Foreclosure Rescue Scams in Florida: What to Watch For

Foreclosure rescue scams are real, and Florida has a statute aimed squarely at them: the Foreclosure-Rescue Fraud Prevention Act, Fla. Stat. § 501.1377. The people running these scams work off the lis pendens, the public filing that starts a Florida foreclosure, because it is a mailing list of everyone in the county who is behind on payments, running out of time, and holding equity worth taking. If someone has contacted you offering to save your house, this post covers what the law says, what the six scam patterns look like, and how a real cash purchase differs from a rescue con.

What Florida Law Actually Says

Fla. Stat. § 501.1377 regulates two kinds of operators: foreclosure-rescue consultants, meaning anyone who solicits you and offers to stop, avoid, or delay the foreclosure in exchange for payment, and equity purchasers, meaning anyone who acquires your house in a deal where you keep an interest, like a lease option or a right to buy it back. The statute puts hard rules on both:

• Written contract required. A consultant cannot start work without a written agreement signed by both parties, printed in at least 12-point uppercase type, listing the exact services to be performed and the total charges. You must receive a copy to review at least one business day before you sign.
• No upfront fees. A consultant cannot charge, collect, or even attempt to collect payment before all the contracted services are fully performed. This is the provision that makes the classic pay-first rescue model illegal in Florida.
• Three business days to cancel. You can cancel the agreement without penalty within 3 business days of signing, the right cannot be waived, and any money already paid must be returned within 10 business days.
• Sale contracts get a rescission window too. If the deal is a foreclosure-rescue transaction, meaning you sold the house but kept an interest like a leaseback or a repurchase option, you can cancel by 5 p.m. on the third business day after signing, and all money paid on either side must be returned.
• Leaseback deals are presumed to be loans. When the arrangement is a deed plus a lease option or repurchase agreement, the statute creates a rebuttable presumption that the transaction is really a mortgage, not a sale. A repurchase price running more than 17 percent per annum above the buyer's acquisition and holding costs is presumed unconscionable.

A violation is an unfair and deceptive trade practice under Part II of Chapter 501, Florida's consumer protection law, carrying a civil penalty not to exceed $15,000 per violation. Licensed Florida attorneys doing foreclosure work as part of representing a client are exempt from the consultant rules, which is why a lawyer can take a retainer while a rescue company cannot take a fee in advance. This is general information, not legal advice: a Florida foreclosure attorney can tell you exactly how the statute applies to a contract you already signed.

Why the Lis Pendens Is a Mailing List

In Florida's judicial foreclosure, the lender records a lis pendens in the county's official records the day the lawsuit starts, and that filing is public. Scammers and honest investors alike scrape it. The Florida foreclosure timeline post explains the filing and what each stage of the case means; the point here is that from the day it hits the record, expect letters, postcards, door knockers, and calls. Some will be legitimate buyers. Some will be consultants who cannot legally charge you anything before performing. Some will be running patterns that were already old when the legislature passed the act in 2008.

The Six Scam Patterns

1. Equity skimming. The pitch sounds like rescue: "Sign the deed over to us, we will bring the loan current, and you can stay in the house while you get back on your feet." You sign a quitclaim deed. The rescuer now owns the house, collects rent from you or a new tenant, lets the mortgage default anyway, and walks off with the equity while the foreclosure finishes in your name. The debt still follows you, because the note was never assumed.

2. The phantom rescue. A consultant collects an upfront fee, $1,500 or $3,000, promising to negotiate with the lender, file paperwork, or arrange a loan modification. Then nothing happens. Calls go unanswered, the sale date arrives, and the fee is gone. Under § 501.1377 the upfront fee is itself the violation: a Florida foreclosure-rescue consultant cannot collect a dollar before performing every service in the written agreement.

3. Leaseback and buyback traps. You sell the house to a rescuer, lease it back, and get an option to repurchase it later. On paper you keep your home. In practice the rent is set above what you can carry, the repurchase price inflates, you miss one payment, and the new owner evicts you from your own house while keeping the equity. The statute treats these arrangements as presumptive loan transactions precisely because the pattern is so common.

4. Fake government programs. The caller claims to be with a federal relief program or a government homeowner initiative, or says your lender already approved a plan that needs one more fee or one more signature. Real help is free through HUD-approved housing counseling agencies, and your servicer will not charge you to review a modification application. If someone claims a government affiliation, hang up and call the agency on its published number.

5. Deed-in-lieu misrepresentation. A deed in lieu of foreclosure is a real instrument: you hand the deed to the lender and walk away from the debt. Scammers repackage it. "Sign this deed-in-lieu paperwork and the lender will let you stay" is a script that ends with the scammer, not the lender, holding your deed.

6. Bait-and-switch documents. A stack of papers, a rush, a pen. Somewhere in the middle sits a quitclaim deed or a power of attorney dressed up as an authorization form or a modification application. You think you signed permission for someone to talk to your lender. You signed your house away. The defense is boring and absolute: read every page, sign nothing you have not read, and get a Florida attorney to read it first.

A Legitimate Cash Sale Is Not a Rescue Scam

Here is where it gets confusing, and where the confusion costs people real money: selling your house to a cash buyer during a foreclosure is a legitimate exit, and often the best one left. You remain the owner until the certificate of sale is filed by the clerk, the payoff clears the lien at closing, and whatever equity remains is yours. The sell a house in foreclosure page lays out how that process works.

The differences between a purchase and a rescue con:

• No fee ever flows to the buyer. Money in a real purchase moves toward the seller. There is no application fee, no processing fee, no deposit paid to the buyer. The only funds moving before closing are the buyer's own earnest money, and they go to the title company.
• A written offer that shows its math. Price, how it was calculated, closing date, who pays what. A legitimate buyer's number survives scrutiny; a scammer's pitch only works if you never look closely.
• A licensed title company closes it. The deed and the money move through a licensed Florida title company with a title search and a closing statement, not across a kitchen table.
• You can take the offer to an attorney first. A real buyer expects it. Pressure to skip counsel is the single loudest alarm bell in this post.
• No pressure mechanics. "This offer expires today" is a control tactic, one of the patterns named in the we buy houses scams post, which runs the full vetting checklist a seller can apply to any buyer, including InTym Properties.

On houses, InTym Properties buys as principal: the entity that signs the purchase contract is the entity that funds it at the closing table, with no assignment clause. Every closing runs through a licensed title company, and sellers are told to take the written offer to an attorney or an agent before signing. The InTym Properties verify page publishes the checks a seller can run on the company without taking anyone's word for it.

If Someone Already Targeted You

• Stop signing. Whatever is pending, pause it. If you signed a consultant agreement inside the last 3 business days, the statute's cancellation right is still open, and a sale in a foreclosure-rescue transaction has the same window.
• Report it to the Florida Attorney General. The consumer protection division takes foreclosure-rescue complaints at 1-866-966-7226 (1-866-9-NO-SCAM) and through the complaint form at MyFloridaLegal.com. Violations of § 501.1377 are prosecutable as unfair and deceptive trade practices.
• Check the county records. If a deed, mortgage, or power of attorney was recorded against your property, the clerk of court in the county where it was recorded, the Broward County Records Division for a Fort Lauderdale area home, can tell you exactly what is on the record. Fraudulent recordings are also a matter for local law enforcement.
• Get a Florida foreclosure attorney. The Florida Bar's lawyer referral service is 1-800-342-8011. If you signed a deed under false pretenses, an attorney can look at unwinding it, and the statute's presumptions about rescue transactions may be on your side.
• Answer the foreclosure anyway. Whatever the rescuer promised, the lawsuit continues in your name. You still have 20 days to respond after being served, and ignoring the complaint is how default judgments happen while a scam plays out.

The Bottom Line

Florida wrote § 501.1377 because the patterns above were stripping equity out of foreclosed homes at scale. The law gives you a written-contract requirement, a ban on upfront fees, and cancellation rights that cannot be waived, but none of it helps unless you know it exists before you sign. If someone offers to save your house, ask for the written agreement, look for an upfront fee, take the papers to a Florida foreclosure attorney, and remember that a straightforward sale to a verified buyer, with the equity paid out at a title company's closing table, is the exit that rescue scammers imitate.

If you are behind on payments on a Broward County or Florida home and someone has already made you an offer, call or text (650) 540-1854. InTym Properties will tell you straight whether the paperwork you were shown is a real purchase, and if a direct sale is the right exit, you get a written offer with every line of the math shown.