When you have bee unable to pay your mortgage the mortgage company will declare you in default after usually about 90 days.
Foreclosure is a civil matter and as such much follow the guidelines/statutes which the state has put into law. Your mortgage company by law has to send you a default letter. This letter usually states that you have been found in default by not paying your mortgage and they will give you a date but which you can pay the cure/pay the default. The letter will also state that if you fail to cure/pay the default, the lender will start the foreclosure process. The ultimate goal of foreclosure is for the lender to take back the property and secure their collateral. Many people have fallen victim to the notion that the mortgage company is under an obligation to work with them toward some kind of solution, whether it be a loan modification, short sale or a deed in lieu of foreclosure, but that is not the case, it is a voluntary action on their part.
The lender, through their attorneys will serve you, via marshal, a civil summons and complaint letting you know that they have started a law suit against you. Do not be misled, a marshal serving you with a civil summons and complaint does not mean that they will knock on the door and hand the summons and complaint to you. The kind if service that is employed is something called abode service. Abode service simply means that the marshal can consider the summons and complaint served if they leave it somewhere on your property. Once you have been served the summons and complaint, the attorney for your mortgage company will return it to court and you will have a limited time to appear in your foreclosure matter.
Do not be dismayed, as having been served with foreclosure matters, you have the right to work with the lender to achieve some kind of solution during the initial phase of the foreclosure process. This initial phase of he foreclosure process is called “mediation”, if this is your principal residence. The mediation process is whereby you avail yourself to the array of loss mitigation options that your lender has to offer. During this time, you will be asked to fill out documentation, supplying them with financials, proof of residence etc. The court oversees this “mediation” process to make sure that things are being processed well by both sides of the lawsuit. We have seen many people successfully modify their loans, complete a short sales or do a deed in lieu, thus making it unnecessary to get to the next stage of the foreclosure process.
The next phase is foreclosure defense where by you can defend your rights as a home owner. There are several things that can be done during this phase. A good foreclosure attorney will know what to do and when to do it, giving you the maximum time to gather your finances and put a contingency plan in place.
Foreclosure Defense is where Seymour Law firm, LLC excels. Given the experience of Attorney Seymour and his intensive knowledge of the process, he can easily give you an idea of how much time you have to work with. He starts at the beginning doing an extensive review of your original loan documents making sure that the lender has done what they are supposed to do. He is good at recognizing defenses and holding the lender accountable for same. He is adept at following all the rules that the court imposes and will defend all he can till the end of the process. This is not a quick process, so there is no cause for alarm.