We are often contacted by people who have a Foreclosure Surplus or Tax Deed Surplus and have already been contacted by a Surplus Recovery Agent. But who are these people who are contacting you who seem to know a great deal about your case already? To be sort and to the point, these “agents” are not lawyers and they could be frauds. They obtain your information from public record and try to get you to sign over your rights to them for a percentage of your surplus funds.
In the State of Florida, someone who is trying to recover surplus funds for someone doesn’t have to be licensed and insured. There is no requirement for them to be held accountable to any organization pertaining to the legality of their actions. But what does this mean to you, the person who stands to gain or lose a great deal of money in a Surplus case? This means that if you hire one of these shady Surplus Recovery Agents, you could sign over your rights to them. This allows them to petition the Court on your behalf and the surplus check gets turned over by the Courts to them. At this point they might turn over the surplus amount over to you minus your agreed upon fees, or they might just disappear with your money and you receive nothing at all. They are gone with your money and will run their scam on someone else. To me, this is far too much of a risk as there is nothing to regulate them.
To attempt to stop this practice, there are some County Courts that require Summary Administrations and Motions for Surplus Funds to be filed by a licensed Attorney. What the Surplus Agent does then is to hire a young or inexperienced attorney for a nominal fee to file the Summaries and Motions. But this Attorney doesn’t know who you are and likely doesn’t know all of the facts to the case. This young and inexperienced Attorney has likely not researched whether there are any subordinate lienholders or anyone else who may have a claim to the Surplus Funds.
These factors could put your potential Surplus Funds in jeopardy either from a potential crook, or by someone so inexperienced that they won’t know the statutes and rules to follow to obtain your maximum Surplus Claim. The important thing to remember is to always contact a licensed and insured attorney. Here at the Haynes Law Group, P.A., we have handled hundreds of Foreclosure Surplus cases and over 10,000 Foreclosure Defense cases. Not only will we handle your case with the utmost care and professionalism, but we are required to follow the legal and ethical obligations laid down by the Florida Bar of Ethics.
Each case is completely different and must be handled differently. Those Surplus Recovery Agents are generally not familiar with Florida Statutes 45.031, 45.032 and 45.033 which govern surplus funds. They are not familiar with specific case law that narrows these statutes in such a way as to help us with each different case we handle. We know how to apply the statutes and case law and tailor it to your specific case. You won’t get that kind of service from some third party who claims they can get your surplus funds for you.
If you think you may be entitled to foreclosure surplus funds in Florida, please call my firm and I will personally give you a free consultation. I handle foreclosure surplus cases in every county in Florida. And I don’t get paid unless you do.