Attorney: More mistakes on horizon as foreclosures climb after brief lull

TAMPA - The story of Shawn Hill's battle for his Tampa house starts with a knock on the door.

"He said, 'I'm here to serve you a notice of foreclosure,'" Hill recounted.

Hill remembers that day in 2008 like it was yesterday.

"You know, you have the wind knocked out of you," he said.

Fortunately, Hill was able to negotiate with his bank. He says they canceled the sale and approved loan modification.

Then, eleven days ago, he answered another knock at the door.

"He says, I'm an investor and I wanted to take a look at the property. The property is up for foreclosure this morning at the Hillsborough County Courthouse,'"Hill explained.

Hill thought he and his bank had reached an agreement. He says he was making payments and believed he was on track to save his home.

Hill's not sure what went wrong with the bank, but he thinks he knows what went wrong with the court.

He says he received no notice his house faced foreclosure again because the address his bank supplied to the court was incorrect, and so his mail was sent to the wrong homeowner.

"They may have discarded them or thrown them away, but I've never received a notice," Hill said.

Hill's address is 202. The address on record in the Hillsborough County Courthouse is 2020.

"He had no knowledge whatsoever that his home was being sold out from underneath him," Hill's attorney, Matthew Weidner said.

Weidner says he wishes Hill's situation surprised him, but it doesn't. Of his several hundred clients facing foreclosure, one in five face what he calls an "acute" situation that must be resolved immediately, many due to some sort of miscommunication or oversight.

"We continue to see mistakes that are made, mistakes in oversight, a court system that's overworked," Weidner said.

Weidner believes those mistakes are a symptom of foreclosures climbing once again.

In Pasco and Pinellas, new filings are up 45% from April to June.

In Hillsborough, they're up 57.5%.

"The foreclosure problem is only going to get worse and it's going to get much, much worse before it gets better," Weidner said. "We are deep in the middle of this crisis, the crisis we've been in since at least 2008. Our court systems are clogged with foreclosure cases. We can't figure out a way to get them out."

Hill still hopes to keep his home after clearing up the address confusion.

"It's kind of a nightmare being in a state of limbo," he said.

Then yesterday, Hill got more mail.

Another foreclosure notice, and this time, the paperwork made it to him.

But his name is not on it, because it is meant for another homeowner, likely sent to Hill by mistake.