Soon-to-be: Home free no more as legal countdown begins

Miami

IN SEPTEMBER, Susan Rodolfi celebrated an unusual anniversary: five years of missed mortgage payments. She is like a ghost of the housing market's painful past, one of thousands of Americans who have skipped years of mortgage payments and are still living in their homes.

Now, a legal quirk could bring a surreal ending to her foreclosure case and many others around the country: They may get to keep their homes without ever having to pay another dime. The reason, lawyers for homeowners argue, is that the cases have dragged on too long.