Tampa Bay home owners not to be evicted during Christmas season

Thursday, December 16, 2010

by Nathan Bangs

Tampa Bay home owners not to be evicted during Christmas season

As a Tampa Bay home owner whose home mortgage is insured by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, if you are facing a foreclosure you can relax for a couple of weeks. These two companies that insure or own about half of the mortgages in the U.S. are giving homeowners a brief respite on foreclosure evictions for the holiday season. So Tampa Bay home owners will not have to worry about being served papers to vacate before January 3rd.

The homes that are covered under this suspension are occupied single-family homes as well as two to fur unit properties. In addition, if your Tampa Bay home loan is held by Bank of America or Wells Fargo, they will not be processing evictions during this time either.

The moratorium on evictions by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is generally being regarded as only fair because they were bailed out by taxpayers in 2008, when they were about to enter bankruptcy. An attorney for Freddie Mac said if the property was occupied, the foreclosure attorneys would suspend an eviction allowing the homeowner “a greater measure of certainty” during the holidays.

Many lenders for Tampa Bay home owners as well as others across the country are already under investigation for alleged improprieties involving the processing of foreclosure documents. Some have stopped foreclosures until the investigation into this is completed. The alleged violations involved employees signing foreclosure documents without reading what they were signing.

The mortgage division of Ally GMAC began stopping foreclosures in September in 23 states and many other mortgage companies followed suit. The result, at least is the many foreclosures for Tampa Bay home owners have slowed considerably. Florida is one of the states that have been worst-affected by foreclosures.

There are many mixed reactions from the public about the halts on foreclosures for the holidays. The long term for Tampa Bay home owners is a concern and there are those who feel the fault for all the problems being experienced today lies with the banks and mortgage companies. They feel as if they put people in the positions they are today by approving loans that were not viable for the homeowners in the first place.