy suing
banks as much as we do.
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