Other times, it can get really tricky.  Condo and homeowner associations are some of the toughest to deal with because not only is the auction buyer on the hook for the overdue payments, but the associations’ attorneys can pile on thousands of dollars in questionable fees.  Other times, code enforcement violations, judgments against the previous owners, and other liens need to be stripped or paid before the title can be clean.

Most of time these liens can be negotiated.  The new owner may have a reason to sue for the cloud on title or the ability to force the claiming party to prove what exactly their claim is.

I once had to sue a bank that went bankrupt before they recorded a satisfaction of  mortgage.  That took six weeks and we thought we were lucky.  Another time, I decided to see if Bank of America would just research their file to prove to themselves that they had no record of being owed the $100,000 they claimed were owed to them by way of buying another bank with the claim.  After about six months they finally agreed.  In retrospect I should have just sued them and it would have probably gone faster.

Banks are so big anymore that one hand doesn’t know what the other is doing.  If you buy a home from the auction, find a lawyer to help you research the title first, then decide if clearing the problems are worth the trouble.  Most of the tricky problems that cloud the title can be negotiated with the right help.

For many in Miami, we forgot what it meant to live within our personal budgets and went for the quick fix of buying now and paying for it later.  Credit card companies, car dealers, and rent-to-own rackets have been collecting excessive amounts of interest and late fees on us for long enough!

The solution for many folks is to press the “reset button” and get a fresh start by exercising their constitutional right to a bankruptcy.  After a bankruptcy, instead of paying all those cards with 20% interest, they can save the money or invest it and start building a portfolio of real wealth.

Certain things that are worth considering when determining if a bankruptcy is right for you is the amount of debt you have and how much it is worth to you to not file a bankruptcy?  A lot of folks that consider the bankruptcy option are making less than $40,000/ year and have twice as much debt, their mortgage is a lot more than their house is worth, and they are barely scraping by every month. How will they ever climb out?

Is paying back that $25,000 of high interest debt really worth not filing for bankruptcy?  How much would you be willing to pay to not file?  If you have $40,000 in dischargable debt is it worth $40,000 to pay back instead of filing?  The answer is really up to every individual.  There is no wrong answer.  However, the fastest way to eliminate the debt and excessive interest and fees is to file the bankruptcy.  A lot of famous people have done it, including Donald Trump and Walt Disney.

David Ramsey is a famous author and radio-host who wrote “The Total Money Makeover”.  He offers a lot of good advice to consider when you are trying to figure out how to get out of debt.  His books are worth reading.  In short, he suggests that you stop incurring further debt. Cut up the credit cards.  If you can’t afford your car, sell it and trade down for something you can afford without payments.  Stop wasting money eating out and taking vacations.  Once you stop the money-bleeding,  he suggests that you make a budget, save up a quick $1,000 emergency fund, then organize your bills from smallest balances to the largest, and then only pay the minimum balances on every bill except the one with the lowest balance.  On the smallest balance, pay as much as you possibly can, as soon as you can (like every pay period). He calls it “building the debt snowball” and every day people call into his show to tell them how it worked for them.  His books are full of information and my description is just a quick summary of his suggestions.

The debt snowball idea is a great way to keep yourself focused while you pay down bill after bill and chip away at what initially seems impossible.  But sometimes, the debt snowball isn’t enough.  Sometimes, the ability to work more hours, stay in school, raise the kids or whatever, makes making the minimum payments next to impossible to meet.  That’s when bankruptcy becomes for many the last best hope, and the only way to get back on the path to a more prosperous life.  More importantly, the experience allows one to start fresh and really create substantial wealth for themselves.

When someone owes their creditors balances that they cannot pay, whether its a credit card company, mortgage company, bank, etc., that creditor has the ability to sue them and get a judgement that can allow them to garnish their wages, empty their bank accounts, suspend their driver’s license, force them to sell their cars or other property, and make life truly miserable.  Attempts to negotiate and settle the debt for a fair amount often just leads to more misery and failure.

When the banks, lawyers, and other creditors refuse to help you pay them what you owe, your best weapon can be a bankruptcy.  There are different types of bankruptcies depending on your individual situation. Some can take as little as 90 days from start to finish.  When you assess your situation, you may find that the relief you have been looking for is just about 90 days away.  Starting fresh and getting back on the path to building wealth for yourself can be easier AND FASTER than you ever thought.  Your fresh start may be just a call away.  Call today for a free consultation, 305-665-3978.

There is really no way of knowing if the police are going to come to your house and pick you up or if you will get arrested the next time the police pull you over when you fail to completely stop at a stop sign.  To avoid going to jail, (or at least reduce your chances) you need to call the judge and get the bench warrant removed.  It’s usually best to hire a lawyer, even if you don’t have enough money to hire one to represent you on the underlying charges.  There is a lot of value in ensuring you won’t spend the night in jail or have to beg family to come to the jail and post your bond.  Even worse, if you are a single parent, there is a strong chance that your minor children will be sent to DCF custody.

When you do finally make it in front of the judge, you are going to have to have to explain why you missed court and why you should be allowed to stay out of custody while you prepare your defense.   A good excuse can be the difference between being forced to plea your case out right away or taking more time to prepare the necessary defenses.

Here in Miami, it’s no secret that home purchases are on the rise.  It’s also no secret that the foreclosure rates are increasing too.  Believe it or not both are actually good things for an association because as soon as the property gets into the hands of new ownership, the new owners have to start paying the monthly maintenance fees. 

However, it is very likely that associations could be savings thousands of dollars in the time it takes a bank to foreclose on someone who is also behind on their maintenance fees and mortgage.  Why?  When a homeowner gets behind on their association fees and mortgage payments it takes anywhere from three months to over a year before the bank files the foreclosure suit in court.  The homeowner will seek either a loan modification or try to short-sale (a sale for less than the amount the homeowner owes the bank) which often extends the time for the bank to finally send the property to auction.  The time between the start of the foreclosure suit until the end-sale at the auction can last years.  Banks consistently delay the sale because they don’t want to own the property and be obligated to pay the monthly association maintenance fees, future taxes, and dues. 

This delay can actually be a good thing for an association if the homeowner is trying to short-sale the property.  When a homeowner finds a buyer, and the bank approves the purchase price, the bank will also offer a settlement for past association fees, often several thousands of dollars.  If the bank offers to pay thousands in past association dues and fees, the association can either agree to the settlement or hold out for more. 

If the homeowner was $24,000 delinquent in past association dues ($1,000/mo. for 24 months), the bank may offer to settle for $12,000.  If the association agrees, then the sale will happen and the property will change ownership into the hands of a dues- paying owner.  If the association rejects the offer, the purchaser can pay the difference or walk away.   

What oftentimes happens is that the management company for the association will add additional charges and late fees to the delinquent amount and also refer the matter to the association’s attorney who will add a couple thousand dollars to the delinquent account for “collection efforts” (which are rarely anything other than mailing a form letter printed by a secretary and billed at extremely high rates).  All these extra charges become part of the delinquent amount and the management company, or their attorney, will reject the $12,000 offer. 

The members of the condo or homeowner’s association rarely ever learn that an offer to pay $12,000 was ever made.  When past due amounts, after the association and attorney add their charges, increase the delinquent account to nearly one-third of the purchase price, the hopes of a short sale become futile.  If the property cannot be sold prior to the foreclosure auction, there is a very strong chance (close to 99% if you look at the current auction results in Miami) that the bank will end up owning the property. 

When the bank purchases their delinquent mortgage-properties at a foreclosure auction the bank is required to pay only the lessor of 1% of the purchase price or six months of past association dues.  Using the previous example, the association would only receive likely $6,000 of the $24,000 actually past due.  The association’s rejection of the settlement made during the short-sale offer would have gained them $12,000 and the new owner would have been paying the monthly fees months (sometimes years) earlier. 

Unfortunately, association members are usually unaware that their management companies and attorneys, by charging such high fees, are preventing sales that could drastically change the economic situation for their associations.  One cause for this is that board members do not pay close attention to these fees because they are usually paid by new purchasers.  Association members rarely know that the fees are being charged because they do not pay them either. 

However,  when the short-sales don’t happen and thousands of dollars in assessments are divided among the owners that do pay, the pain is all too real.  Rarely are condo or homeowner association members aware that the pain may have been completely avoidable.     

This blog was posted by Miami Attorney Matthew E. Ladd, 255 University Drive, Coral Gables, FL. 305-665-3978. 

The information provided is only for informational purposes and should not be construed as formal legal advice.  Every situation is different and a review of your specific circumstances should be handled by an attorney.  This blog does not create an attorney-client relationship.

If you think you are in the clear because you just happened to turn 21 years old, think again.  Buying a twelve pack for you and yourbuddies can get you arrested if you allow underagers to grab a cold one for themselves too. The same penalties apply as if you were under 21, including suspeding your driver’s license.

Like most misdemeanor criminal charges, you can probably find an attorney who can negotiate a first-time-offender deal where the charges ultimately get dropped.  However, if the charges aren’t dismissed, then your license could be suspended for at least six months and possibly up to a year.

Ultimately, these laws are imposed to deter drinking and driving, but like we learned two years ago from all the arrests made after the first FIU football game, the police are using their authority to deter even those that have no intention of driving. Fines generate big revenue and that means there’s more inventive for enforcement than just public safety.

Arrests can stain clean records and cause a lot of hardache when it comes time to apply for a job. The safest course is to just follow the law, but if you don’t and for some reason you get caught, exercise your right to remain silent and call a lawyer.  It could make a big difference in the outcome of your case and for the rest of your life.

The story was reported like all stories regarding Cuba are reported; it lacked the necessary context to allow the reader to understand why the ban exists in the first place. While the focus of the article was increasing educational visas for American students, the story failed to mention that those students are quarantined from the Cuban population and are only allowed to interact with those that the Cuban government permits.

It is incumbent on our generation, we the 20 and 30-somethings, to remember the suffering and permanent scars bore by our families in their stories of success while living in exile. Our inherited good fortune requires us to be responsible for honoring their struggle by showing the rest of America why they too should care about a free Cuba. We should be proud to be offended at the shameless indifference that is displayed when someone lights up a Cuban cigar or opens a bottle of Havana Club Rum. These products are made on stolen property whose current profiteers took and hold their power and wealth by force and deception at the expense of those that they manipulate, confine, and cause to suffer in total dependence for food, clothing, and, almost as important, information.

The nature of our progressive mentality in the U.S. leads to the group-think that it is America’s policy that isolates Cuba and our policy is preventing the progress that could come from an open exchange of tourists and trade. The special interests that support the politicians that encourage this type of thought fail to explain that the policy of America for the last fifty years (including the 8 years under President Bush) support the lifting of the embargo upon the release of the political prisoners and after the free and fair elections that Castro promised fifty years ago when he was working to gain the support of the wealthy and middle classes in Cuba.

The current American policy is not irrational nor an extreme sentiment and it is not the reason the Cuban people are poor. What doesn’t make sense is how quick we are to forget that the Cuban government confines their population into poverty, convinces their own population and Americans that it is the U.S. Government’s fault, and then jails those that disagree or voice opposition against their corrupt government.

Rather than being passively indifferent, we should be proud to challenge those that dismiss the reality in Cuba and buy into the propaganda. Whatever shape U.S. policy takes, embargo or no embargo, it is our responsibility to use our power as individuals to boycott additional wealth to the Cuban government and to voice our opposition against the continued oppression of the Cuban people. The pain felt by our families is 50 years fresh and should not be forgotten.