Florida's Fatigued Footwork

A serious budget crunch and seemingly clueless reps led to an uneventful legislative session for Florida lawmakers last week.  Nonetheless they manage to squeeze out some dribble for both their constituents and Poinciana property owners.  Here are some highlights from this year's bull pen.

Fraud Against Distressed Homeowners. Homeowners beware.  Anyone who asks you to pay up front, including lawyers, are mortal demons.  Let those courting your financial failure prove that they can help.  With  HB 643 (Rep. Clay Ford, R-Pensacola) anyone offering you foreclosure assistance is now required to enter into a written contract and these contracts must spell out services provided.  So what are you going to do next time anyone asks you for money before they provide you with service?

Affordable Housing.  An approval of this bill will allow lawmakers to dip into a $250 million housing trust fund reserve to make up for shortfalls in the state budget.  Careful with your Hancock, Mr. Crist!  Floridians want and need affordable housing but it needs to provide affordable homes for your human constituents, not developers.

Credit Crisis Mortgage Fraud.  Last year, 70-80 percent of the almost 300,000 foreclosures in Florida involved mortgage fraud, and just this week, Fannie Mae made public its fears that our housing crisis will extend into next year!  I ask, "Can it get any worse?"  Per HB 743 (Rep. Carlos Lopez-Cantera, R-Miami), our reps, have put some teeth into mortgage fraud laws with

a sentence penalty of 15 years in prison.  With approval, defrauded homeowners should be able to witness cold blood from what promises to be a future spate of nailed high-rankers.

Homeowners' Bill of Rights improves on the property insurance reforms passed in 2007.

• Extends the rate freeze for Citizens Property Insurance Corp., the state's insurer of last resort, to January 2010.
• Allows single-family residential properties with a replacement value of up to $2 million into the Citizens insurance pool.  That covers at least 99% of Poinciana's homes!
• Requires insurers to notify state regulators 90 days before dropping more than 10,000 homeowners' policies in one year.

Angels for Renters.  The state budget raised the filing fee for evictions from $75 to $265.  Don't be surprised though if your landlord attempts to add this expense to an increase in your rent.  This particular bill won't protect you.

Affordable Health Insurance for nearly 4 million Floridians. It was one of the last bills to pass this session but among the most important ones.  It changes current law and allows insurers to offer no-frills insurance coverage for as little as $150 a month. Florida is headed in the right direction but much more needs to be done.  For example, what to do about the more than 60,000 Floridians homeless on any given day here in Florida.  (Charge them?)

Keep in mind that all of these bills are still awaiting Charlie Crist's approval, so you have a chance left to let him know what you think.  But don't get your hopes high, according to Crist himself on this morning's MSNBC Morning Joe show, "things are well" in Florida.  Crist's address is Charlie.Crist@MyFlorida.com.