TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Dec. 11, 2009 – According to the Florida Swimming Pool Association (FSPA), the state’s high number of foreclosures has led to new safety problems related to many areas’ swimming pools.
“First and foremost, it’s critical that even abandoned swimming pools maintain adequate barriers to prevent unauthorized access by children,” says Charis Tyson, communications specialist for FSPA. “The Florida Building Code and the ANSI/NSPI Model Building Code call for a fence and/or safety cover.
Many safety measures also keep the pool appealing to potential homebuyers.
“Wherever possible, pools in vacant homes should remain operational, meaning there is adequate circulation and turnover of the water, to avoid water contamination and resulting health hazards,” says Tyson. “This may also help avoid costly damage to the pool, and could help maintain aesthetics and property value. It is well worth the cost. But if it’s not possible to maintain the pool, it should be covered or fenced in some way to prevent access.”
All property owners should follow current swimming pool safety standards.
A link to the statutes regarding pool safety standards is available at: http://www.floridapoolpro.com/industry/news/poolsafetyact.html. The association also offers a search function to find a pool professional searchable by zip code: http://www.floridapoolpro.com/find_pool_pro/locator.asp.
© 2009 Florida Realtors®
Social Security Redaction
The Orange County Comptroller is making images of documents viewable on her publicly available Internet web site. Therefore, in accordance with Section 119.071(5)(a)(7), Florida Statutes, any person has the right to request the Comptroller to redact/remove his or her social security, credit card, charge card, debit card, and/or bank account number(s) from the image or copy of any Official Record that has been placed on the publicly available Internet website.
To locate documents which might contain these numbers, please follow these directions:
Go to the Official Records Search page .
Click on the ACCEPT button at the bottom of the Disclaimer page,
Click on Public Search, then do your search by Party Name.
The Search Results screen provides the document information needed to complete the Financial Account and Social Security Redaction Form below. You will need to view the specific document by clicking on VIEW.
If you find a document on which your own social security, credit card, charge card, debit card, and/or bank account number appears and you would like to request that the numbers be redacted, please fill out the Request to Remove Financial Account and/or Social Security Redaction Form. This form can be printed out and faxed, hand delivered, or mail to us. Or you can fill the form out online and click the submit button. This form is not secure. If you do not wish to use it, you may use one of the other options.
Please allow us 2(two) business days from the date of receipt of your request to comply with your request.
Orange County Comptroller’s
Official Records Department
109 E. Church St. Suite 300
Orlando, FL 32801
Phone 407- 836-5115
Fax 407-836-5120
Below it is no surprise, and something I know I have said before if not written about before.
This only goes to show that truth exist in the saying that “Homeownership is a privilege, not a right!” I don’t care who you are, or where you are from, but failing to manage your obligations properly is not my responsibility. While I know many people have run into hardships, and I understand some people make mistakes, but failing to pay for your mistakes is what I am speaking of.
As a negotiator, I do what I can to settle accounts in a manner that benefit the borrower / buyer and the seller. But many banks have been adamant about unsecured notes being attached to the seller. I personally am against them, in most circumstances where the bank is making pure profit, but at the same time for a seller to stand in the way of a sale, that allows the community to progress, is where I draw the line, especially where the seller is getting a huge benefit by a large reduction in balance owed.
It just takes a little common sense to see the logic in the situation….
Homeowners in financial trouble often re-default
WASHINGTON (AP) – Oct. 2, 2009 – Lenders are ramping up efforts to avoid home foreclosures, but a report by bank regulators says more than half of borrowers who get help fall behind again.
More than 50 percent of homeowners with loans modified in the first half of last year had missed at least two months of payments a year later, the federal Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Office of Thrift Supervision said Wednesday.
But the results were better among those who saw their payments drop substantially.
About one in three borrowers whose monthly payments were reduced by 20 percent or more had fallen behind again within a year. That compares with more than 60 percent for borrowers whose loan payments were left unchanged or increased.
The report highlights a significant challenge for the Obama administration’s plan to tackle the foreclosure crisis, backed by $50 billion in money from the financial industry bailout fund.
The administration’s effort got off to a slow start, but has picked up speed in recent months. As of last month, about 360,000 borrowers, or 12 percent of those eligible, have signed up for three-month trial modifications. They are supposed to be extended for five years if the homeowners make their payments on time. There is currently no data on redefaults within the plan.
Traditionally, most lenders have offered payment plans that allowed borrowers to catch up on missed payments. But those modifications often do not involve an interest rate reduction and result in a higher monthly payment.
All that does is set the borrower up for failure, said Kristi Cahoon, an attorney and housing counselor with Legal Services of Northern Virginia. “A lot of them aren’t true modifications,” she said.
By contrast, under the Obama plan, she believes the loans will be sustainable for the homeowners she counsels. Borrowers’ interest rates, for example, can go as low as 2 percent for five years under the Obama plan.
Bank regulators say they have pressed lenders to shift their focus to modifications that reduced borrowers’ payments. They made up nearly 80 percent of new modifications in the April-June quarter, up from about half in the first three months of the year.
The report covers 34 million loans, representing more than 60 percent of primary home mortgages. Consistent with other reports, it showed borrowers are continuing to fall behind as job losses mount. More than 11 percent of borrowers covered by the report had missed at least one payment as of June 30, up from 10 percent in April.
It also highlighted mounting problems with an especially troubling category of loans –s “pick-a-payment” or option ARM loans, which allowed borrowers to defer some of their interest payments and add them to the principal. At the end of June, 10 percent of these loans were in foreclosure, more than triple the rate for all mortgages in the survey.
The lenders included in the report offered help to about 440,000 borrowers in the April-June period, they started foreclosure on about 370,000 homes, unchanged from the January-March period.
AP LogoCopyright 2009 The Associated Press, Alan Zibel, AP Real Estate Writer
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