TAVARES, FL - November 21, 2012 - (RealEstateRama) -- All offices of the Lake County Board of County Commissioners, Clerk of Courts, Property Appraiser, Supervisor of Elections and Tax Collector will be closed Thursday, Nov. 22 and Friday, Nov. 23 for the Thanksgiving holiday.

WASHINGTON, DC - November 21, 2012 - (RealEstateRama) -- A former executive of Lender Processing Services Inc. (LPS)—a publicly traded company based in Jacksonville, Florida—pleaded guilty today, admitting her participation in a six-year scheme to prepare and file more than one million fraudulently signed and notarized mortgage-related documents with property recorders’ offices throughout the United States.

TALLAHASSEE, FL - November 20, 2012 - (RealEstateRama) -- Attorney General Pam Bondi and Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen are leading the national effort by state attorneys general urging Congress to extend tax relief for consumers who have mortgage debt canceled or forgiven due to financial hardship or a decline in housing values. Forty-two state attorneys general have joined Attorney General Bondi and Attorney General Jepsen in signing on to a letter to U.S. House and Senate leaders requesting them to extend this distressed homeowner tax relief, which has been in effect since 2007 and is scheduled to expire Dec. 31, 2012

TALLAHASSEE, FL - November 19, 2012 - (RealEstateRama) -- Attorney General Pam Bondi announced today that the nation’s five largest mortgage servicers that entered the federal-state settlement over foreclosure abuses and unacceptable mortgage servicing practices report that they have provided more than $3.6 billion in borrower relief to Floridians as of Sept. 30, 2012, with an additional $1.3 billion in modification relief in the pipeline. The servicers reported that 48,998 Floridians have benefitted from an average of $73,663 in relief per borrower. Nationally, the servicers report that more than 300,000 borrowers have received a total of $26.11 billion in relief and an average of $84,385 in relief per borrower.

TALLAHASSEE, FL - November 5, 2012 - (RealEstateRama) -- Florida Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater’s Bureau of Unclaimed Property returned more than $199,319 to 797 consumers Thursday evening during a phone bank event for South Florida and Treasure Coast residents. In the 12 hours after the phone bank, the Unclaimed Property website had 6,949 visits to the website.

October 26, 2012 - (RealEstateRama) -- Mayor Edwin M. Lee today opened the new Visitacion Valley Family Resource Center annex at the Sunnydale HOPE SF public housing site as part of the Mayor’s IPO (Interrupt, Predict and Organize for a Safer San Francisco) violence prevention strategy.

TALLAHASSEE, FL - October 26, 2012 - (RealEstateRama) -- Attorney General Pam Bondi and the Miami-Dade Police Department today charged seven people for their alleged involvement in a mortgage fraud scheme totaling nearly $5 million. The individuals allegedly defrauded lenders by using straw buyers, filing false liens with county officials, laundering money, and inflating prices quoted to lenders.

MIAMI, FL - October 23, 2012 - (RealEstateRama) -- Congresswoman Frederica Wilson (D-Fla.) will hold a foreclosure prevention workshop on Wednesday, October 24, 2012, from1:00pm to 8:00pm at The Fountain of New Life Church, 4601 NW 167th Street, Miami Gardens, Florida 33055, where Reverend Wayne Lomax is the pastor. The foreclosure prevention workshop will educate homeowners, facing foreclosure, about the many local, state and federal programs designed to help homeowners hang on to their homes. Many of these programs have expiration dates and Congresswoman Wilson wants to make sure that South Floridians take full advantage of them, whether you are unemployed, underemployed or a Veteran facing foreclosure

TALLAHASSEE, FL - September 26, 2012 - (RealEstateRama) -- Attorney General Pam Bondi's office has obtained a temporary injunction and asset freeze against a company that allegedly preyed on distressed homeowners, defrauding them out of thousands of dollars in a mortgage relief scam. According to the complaint filed by the Attorney General’s Office, Edward Cherry, Lawrence Diodato, Paul Gellenbeck, Shane Frankovic, Anthony C. Pintsopoulos and their businesses charged homeowners $3,500 in up-front fees and, in return, falsely guaranteed that the defendants would “void” the homeowner’s “upside-down mortgage.” The Broward County Circuit Court today ordered the defendants to immediately cease operations and freeze their assets

TALLAHASSEE, FL - September 25, 2012 - (RealEstateRama) -- Attorney General Pam Bondi announced today that claim forms are going out to approximately 167,398 Florida borrowers who lost their home to foreclosure between Jan. 1, 2008 and Dec. 31, 2011 and who may be eligible for payment under the $25 billion national mortgage foreclosure settlement.

WASHINGTON, DC - September 21, 2012 - (RealEstateRama) -- Congressman Ander Crenshaw, a member of the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, voted for a series of bills that aim to put veterans back to work, reduce homelessness, and expand accessibility to health care.

PENSACOLA, FL - September 10, 2012 - (RealEstateRama) -- In February, Pamela C. Marsh, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Florida, announced that nine defendants had been federally indicted for their involvement in several multi-jurisdictional mortgage fraud schemes and that two previously indicted defendants had been sentenced to prison. Today, two additional defendants have been found guilty and now await sentencing.

WASHINGTON, DC - September 4, 2012 - (RealEstateRama) -- The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced today that it is charging a Gibsonton, FL, homeowners association and its Tampa-based former management company with violating the Fair Housing Act by subjecting a family to different rental terms and conditions because they have six children. HUD's charge alleges that Townhomes of Kings LakeHomeowners Association (HOA), Inc., and Vanguard Management Group, Inc., violated the Fair Housing Act by telling the family that they had too many people living in their rental townhouse and threatening to evict them if they didn't reduce the number of occupants based on an occupancy policy that permitted only six people to live in a four-bedroom home

TALLAHASSEE, FL - August 30, 2012 - (RealEstateRama) -- Today, Joseph Smith, Jr., the national mortgage settlement monitor, released an interim report on homeowner relief that the nation’s five largest mortgage servicers have provided as of June 30. Based upon figures voluntarily provided by the servicers, but not yet verified by the monitor, more than 23,000 Floridians have received an excess of $1.7 billion in relief under the settlement. The relief provided thus far includes first and second lien principal forgiveness, forgiveness of past forbearance, refinancing, and deficiency waivers. The report also details the servicers' progress on reforming their servicing practices as required by the settlement agreement. The interim report includes a timetable for future reports with the monitor’s first audited report expected in April 2013

TAVARES, FL - August 28, 2012 - (RealEstateRama) -- All offices of the Lake County Board of County Commissioners, Clerk of Courts, Property Appraiser, Supervisor of Elections and Tax Collector will be closed Monday, Sept. 3 in observance of Labor Day

TAVARES - August 28, 2012 - (RealEstateRama) -- Many times, offenders who are released on probation battle poverty, joblessness, homelessness and various other circumstances that make it difficult for them to re-enter society as productive citizens. In an effort to help facilitate the transition, the Lake County Probation Services Division has partnered with the national Open Table initiative.

TAVARES - August 27, 2012 - (RealEstateRama) -- As Central Florida braces for Tropical Storm Isaac, the Lake County Public Safety Department, Emergency Management Division is closely monitoring the storm. Officials are urging Lake County residents to take the proper precautions to ensure the safety of their family, property and businesses.

ATLANTA— August 24 marks 20 years since Hurricane Andrew made landfall in South Florida, devastating Homestead, Florida City and parts of Miami. When Andrew struck,...

TALLAHASSEE, FlL - August 22, 2012 - (RealEstateRama) -- Members of the Federal Emergency Management Agency and a home improvement store are teaming up this week to provide information on cleaning up and rebuilding homes after Tropical Storm Debby.

TAVARES, CA - August 20, 2012 - (RealEstateRama) -- Lake County’s longest-serving Property Appraiser, Ed Havill passed away Saturday at age 71. “Ed Havill was an outstanding pillar of this community who dedicated his life to Lake County,“ said Commission Chairman Leslie Campione. “We owe him a debt of gratitude for his many years of leadership and service. He will be deeply missed, and my sincerest condolences go out to his family.”