Foreclosure and Loan Modification Blog

Is There Such Thing as a Free House?

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 oversight s 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.

Do You Want To Take Your Foreclosure Case To Trial?

If you are in foreclosure in a judicial foreclosure state, your case can "go to trial."

Some homeowners think they want to go to trial to have their day in court, a chance to tell their story to a judge or jury and get justice. However, real life is not like an episode of a legal drama show. There will be no sensational surprise at the end, and probably not much of anything exciting. And even if you do win, you will not get a free house.

In many cases, it makes sense to avoid going to trial because it's better to come to an agreement with the lender before it gets to that point. But sometimes that's not practical, and a case does end up at trial.

Should You Negotiate A Consent Order In Foreclosure?

Sometimes you have to give something up to get something else. That's the case for recent clients of our firm who agreed to a consent order that involved them consenting to judgment and withdrawing their contesting answer to the foreclosure complaint in exchange for getting more time before judgment was entered and avoiding a trial.

A little background on foreclosures is required to explain what a consent order is. In judicial foreclosure states like Florida, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Illinois, a lender must sue a homeowner in a civil lawsuit in order to foreclose on their home.

If you're served a foreclosure summons and complaint, which starts the lawsuit, you have the right to answer it and deny the bank's claims and raise your own defenses. And you should, if you have any desire to keep your home. It can buy you a lot of time in your home, during which you can work toward a permanent solution.

[fa icon="clock-o"] Monday, June 4, 2018 [fa icon="user"] Maxwell Swinney [fa icon="folder-open'] final judgment, consent order

A final judgment of foreclosure is an order in certain states that a plaintiff/bank gets from the court, which allows them to sell a defendant's home for failure to pay the mortgage.

Final judgment of foreclosure is one of the last dominoes to fall before the foreclosure sale, and a big loss for a homeowner who wants to keep their home.

Final judgment can be in rem (against the house), in personam (against the homeowner), or both. If the lender believes there is a deficiency on the in rem judgment because the home won't sell for enough to cover all the money they're owed, they can seek an in personam judgment against the homeowner.

[fa icon="clock-o"] Saturday, September 2, 2017 [fa icon="user"] Maxwell Swinney [fa icon="folder-open'] foreclosure, final judgment

Foreclosure and Loan Modification Blog

Is There Such Thing as a Free House?

Do You Want To Take Your Foreclosure Case To Trial?

Should You Negotiate A Consent Order In Foreclosure?

What Is Final Judgment of Foreclosure, and How Can You Avoid It?

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