My Foreclosure is not Your Opportunity!

“My Foreclosure is not just your next investment property opportunity.”

If Joan (not her real name) could have put any message out there, that would have been the message.  When the legal notices started arriving in her mailbox, so did the people coming by to ask if they could tour her house.  But this is Joan’s home, not an impersonal business opportunity, and it was not open to strangers.  Joan was already stressed from her attempts to communicate with her mortgage company to work out a resolution.  It seemed no one was listening to Joan.

Photo by Louis from Pexels

Joan had tried to send payments to the mortgage company, but the payments were rejected. She did not understand why.  Finally, Joan realized that she needed help.  A mortgage transaction is complex.  If you have ever signed mortgage loan closing papers, you may remember what seemed like a ream of paper that you signed or initialed or both.  Remember the writer’s cramp?  There are disclosures, and the note, or financial instrument; the mortgage contract or mortgage deed of trust, and more.  It is no wonder so many struggle with how a mortgage loan default works, let alone how a foreclosure is processed and what are the rules?

When the borrower’s mortgage loan payment is over 90 days late and the mortgage loan goes into default, the borrower has broken the mortgage contract.  Since it was a legally binding agreement secured by collateral, interested parties like the lender or the lender’s successors, and/or assigns, can take legal action to cure the loss.  The servicer may stop applying any new payments to avoid the appearance of accepting a modified debt repayment agreement.  That means the contract must be addressed first, before the resolution can be attained.

There are still steps the mortgage company must follow in the foreclosure process before the home is liquidated to pay the debt.  Some lenders and mortgage companies do not follow the foreclosure procedure correctly.  Many states have implemented homeowners bills of rights (HBOR).  This is when an attorney can help you navigate the process and the harassment from those hoping to profit from your hardship.

Andrew Dancy, managing partner of ConsumerDebtFights; for the past several years, has represented consumers and homeowners, fighting both lenders and creditors. He is admitted to the Tennessee and New York State bars, and counsel in several other states have associated with him to protect consumers in more jurisdictions.  If you need to know where you stand and what your options are, visit consumerdebtfights.com and fill in the form to get answers.