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Banks have to follow the law to legally evict you from your home. With proper legal representation, the entire foreclosure process can take months and sometimes years to unravel. However, with no representation and no action on your part, the process can take as little 6 to 8 weeks.
The following is a brief outline of what you can expect to happen if you find yourself facing foreclosure.
1. The lender sends a notice of intent to begin foreclosure:
This happens after you have stopped paying your monthly payments. This notice demands that you bring your payments, plus any outstanding fees and interest, up to date or else they will begin foreclosure proceedings. If you pay what you owe the Bank will consider it a reinstatement of the mortgage. Reinstatement essentially puts you back in the position you were in before you stopped making payments.
Once you receive notice of intent to foreclose, it is extremely important to consult a foreclosure attorney about your options. Should you decide to hire us we will review your situation and if appropriate attempt to renegotiate or modify your mortgage on terms acceptable to both you and your lender in an effort to stop further foreclosure proceedings. Alternatively, we will prepare to aggressively defend you in court.
2. Assuming you ignored the notice and failed to make up the missing payments:
The bank will file a lawsuit in court. You will be served with notice of the lawsuit via a summons and complaint. At this point the lender will no longer accept any payments from you unless it is payment in full.
If you contact us after the lawsuit has been filed and before the answer is due we will carefully review the complaint summons, and documents from the bank. We make sure that the bank follows the law and has a legitimate claim to take your home. We will raise the all appropriate defenses to the Bank’s foreclosure action. We will assert your rights and defenses in the form of an answer, and demand that the bank to provide every document that supports their claim. We will continually look for solutions including possible settlement of your claim to forestall the foreclosure process. Also while we are fighting the bank you can legally stay in your home without paying your mortgage.
Sometimes we find that the terms of the mortgage were unreasonable or fraudulent or that you were defrauded into signing the mortgage. Further, the Lender may not have complied with Federal Law or Florida Chap. 494 or Florida Chap. 702. If the lender failed to follow the law you may be entitled to reimbursement of part, or all of the mortgage payments paid thus far, your attorney fees and punitive damages.
3. If you do nothing and let the time to answer pass:
Within a few weeks after you were served with a summons, you will receive a notice to appear in court. The notice will state there is a notice for final hearing on a summary judgment. When you arrive at court the judge will enter a Judgment in the bank’s favor.
Shortly after the judge issues a judgment, the bank typically will send you a ten-day notice of intent to sell the property. The Bank will attempt to sell your home at an auction on the court steps unless you can somehow redeem the mortgage (pay it off in full, as well as the foreclosure costs and attorney's fees). If no one buys your home at the auction, ownership goes to the bank.
If you contact us after the notice to appear or after the Judge enters summary judgment, we may still be able to persuade the lender that it makes economic sense to modify and reinstate your mortgage. While we cannot make any guarantees, the lender may enter into a mortgage modification because they are not interested in
owning your home.
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