Foreclosure and Loan Modification Blog (9)

What Is a Judicial or Clerk's Default, and Can It Be Vacated?

Falling behind on your mortgage can force you to learn many legal concepts and words that you probably don't come across unless you're a lawyer, such as judicial or clerk's default.

What is a judicial or clerk's default?

A judicial or clerk's default is "a binding judgment in favor of either party based on some failure to take action by the other party. Most often, it is a judgment in favor of a plaintiff when the defendant has not responded to a summons or has failed to appear before a court of law.”

A judicial default is issued by a judge, and a clerk's default is issued by a clerk of the court. How does that come into play in foreclosure? It has to do with the lawsuit that follows as a result of defaulting on payments.

[fa icon="clock-o"] Saturday, September 1, 2018 [fa icon="user"] Maxwell Swinney [fa icon="folder-open'] Buying a home after foreclosure, default judgment, judicial or clerk's default

Disclaimer: These results should not be taken as a guarantee, as each case is unique. We have helped over 7,000 homeowners. Here are some of their stories.

Every week we obtain loan modifications for our clients with a variety of loan servicers. You can see these results as they are announced on Twitter (#loanmodwow) or Facebook. Here are some of our results from this week with Mr. Cooper, Ocwen, Carrington, Bayview, Ditech, and Chase:

Mr. Cooper

Yes! Our Mr. Cooper clients were an astounding 57 months (almost 5 years) and $52,913 + fees past due on their mortgage, but we helped them get a 3 month FHA-HAMP trial loan modification plan with $35.46 monthly savings.

IL Couple Consents to Foreclosure to Get out of Their House

Sometimes you just need to get out of something. Whether it's a bad relationship, a social event, or even home ownership, there comes a time when you have to say “enough is enough,” and move on.

Recent clients of our firm, who I'll call the Jansens to protect their identity, were in just such a situation. They wanted to get out of their mortgage for their condo in Oswego, Illinois, which is west of Chicago.

The Jansens are in their 80s and fell behind on their mortgage due to some financial difficulties. They didn't have any equity in their home, and they needed to move out of state to be closer to family, so there was no reason for them to try and save their home.

[fa icon="clock-o"] Wednesday, August 29, 2018 [fa icon="user"] Maxwell Swinney [fa icon="folder-open'] foreclosure, consent to foreclosure

Disclaimer: These results should not be taken as a guarantee, as each case is unique. We have helped over 7,000 homeowners. Here are some of their stories.

SPS

Our SPS client was an amazing 45 months and $45,757.09+ fees past due on her mortgage with a foreclosure sale date set, but we helped her get a final in-house loan modification with $154.61 cheaper monthly payment!

Successful Loan Modification Roundup Week of 8/17/18

Disclaimer: These results should not be taken as a guarantee, as each case is unique. We have helped over 7,000 homeowners. Here are some of their stories.

Mr. Cooper

Our Mr. Cooper clients were 11 months and $24,270+ fees past due on their mortgage payments with foreclosure started but we helped them get a final in-house loan modification with $216.67 monthly savings and $142,784.08 non-interest bearing deferment!

Announcing Our New Blog Design - Even Better on Mobile!

Happy Friday!

We are proud to announce that we have updated the design of our blog. You should find it to be much easier to navigate on mobile.

How to Contest a Judicial Foreclosure Lawsuit

If you fall behind on your mortgage, and your home is in a judicial foreclosure state, you lender must sue you in a civil foreclosure lawsuit to take your home. While being sued may sound scary, it's actually better for your in nonjudicial foreclosure states because you have more opportunities to contest foreclosure. And you want as many opportunities as possible.

But opportunities must be seized! Whether you want to keep your home by getting a loan modification, or you just want to avoid foreclosure for as long as possible so you can save money before giving up your home, you should seize the opportunities available to you by contesting the foreclosure lawsuit against you.

[fa icon="clock-o"] Thursday, August 16, 2018 [fa icon="user"] Maxwell Swinney [fa icon="folder-open'] foreclosure defense, foreclosure, affirmative defense

Disclaimer: These results should not be taken as a guarantee, as each case is unique. We have helped over 7,000 homeowners. Here are some of their stories.

Every week we obtain loan modifications for our clients with a variety of loan servicers. You can see these results as they are announced on Twitter (#loanmodwow) or Facebook. Here are some of our results from this week with Bank of America, Ocwen, Caliber, Lakeview Loan Servicing, and M&T Bank:

Bank of America

Our Bank of America client was 14 months and $21,765+ fees past due on his mortgage with foreclosure started, but we helped him get a three month FHA-HAMP trial loan modification plan with $179.59 cheaper monthly payment!

Wells Fargo Wrongly Denies Hundreds of Homeowners Loan Modifications

Wells Fargo recently revealed that they wrongly denied or failed to offer 625 homeowners mortgage loan modifications due to an error with their underwriting software. The company says that about 400 of those customers lost their homes to foreclosure.

The error affected homeowners who were in foreclosure between April 2010 and October 2015. Now, nearly three years after correcting it, the country's fourth-largest bank has disclosed the error.

“We’re very sorry that this error occurred and are providing remediation to the approximately 625 customers who may have been impacted,” a spokesperson for the company said in a statement.

Wells Fargo says that it has set aside $8 million for customers affected by the issue. That's just $12,800 for each customer affected. Pitiful.

[fa icon="clock-o"] Friday, August 10, 2018 [fa icon="user"] Maxwell Swinney [fa icon="folder-open'] wells fargo loan modification, foreclosure

Homeowners who fall seriously behind on their mortgage often notice something strange when they are served a foreclosure complaint: under defendants, alongside their name, there are other “unknown” defendants listed. Who the heck are these “Unknown Parties”, and why are they on your complaint?

Before I answer that, let's look at an example of a foreclosure complaint from a recent client of our firm in Collier county, Florida (my bold):

“VERIFIED MORTGAGE FORECLOSURE COMPLAINT

Plaintiff, U.S. Bank National Association, sues Defendants (Names Redacted); Any and All Unknown Parties Claiming By, Through, Under, and Against the Herein Named Individual Defendant(s) Who Are Not Known to be Dead or Alive, Whether Said Unknown Parties May Claim an Interest as Spouses, Heirs, Devisees, Grantees, or Other Claimants; Unknown Party #1, Unknown Party #2, Unknown Party #3 and Unknown Party #4, the names being fictitious to account for parties in possession, and alleges...”

You can see from that excerpt that US Bank is suing homeowners in a foreclosure lawsuit. After the owners names, they also list as defendants “Any and All Unknown Parties (who)...May Claim an Interest” in the property. They use language that covers any possible way that a person could have an interest in the subject property, such as “Spouses, Heirs, Devisees, Grantees”.

Foreclosure and Loan Modification Blog

What Is a Judicial or Clerk's Default, and Can It Be Vacated?

What is a judicial or clerk's default?

Successful Loan Modification Roundup Week of 8/31/18

Mr. Cooper

IL Couple Consents to Foreclosure to Get out of Their House

Successful Loan Modification Roundup Week of 8/24/18

SPS

Successful Loan Modification Roundup Week of 8/17/18

Mr. Cooper

Announcing Our New Blog Design - Even Better on Mobile!

How to Contest a Judicial Foreclosure Lawsuit

Successful Loan Modification Roundup Week of 8/10/18

Bank of America

Wells Fargo Wrongly Denies Hundreds of Homeowners Loan Modifications

Who Are the "Unknown Parties" In Your Foreclosure Case?

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