As PBC foreclosure paperwork piles up, so does desperation
Kimberly Miller from the Palm Beach Post brings us an article regarding the mountains of paperwork that are deluging courthouse offices across the United States. Now, you may say that I am pointing out the obvious….which is partly true! But I found a little nugget that may help the real estate professionals out there help those that are seeking to buy properties “on the courthouse steps.”.
Buying properties at auction is the rage. As this article points out, the mountain of paperwork breeds chaos and confusion. One individual that is highlighted in the article paid cash for a house at auction and, 1 month later, is still waiting for the deed! As the old adage says, buyer beware!
As PBC foreclosure paperwork piles up, so does desperation
By KIMBERLY MILLER
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Don Cameron’s March 8 win in a Palm Beach County home auction is stalled somewhere on the third floor of the courthouse in stacks of foreclosure filings piled several feet overhead.
He’d like to start fixing up the three-bedroom house, renovate the kitchen, maybe get it ready for a first-time home buyer hoping to cash in on the waning days of the $8,000 tax credit.
But nearly a month after his $74,570 purchase, which he is required to pay for in full by noon the next day, the massive backlog of foreclosures in the Palm Beach County Clerk and Comptroller’s Office still has him waiting for the home’s title.
Despite tripling the number of employees who handle foreclosures, and scanning a feverish 30,000 case pages into the computer every day, staff can’t keep up with what amounted to about 2,500 foreclosures each month last year. (In all of 2005, there were 3,049 foreclosures in the county).
By statute, the clerk can’t release a title for 10 days, but waiting up to 60 days to claim ownership is cutting into Cameron’s profit margin and, some say, the economic recovery.
Getting foreclosures back on the market means paychecks for people who do renovations.
Buyers will purchase furniture and accessories.
Real estate and property taxes get paid.
“We can’t do anything. We can’t get our money back, we can’t work on the property, we can’t sell the property, we can’t market the property,” said Cameron, owner of real estate investment company Hi-Land Properties, a West Palm Beach subsidiary of We Buy Ugly Houses. “It’s a domino effect.”
This year, the Florida State Courts Administration is requesting $9.6 million from the state to hire more judges and speed the backlog of foreclosures through the system. The administration estimates there are about 500,000 foreclosure cases pending statewide, including 55,000 in Palm Beach County, and 13,750 in Martin and St. Lucie counties combined.
But even if the judges get their money, the cases could still get stuck in a processing logjam on the clerk’s side.
And lawmakers are looking to cut $23 million statewide from county clerks’ budgets, including a $2.6 million dig in Palm Beach County that could mean a loss of more than 100 clerk employees.
Palm Beach County Clerk and Comptroller Sharon Bock said that kind of staff reduction would mean fewer services in satellite offices, years-long waits for divorces and a continued quagmire for foreclosures.
“These foreclosures are already languishing,” Bock said. “By allowing that, there is absolutely a capital loss, a loss in business, a loss in the market and a personal loss to the person stuck in limbo.”
Bock estimates an average foreclosure case takes her office an overall 230 minutes to process from the time it is filed, sold on a new online auction system, and to closing.
Last year, when auctions were still live, processing the 30,227 foreclosures took about 118,470 hours of clerk work.
“It’s very paperwork intensive,” said Mark Broderick, director of Palm Beach County civil court services.
Martin and St. Lucie counties would see 10 percent cuts in their budgets for next year.
In Martin, that would be a reduction of about $360,000 and likely 14 positions, said Martin County Clerk of Courts Marsha Ewing.
While Ewing is still able to get titles on foreclosed properties bought at auction processed in 10 days, she said she’s taken employees from other divisions to keep up with the filings.
Martin had 2,082 foreclosures in 2009, compared with 127 in 2005.
In St. Lucie County, proposed budget cuts would equal about $810,000.
“Cutting the budget would be disastrous for the public,” said St. Lucie County Clerk of Courts Joseph Smith, whose office processed 8,324 foreclosures last year, compared with 485 in 2005. Smith has a staff of 23 working on foreclosures. Five years ago, it was half that.
The proposal to cut county clerks’ budgets is based on a law passed last year requiring clerks to track their average cost per case and base their budgets on the unit cost.
But the clerks have been collecting the data for less than six months, and at least one senator said it was therefore inconclusive.
The plan will go to budget conference for debate.
Meanwhile, Cameron is waiting to get title on five foreclosures he’s purchased this year through auction. “We want to help improve the community, put people to work and assist the recovery,” Cameron said. “But we keep meeting stumbling blocks all the way through.”