How To Stop Foreclosure

Most people believe that foreclosure laws are designed to hurt rather than help them. Not so. The truth is, foreclosure laws have evolved to protect the borrower -not the lender. The foreclosure process gives you, the borrower, specific periods of time in which to:

• bring your loan current by making up the missed payments (known as “reinstatement”), or

• pay off your loan in its entirety (called “redemption”).

If neither of these options is feasible, you will still have time to prevent your property from being sold at a public auction (the foreclosure sale). You will get the most benefi t out of the foreclosure process if you envision it as a “window of opportunity” to resolve your financial problems. During this period, you have time to learn about the foreclosure process and implement a strategy to stop foreclosure. Another basic misconception about foreclosure is that lenders want to foreclose.

Nothing could be further from the truth! Lenders are in the business of loaning money—not owning real estate. Lenders are also reluctant to incur the costs of a foreclosure. For example, if your lender is forced to foreclose, it will not only lose your back payments, but it will also incur foreclosure expenses, taxes, insurance, wear and tear while you (or your tenant) live in the property, rehabilitation expenses to refurbish the property for sale, and a real estate agent’s commission once the property is sold. As a result, many lenders will go out of their way to work out a resolution– short of actually foreclosing–if given the opportunity to avoid paying these costs.

Communicate With Your Lender

At the heart of stopping your foreclosure is communicating with your lender. Don’t shy away because you’ve missed payments, concerned that you will miss some payments in the future, or that your property has already gone into foreclosure. Whether you communicate by telephone, le_er, email, fax, or in person, you will have a much easier time stopping (or at the very least, delaying) the foreclosure if you talk to your lender rather than adopting a code of silence. The first step is to determine who your lender actually is. (This is no small feat these days with lenders selling their loans to other lenders like hot potatoes.)

If your property has already gone into foreclosure, the fi rst person you will be dealing with either the foreclosing trustee, or the attorney for the lender. The trustee is responsible for handling the foreclosure process if it is nonjudicial If it is a judicial foreclosure, you will most likely be contacted by a process server, sent by the lender’s attorney. But the problem is that you need to communicate with your lender, not the trustee or the attorney.

So you should request from the trustee or the a_orney, the name, telephone number, and address of the foreclosing lender. In the unlikely event that they refuse to disclose the name of your lender, you can look on the Notice of Default, or the summons and complaint, or telephone the customer service department of a local title insurance company. Another situation may occur where you discover the name of your lender, but it turns out to be a servicing agent rather than the party that actually holds the deed of trust or mortgage.

A servicing agent is a company (sometimes it can be a bank, mortgage company, or private corporation) that is hired by the actual lender to “service” the loan, including the collection of payments, issuing of payment coupons and late notices, monitoring the impounding of insurance and tax payments, and handling foreclosures if necessary. Fortunately, most servicing agents will disclose the name of the lender. If they won’t, you may be forced to negotiate with the servicing agent. In either event, follow the guidelines in this book to communicate and negotiate with them.

Do not under any circumstance ignore your lender’s contacts. Your goal should be to respond to every phone call or letter. Diffi cult as it may be to talk about your financial problems, be polite and cooperative. Follow up all telephone calls with a letter to the person you spoke to, confi rming what was said. If you’re not in when a call comes, return it as soon as you can. When you receive a le_ er from your lender (always keep the original), immediately write a letter in response. It is important to establish a paper trail so you can prove to your lender (or a court, if necessary) that you have been cooperative, especially during the initial stages of the foreclosure process. It is also important to send copies of all of your letters to:

• the lender’s CEO

• the branch manager (if applicable)

• the loan offi cer who helped you obtain your loan, and

• any other person you know by name at your lender’s office.