Foreclosure and Loan Modification Blog

5 Things to Not Do When You're in Foreclosure

Falling behind on your mortgage doesn't mean losing your home to foreclosure is a foregone conclusion. What happens and when depends in large part on how you respond to your situation. You may be able to keep your home or at least exit it under the best circumstances. But to do that you have to act on good information and avoid the mistakes that are often made by homeowners in foreclosure, which include:

1. Assuming your lender is going to help you.

Though your lender has the power to help you, you should not assume that they will. You and your lender's goals don't always align. Following a default, you probably want to keep your home but with a lower payment. The bank simply wants to make as much money as possible from the loans in their portfolio. Sometimes helping you keep your home is also the best way for the bank to make the most money, sometimes not.

[fa icon="clock-o"] Tuesday, July 25, 2017 [fa icon="user"] Maxwell Swinney [fa icon="folder-open'] loan modification lawyer, foreclosure defense, loan modification help

If you're behind on your mortgage and desperate to avoid foreclosure, you may find yourself searching for any and all ways, no matter how obscure, that you could improve your situation.

Could there be a way to get a free house through the statute of limitations or a quiet title action, or would suing your lender benefit you in some way? We've covered all of those topics on this blog before.

How about a quitclaim deed? Could that you could make your mortgage problems go away?

[fa icon="clock-o"] Tuesday, July 11, 2017 [fa icon="user"] Maxwell Swinney [fa icon="folder-open'] foreclosure defense, foreclosure, quitclaim deed

Dealing with the death of a family member is hard enough, but the administration of their estate can bring financial difficulties with it as well, including foreclosure.

People often don't talk about money with their family, so when a family member dies, heirs can have no clue how much debt they owe and to whom. It becomes their responsibility to figure all of that out.

[fa icon="clock-o"] Monday, July 3, 2017 [fa icon="user"] Maxwell Swinney [fa icon="folder-open'] foreclosure defense, probate

In late 2016 our firm was retained by a homeowner I'll call Juan Wilson to protect his privacy. Juan owned a home in Orange County, Florida. A truck driver, Juan encountered financial difficulties and prioritized payment on his truck over his home, defaulting on his mortgage in 2015.

There's a saying that goes “you can sleep in your car, but you can't drive your house to work.” That was doubly true of Juan since he made his living with his truck, and without it he wouldn't have the income to pay any bills.

Not paying his mortgage may have been the lesser of two evils, but it came with serious consequences. After not receiving their mortgage payments Juan's bank, Wells Fargo, started trying to foreclose. He was served with a summons and complaint in April of 2015 and made the mistake of not responding to it or raising any defenses.

How Do You Help a Family Member in Foreclosure?

You've only got one family, and supporting them when times are tough is the right thing to do. After all, they'd do the same for you.

But what if a member of your family has a problem that's too big for you to solve, like difficulty with their mortgage?

Over the past decade millions of people have been in just that situation. Since the Great Recession began, seven million homes have been in foreclosure! That's a lot of affected families.

And the foreclosure crisis isn't over. There are still thousands and thousands of homeowners either in foreclosure or on their way to it.

[fa icon="clock-o"] Thursday, March 9, 2017 [fa icon="user"] Maxwell Swinney [fa icon="folder-open'] foreclosure defense, foreclosure

Have you recieved a Notice of Acceleration from your lender?

It could also be called a Notice of Intent to Accelerate, Acceleration Notice, Demand Letter, Default Letter, Notice of Default or even Notice of Default and Acceleration.

What does it mean?

In contract law, an acceleration clause is a “term that fully matures the performance due from a party upon a breach of the contract.”

For mortgages that have an acceleration clause (most do), that means that, after breaching your contract by missing payments, your lender can demand that you either pay off the entire balance of your mortgage or be foreclosed upon.

[fa icon="clock-o"] Wednesday, December 7, 2016 [fa icon="user"] Maxwell Swinney [fa icon="folder-open'] loan modification, foreclosure defense

In judicial foreclosure states (such as Illinois, Florida, Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey), your lender is required to go through the courts to foreclose on your property. They become the plaintiff and you become the defendant in a foreclosure lawsuit.

The plaintiff must prove to the court that they are the party in interest that's legally entitled to foreclose on your home. That, in legal terminology, is called standing.

Standing is very important, and the plaintiff must have it at the time they file a foreclosure action against you. If they don't, your attorney may file a motion to dismiss the action because of it.

[fa icon="clock-o"] Tuesday, November 29, 2016 [fa icon="user"] Maxwell Swinney [fa icon="folder-open'] foreclosure defense, florida foreclosure laws, foreclosure fraud

Many homeowners haven't paid their mortgage in many months or even years. They fight foreclosure and look for a way to keep their home. After a lot of work, some get approved for a loan modification which returns their loan to normal. Foreclosure disaster averted. Hooray!

But there's one minor problem with getting your loan back to normal: you have to actually start paying a mortgage again. What the heck?

I know, bills are terrible, but getting a free house is not a realistic possibility. Keeping your home after falling behind on payments by getting a loan modification is the best result, and one that millions of homeowners in recent years wanted to achieve and couldn't. (Seven million Americans have been in foreclosure since the recession began.)

[fa icon="clock-o"] Monday, November 21, 2016 [fa icon="user"] Maxwell Swinney [fa icon="folder-open'] loan modification, foreclosure defense, life after foreclosure

Let's say you fell behind on your mortgage, but haven't lost your home to foreclosure yet, and one day you come home to find that the bank has changed the locks on your doors and you can't get inside your home. How could this be? Are they allowed to do that?

If you're still living in your house, no, your bank isn't allowed to change the locks on your house. Even if you fell behind on your mortgage payments or are in foreclosure.

You're allowed to live in your home during the entire foreclosure process. If you're still living in the house after the home is sold in a foreclosure sale, the bank has to evict you before they can change the locks and take over the property.

But there is one exception that allows the bank to change the locks on your property even if you still legally own your home: when the property is abandoned and sitting vacant. Then it doesn't matter if foreclosure isn't complete yet or not.

[fa icon="clock-o"] Wednesday, October 19, 2016 [fa icon="user"] Maxwell Swinney [fa icon="folder-open'] foreclosure defense, foreclosure fraud

If you're considering hiring an attorney to help you avoid foreclosure and/or get a loan modification, you may be wondering what specifically an attorney will do to help you keep your home. You know your mortgage issues are too important to try to handle alone, but how exactly does an attorney help?

Do they just show up in court and say something in Latin “Your honor, the corpus juris, et cetera, entitle my client to keep their house. Also, carpe diem, and liberum domum (free house), please.”

Of course not. So what does an attorney actually do when you hire them to defend you from foreclosure and assist you in getting a loan modification?

5 Things to Not Do When You're in Foreclosure

1. Assuming your lender is going to help you.

Can A Quitclaim Deed Save You From Foreclosure?

Going Through Probate and Avoiding Foreclosure On An Inherited House

Not Answering Summons and Complaint Made It Easier for Wells Fargo to Set Foreclosure Sale Date

How Do You Help a Family Member in Foreclosure?

What Is a Notice of Acceleration?

Does Your Bank Have the Standing to Foreclose on Your Home?

Avoiding Payment Shock After Getting a Loan Modification

What Do You Do If Your Bank Changes the Locks on Your House?

What Does a Foreclosure Defense Attorney Actually Do for You?

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