Do I qualify for the Collins Center's Managed Mediation Program?
If you have a Fannie Mae-backed loan on a homesteaded property and are 65 days delinquent you probably qualify. Also, the Collins Center is program manager for a foreclosure mediation program in Florida’s First
Judicial Circuit (Escambia, Okaloosa, Santa Rosa, Walton Counties). You probably qualify if
you own a homestead property in the First Judicial Circuit that is already in
foreclosure. If you have not received a call from the Collins Center, please call toll free 877/352-2004 x2 for
information regarding your case. Until December 2011, the Collins Center was also program
manager for the Tenth, Twelfth, Fourteenth and Nineteenth Circuits. If
you own a homestead property in any of these circuits, and foreclosure was
filed between March 2009 and December 2011, and you were not provided
the opportunity to participate in the program, please call toll
free 877/352-2004 x2 regarding your case.
Why did the Court order foreclosure cases to mediation between 2009 and 2011?
Both lenders and homeowners told the court that they were unable to reach each other to try to find a solution. The Court decided to order lenders and homeowners to meet face-to-face, along with a neutral mediator, prior to the foreclosure hearing to try to come to an agreement. Because the number of foreclosures filings was increasing dramatically in 2009, the court decided that urgent action was needed so that the foreclosure process would be fair to everyone by providing both the lender and the homeowner an opportunity to be heard and, if possible, to find a voluntary solution. Court-ordered mediation was in effect from 2009 until the Supreme Court lifted the order in 2011.
Why isn’t foreclosure mediation for everyone?
The program is for homeowners who live in their homes. It is not for investors or speculators who own properties that they rent to others.
