If you’re a homeowner and you’re in foreclosure, you will most likely want to know your rights. Unfortunately, you have very few rights outside of what is allowed by your state’s laws and these laws primarily deal with specific time frames that a lender must follow during the foreclosure process.
Understanding your states laws and the time frames allowed under them, will give you the information you need to make an educated decision about the best way to proceed.
Many websites offer various free foreclosure help and describe the various states law’s. Our home loan forum has over 17,000 members and has helped over 300 homeowner save their homes.
After you have stopped making your mortgage payments for a period of time (typically 90 days or more) that is usually when your lender will start foreclosure proceedings with the court. The purpose of this is to follow your state’s laws in order to take complete ownership of the property which serves as collateral on your mortgage that you are defaulting on.
At this time (depending on your state) a notice of default or NOD will be filed. Your lender must provide you with a written notice of that intention. Please keep in mind that you can still contact your mortgage servicer and work out some type of loan modification at this time and you also have the right to pay back all past due amounts along with the late fees and other penalties.
Throughout the foreclosure process the homeowner has the right to be treated fairly. Any money that is earned on the sale in excess of the amount owed on the mortgage, late fees, penalties and foreclosure costs should go to the homeowner.
What you need to know!
Simply calling your lender and getting a loan modification or paying all past due amounts can stop the foreclosure process, but not always. Be careful because the foreclosure conveyor belt rarely stops moving and it’s not over it’s over. Many times homeowners are amazed that they end up losing their homes when they have been trying to obtain a loan modification for months. Unfortunately, they were under the false assumption that the process had stopped, when in fact it never stops!
I am not an attorney and this is definitely a legal situation, so it is best to contact an qualified attorney in your state that can help your or at least guide your in the right direction.
Have you ever heard of redemption? I have and I believe in it 100%. Good news is that is about 50% of our great nation’s states agree with me. This is a statutory right that allows you to regain ownership of your home by buying it back after the property has been foreclosed. Usually, this right must be exercised within 6-12 months of the foreclosure sale.
Sometimes, foreclosure is inevitable. However, the unpleasantness of the experience can be minimized if the homeowner is aware of his or her rights.
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This is a most unfortunate situation. I did not know about it, and I am grateful to you for bringing it to our attention.
My bank is fighting my automatic stay because I filed for bankrupcy as well. They never tried to help me modifiy the loan. I heard that the government is wanting banks to offer homeowners a modification. Why is it up to the servicer? Does she make commission on the loans?
I have perfect credit and applied to refinance my loan with Bank of America (took over from Countrywide). They charged me a $500 application fee – something I have NEVER had to pay before – to get a refi with the same place that holds my loan. I signed the papers on May 22 and mailed them back. They have still not gotten back to me for the refi and they stuck additional charges on the GFE that were junk fees! I have left messages for supervisors, emailed them, etc…and no one will call me back. They kept my $500 and approved me for the refi but will not bring it to close!!! HELP!
B/A gave us a Modification Agreement with new interest rate & loan payment which was due 9/1. Problem is when I sent in the new modified payment, they said it goes into another account & not against my present loan. It will take about 3 months for the payments to be credited to our loan. I am concerned because in the meantime our loan will show a delinquent amount each month.
Can they then file foreclosure? They will not provide any information in writing explaining anything.