Fair Foreclosure Act Redux

Posted by kevin on January 16, 2011 under Foreclosure Blog | Comments are off for this article

Last week, I notified you that a court in Bergen Cty dismissed a foreclosure complaint without prejudice for failure to comply with the Notice of Intent to Foreclose requirement of the Fair Foreclosure Act (FFA)

As stated previously, the FFA requires that the borrower be given a Notice which must contain 11 different items of information including the name and address of the lender.  Many times with securitized trusts, the lender information is not included in the Notice of Intent.

In Essex Cty this past week, a judge held that a dismissal was warranted only if the notice was not given.  The ruling further stated that an incorrect notice can be cured by sending a new notice.  In that situation, the foreclosure case is held up only for 35 days.  The Judge relied on another case from an appellate level court in NJ.  However, my reading of that case is that the appellate panel did not allow such a cure.

Judges across the State are coming down with different decisions on this issue.  Eventually, the issue will wind up before the Supreme Court.  In the meantime, whether a borrower can use noncompliance with the FFA to his or her benefit will depend on where the property is located.

That is why our strategy has been, and will continue to be that our engagement will involve not only the trial but also the appeal.  NJ needs appellate level and Supreme Court rulings on many of the issues that confront a borrower in foreclosures brought by securitized trusts.

More later.