Foreclosure and Loan Modification Blog

This article was last updated July 10, 2020 at 10:45 a.m.

Federal Foreclosure Moratoriums

Federal laws now state that Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and FHA have been directed to suspend foreclosures and evictions due to the COVID-19 emergency. What does this mean? Any person with an Enterprise-backed single-family mortgage will not be evicted or foreclosed on before August 31st. This does not mean that your mortgage payments are forgiven for the next 2 months; you must still pay the money, the due dates have just been suspended. You will not be charged a fee for taking advantage of this forbearance. Also, as per the Federal CARES Act, your mortgage servicer is not allowed to ask you to pay a lump sum payment at the end of the forbearance period.

If you don’t know whether your loan is backed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, you can verify it below.

(See if your loan is backed by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac.)

Florida Foreclosure Protections

In addition to this federal law, the Florida Supreme Court has ordered all jury trials to be suspended until further notice and any non-jury trials and hearings are to be conducted remotely. Most foreclosure cases are resolved by non-jury trials. This means that if you have any kind of foreclosure action right now you can still be required to participate in remote court hearings because your attorneys are still working on your case with the judge. All foreclosure judgments in Florida are halted until August 1st.

Illinois Has No Protection For Homeowners

In Illinois, evictions are suspended through July 31st, there is no other statewide protection for homeowners.

In Cook County, Illinois, all mortgage foreclosure judgments, foreclosure sales and evictions in furtherance of foreclosures are suspended until July 19. This means that new cases can be filed but no further action is allowed to happen until July 19th.

New Jersey Suspends Writs of Possession

New Jersey is doing something a little bit different because they have allowed for the filing and continuation of foreclosure cases, but writs of possession are suspended. This means that your bank can still foreclose on your home, but homeowners cannot be physically removed from the premises until August 9th. Until then all payments are still due monthly.

New York Foreclosures Suspended

In New York, no landlord, lessor, sub-lessor or grantor can demand any payment, fee or charge for late payment of rent occurring during the time period from March 20, 2020, through August 20, 2020. In addition, there cannot be any initiation of an eviction or foreclosure for nonpayment of rent or mortgage owned or rented by someone that is eligible for unemployment insurance or benefits under state or federal law or otherwise facing financial hardship due to the COVID-19 pandemic for a period of sixty days beginning on June 20, 2020.

Pennsylvania Foreclosure Moratorium

In Pennsylvania, no new foreclosure cases can be initiated until August 31st, and all foreclosure time lines previously filed must compute a start date of August 31, 2020.