Florida's most recent statute to protect homeowners in foreclosure focuses on two groups of individuals. First, is the Foreclosure Rescue-Consultant ("FRC") and the second is the Equity Purchaser ("EP"). The FRC is an area where major abuses have occurred because some FRC's have taken money from homeowners in foreclosure and not done what they promised to do, which was usually to stop the homeowner's foreclosure. Other promises have included doing short sales, postponing the homeowner's having to leave the property, negotiating loan modifications, credit score improvements, and other remedies for foreclosure that were never done. The fees for the services were paid up-front and the homeowner got little or no benefit. In many cases there may have been fraud, while in many other cases, the lenders were uncooperative and the result was the homeowner was forced to leave his home.

The new legislation, Florida Stature 501.1377, was signed by Florida's Governor on May 28, 2008. FRC's are now required to follow strict disclosure requirements including incorporating the exact text in the statute into contracts and disclosure documents, the size of the type, the use of upper case letters in the entire document - not just the specific required clauses, and a strict cancellation procedure. The actual statute becomes law on October 1, 2008 and repeals an existing "Victimization Statute" F.S. 501.2078 which has been in effect for some time.

This is a brief overview of the Florida Statute 501.1377 and is not meant to be a legal opinion advice and is for educational purposes only.

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