2023 Florida Statutes
Title XL - Real and Personal Property
Chapter 702 - Foreclosure of Mortgages and Statutory Liens
702.12 - Actions in Foreclosure.
(1)(a) A lienholder, in an action to foreclose a mortgage, may submit any document the defendant filed under penalty of perjury in the defendant’s bankruptcy case for use as an admission by the defendant.
(b) A rebuttable presumption that the defendant has waived any defense to the foreclosure is created if a lienholder submits documents filed in the defendant’s bankruptcy case which:
1. Evidence the defendant’s intention to surrender to the lienholder the property that is the subject of the foreclosure;
2. Have not been withdrawn by the defendant; and
3. Show that a final order has been entered in the defendant’s bankruptcy case which discharges the defendant’s debts or confirms the defendant’s repayment plan that provides for the surrender of the property.
(2) Pursuant to s. 90.203, a court shall take judicial notice of an order entered in a bankruptcy case upon the request of a lienholder.
(3) This section does not preclude the defendant in a foreclosure action from raising a defense based upon the lienholder’s action or inaction subsequent to the filing of the document filed in the bankruptcy case which evidenced the defendant’s intention to surrender the mortgaged property to the lienholder.
(4) This section applies to any foreclosure action filed on or after October 1, 2018.
History.—s. 1, ch. 2018-15.