Summer is meant to be a time for relaxation—but if you’re behind on mortgage payments or have received a foreclosure notice, it can feel like the walls are closing in. The good news is: foreclosure is not the end of the road. You have options—and the sooner you act, the more of them you’ll have.
As if falling behind on your mortgage payments and being at risk of losing your home to foreclosure wasn't bad enough, it also costs you extra money in the form of fees, which make it even harder to get your mortgage back on track.
Being charged fees for not having enough money to pay your mortgage can feel like adding insult to injury. You didn't have enough money to pay the regular mortgage payments, now they add fees to that! Wonderful.
Unpleasant as it is, there's no getting around incurring some fees when you default on your mortgage. Your mortgage contract states that you will be charged fees in the event that you do not pay your mortgage in full and on time.
The amount of your missed payments, which include principal, interest, taxes and insurance, will make up most of the money you owe after defaulting, but the fees are nothing to sneeze at. Let's look at what some of them are.
A successful relationship between a client and a law firm requires both parties to do their job. The firm may have the most work to do, but there are some things that only the client can do. Even the greatest attorney in the world can't get you what you want if you're not playing ball.
If you hire our law firm, take the steps below to ensure that you have the best relationship with us and the highest chance of getting the outcome you want.
1. Add our phone numbers to your contacts and return our calls.
Have you ever received a call from an unknown number and not answered it because you assumed that if the caller was important to you, you'd already have their number saved in your phone? Probably a telemarketer, you figured. Then you get a voice mail and realize that the caller was someone very important to you, but you didn't add their number to your contacts yet. Crap!
Don't let that happen with a call from your lawyer. Add our number to your contacts and answer when we call you -- it's probably important. If you're a client of our firm, you will be getting calls from 877-882-5338 and 866-558-2408. You might also want to add your paralegal's direct fax number, so you have it handy while you're doing #3 below.
As the saying goes, you win some and you lose some. In the case of a foreclosure lawsuit, if the homeowner “loses” the bank gets to keep the house. And when the bank keeps the house, the homeowner gets booted out. The bank, or new owner, must give homeowners notice before eviction can take place. Even so, the homeowner bears the moving expenses. These expenses can be difficult to cover, especially in the wake of the financial hardship that led to foreclosure.
Are there any options for homeowners in this situation?
The short answer is: not really.
It is highly unlikely that your foreclosure lawsuit will end in you getting your house for free. The only way this could happen, is through multiple oversights on the bank's part. Your lender would have to neglect to file a foreclosure action after you default on your payments of a matured loan AND they would have to neglect filing that action for several years. Each state has its own Statute of Limitations which determines how long the bank has to proceed with the foreclosure of your home.
Your mortgage servicer is not perfect, and sometimes they make mistakes just like everyone else. It is important to review all of your documents and communications with your servicer to check for mistakes. If something doesn't look right, it may not be. You should alert your mortgage servicer immediately if you think your account may be reporting incorrectly. Here are some of the common mortgage servicer mistakes to look out for:
Approximately 250,000 families enter into foreclosure every 3 months due to delinquent home loan payments or delinquent property taxes. Each of these homeowners has one thing in common: they have to make the decision of whether or not to fight for their home. However, if you want to fight the foreclosure and keep your home, it's time to find a foreclosure defense attorney. Here are some reasons why:
The process of obtaining a mortgage for your home can be very confusing. There are many parties involved in your mortgage and it can be easy to become overwhelmed by all of the new information. Taking out a mortgage is not as simple as just paying the price of the home over a certain period of time. There is interest factored into your payment along with principal, tax and insurance. When your house gets foreclosed it's easy to throw your hands in the air and say, “It's not my fault, I must be a victim of predatory lending!”. However, this is not always a reasonable conclusion. Here are the signs to look for in order to figure out if you are truly a victim of bad lending.
You may think that once the awful foreclosure process is over you will not hear from your lender ever again. However, if there is a deficiency judgment form the foreclosure sale, this may not be the case. The bank can come after you if your home does not sell for the full value of the debt owed. This is called a deficiency judgment. How exactly can the bank collect this judgment? Read on to find out how.
An expedited foreclosure, also known as a fast-track foreclosure, is an action pursued by the lender of the mortgage which allows the lender to foreclose on a home more quickly than the typical foreclosure process would allow. The lender files a motion to expedite the foreclosure with the courts. The motion for an expedited foreclosure is also served to the homeowner. This motion is only granted to the lender if the lender can show that the home has been abandoned and may be at risk of harm.
You can also receive a motion for expedited foreclosure when you are still living in the home. If this should happen to you, it is very important that you meet with a foreclosure defense attorney to review the documents. In most cases, you will want to hire a lawyer to make sure you follow all of the instructions and respond and object to the motion. This means you may have to submit evidence and attend a court hearing in order for the judge to decide whether or not you have abandoned the home.
