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If you are behind on your mortgage payments and your bank is threatening to foreclose on your home, there are some things you can do. Make sure to look thoroughly at any documentation you obtain from the court or your bank. You must satisfy all court deadlines.

Notice of Default

A Notice of Default is usually the primary step in the foreclosure procedure. It will visit mail from your bank. The notice informs you which of your mortgage terms you have actually defaulted on. If you are behind on your mortgage payments, the notification should inform you how much you lag on your payments and charges and how much time you have to capture up and cure the default. If you pay the money you owe by the treatment date, you will avoid foreclosure.

Foreclosure Summons and Complaint

If you do not cure your mortgage default by bringing your mortgage present, the bank can submit documents to begin a foreclosure action in civil court. You will get copies of what the bank files. It will consist of a Summons and a Grievance. The Summons provides you directions on what you need to do.

You should submit a composed Answer within 21 calendar days of when you received the Complaint.

It is very important to file a Response. If you do not, the bank can ask the court to issue a Default Judgment. You will not get a notification if the bank asks for a Default Judgment. If the court gives the bank a Default Judgment, the bank can get a Final Judgment Order and Decree of Foreclosure against you.

Even if you do not submit a Response, the home that you reside in can not be offered by the bank less than 8 months from when you get foreclosure documents. Also, you can still ask the court for mediation, even if the bank gets a Default Judgment versus you.

Your confirmed Answer

Your Answer needs to remain in composing and must react directly to the Complaint. For each numbered paragraph in the Complaint, you need to write a matching number in your Answer and say if you "Agree," "Disagree" or "Don't understand."

Your Answer should likewise be "confirmed," which means that it includes this declaration at the end, followed by your signature:

"I declare that the above declaration is real and precise to the very best of my understanding and belief. I comprehend that if the above declaration is false, I will undergo the penalty of perjury, or other sanctions in the discretion of the court."

If your Answer does not include this statement and your signature, the court might release a Default Judgment versus you.

Use our Foreclosure Answer Form to react to the Complaint.

- Download a fillable PDF version of the Answer type.

Use the Word variation of the Answer type. This Word file is not fully available. For the most available experience, utilize the fillable PDF above.

If you have "Defenses" or "Counterclaims" against the bank, you require to write those at the bottom of your Answer (above the verification).

Defenses are legal reasons why the bank need to not win the foreclosure case. To prevent losing your foreclosure case, you need to compose your Defenses in the Answer. This is because even if you address, the court could still provide a Default Judgment against you if you do not raise any Defenses. If you believe the mortgage is prohibited or void for some factor, document your factors in the Defenses section of your Answer. Or, if you believe you are not behind on your mortgage, document your factors in the Defenses area.

Counterclaims are claims back against the bank seeking money or other relief for acts that violate your rights. If you do not raise Counterclaims, it will not result in a Default Judgment versus you in the foreclosure case. However, if you do not consist of Counterclaims in your Answer, it is possible that you will not have the ability to sue the bank on those claims at a later date.

Mediation

If you receive mediation, the Summons and Complaint will include an Ask for Mediation form. Submit the type and send it to or drop it off at the court. Mediation will put the foreclosure case on hold and get you a conference with the bank and a neutral individual called a mediator. At the meeting, the bank has to consider you for a budget-friendly loan or other options that might help you save your home.

Discovery

After the Answer is filed and mediation completed, and before the court chooses your case, you or the bank can do pre-trial discovery. This means that you can ask the bank to answer written concerns, confess to truths, give you documents, or supply other information. The bank should address your demands in 30 days. The bank may also send you concerns, ask you to admit facts, and ask you to give them documents. You must address the bank in 1 month.

Summary Judgment

If you and the bank agree about the facts, you or the bank can ask the court to choose the case without a trial. This is called a Movement for Summary Judgment. The movement needs to be offered to the court in writing. The bank typically submits a Movement for Summary Judgment in a foreclosure case.

If you get a Movement for Summary Judgment, you need to react in composing within 30 days. If you do not react in composing, the court can presume you agree with the motion and release a foreclosure judgment against you.

The court can give Summary Judgment before a trial only if you and the bank agree about the realities stated in the motion. If you disagree with the truths, or think the bank is incorrect or unjust, you need to respond in composing.

Settlement with a loan modification arrangement

You can ask the bank to modify (modification) your loan so that you can lower your monthly payments. This is called a loan modification. This can occur anytime during the course of the bank's case versus you: right after the case is submitted, throughout mediation, or after judgment for the bank has actually been entered, as long as there suffices time for the bank to examine your monetary details. The faster this takes place, the better for you.

If the bank decides you certify for a loan adjustment, it will usually send you a strategy for a three-month trial duration. During the trial duration, you have to pay the new payment quantity on time each month. If you do that, you can receive a loan adjustment that brings you present on your mortgage account.

If you qualify, there are several methods the bank can get you present on your account while keeping your payments affordable:

1. They can add your past due payment into your unsettled primary balance and lower your rate of interest.

They can let you pay over a longer amount of time.
They can likewise decide that part of your debt can be repaid later.

If you sign a loan adjustment agreement with the bank, it will settle the foreclosure case. In a lot of cases, the bank's attorney will file a movement to dismiss the foreclosure case. If you sign a long-term loan adjustment agreement and the bank's legal representative does not submit a movement to dismiss the case, you need to submit a letter with the court asking that your case be dismissed because of the adjustment.

Merits hearing or trial

If you and the bank do not concur about the truths or a loan modification and the court rejects the bank's Motion for Summary Judgment, the court will send you a notification of a trial date. The trial is your opportunity to tell your side of the case to the judge. You can bring witnesses, documents or other proof to reveal the judge. The court normally gives notice a minimum of 2 weeks before the trial date. If you have a good reason you can't concern court the day of the hearing, you ought to ask in writing for the court to reschedule the hearing. You require to do this as soon as possible and certainly before the day of the hearing.

If you do not concern court on the day of the trial, the court can approve a judgment in favor of the bank.

Judgment

If the judge offers the bank a foreclosure judgment, the court will release a declaration of what you owe on the residential or commercial property. This is called a "clerk's accounting." If you do not concur with the quantity, you only have a brief time period to let the court know that you do not concur.

If you do not inform the court you disagree, the court will issue a Final Judgment Order and Decree of Foreclosure. It will tell you the total amount that you owe and how much time you have to pay what you owe before the residential or commercial property is sold. This is called the "redemption duration."

Redemption duration

The Final Judgment Order and Decree of Foreclosure will inform you a date when your redemption period ends. For the most part, it is about six months. If the residential or commercial property being foreclosed is not your primary residence, the court may give you less than 6 months. To redeem your residential or commercial property, you can pay the complete amount that you owe the bank and avoid a foreclosure sale. There may be other methods to avoid the foreclosure of your home throughout the redemption period. For instance, if your bank concurs, you could participate in a loan modification contract. Or you might offer your home and pay off what you owe.

During the redemption duration, you can stay in your home and do not need to make mortgage payments. Any quantity not paid will be consisted of in the quantity you would have to pay to redeem the residential or commercial property, and might be included in a Deficiency Judgment (see listed below).

Foreclosure sale

If you can not redeem your residential or commercial property or work something out before the end of your redemption period, the bank will schedule a foreclosure sale of your residential or commercial property. The bank should offer you 1 month written notice of the sale date. The bank also needs to publish the sale notice in a local paper for three weeks.

If you are still living in the home, the foreclosure sale will happen at the curb of your residential or commercial property. Sometimes, the bank will ask the judge to allow it to evict you before the foreclosure sale. Usually, however, the bank will not evict you till after the sale.

After the foreclosure sale, the court will have a hearing to choose if the foreclosure sale followed the law. This is called a verification hearing. If the court validates the sale, the residential or commercial property will go to the greatest bidder.

Deficiency Judgment

If the highest quote at the foreclosure sale is less than what you owe on the mortgage, the bank can ask the judge for a Deficiency Judgment against you. A Deficiency Judgment is a court order stating that you owe the quantity that the bank did not receive from the sale of your residential or commercial property. If the bank does not ask for a Deficiency Judgment at the confirmation hearing, it can not attempt to get a judgment versus you later on for that financial obligation.

Many banks do not ask for Deficiency Judgments. Even if the bank gets a Deficiency Judgment versus you, the law might not require you to pay it if your residential or commercial property and incomes are exempt from judgment. Some earnings and properties can not be drawn from you by your financial institutions. If all of your income and possessions are protected by the law, you are "judgment-proof."

Eviction

Any time after the redemption duration ends, the bank can ask the court for a Writ of Possession to evict you. A sheriff will serve you with the Writ of Possession. You will have 2 week to move your belongings and leave the residential or commercial property. If you do not go out throughout the 14-day period, the constable can eliminate you.

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