Walking away from Florida mortgage doesn't always clear debt

No Florida law compels lenders to go easy on defaulters. Some homeowners are finding out that housing debt can be like flypaper if they get on a bank's bad side. In some cases banks have docked homeowners' bank accounts and paychecks for mortgage debt they assumed was forgiven. Others have sold their homes by short sale and amicably parted ways with the bank only to receive letters that the lender would hound them for the shortfall. Florida is a "recourse" state. That means a lender can hit you for extra payments even after it has seized the house as collateral for the delinquent mortgage. Many Web sites mistakenly label Florida a "nonrecourse" state. One fact has tended to help Tampa Bay homeowners, however: Florida law leaves much of the discretion up to judges. Strapped homeowners are popularly viewed as victims of the banks, and few judges grant lenders carte blanche to seize assets aside from the home in question.

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