A bill aimed at speeding up Florida's foreclosure process passed the Senate by a 26-to-13 vote Friday, and is now headed for the governor's desk. By the terms of the bill, homeowners who lose their property in a fraudulent foreclosure can't get it back if the bank has already sold it.
Senator Darren Soto, who opposed the bill, said banks have dragged out the foreclosure process to avoid flooding the housing market.
"So what we're going to see here is we're going to reduce property rights – individual homestead property rights that have been on the books for generations ¬– and it's not even going to work."
But Senator Jack Latvala, the bill's sponsor, said Florida's housing market won't recover until the backlog of foreclosed homes is reduced.
"I believe we've added safeguards in this bill that actually, on balance, make it far more tilted towards consumers than it is the banks."
Florida leads the nation in foreclosures. Currently it takes more than two years to go through the process.