You likely invest a significant percentage of your take-home pay in your mortgage every month, in addition to whatever repairs or improvements you have made. If you were to lose your home, you would lose much of your personal wealth, not just your current place to live.
There are rules in place to protect homeowners from the unfair loss of their residence due to temporary financial hardship. Your lender has to follow specific rules when they want to foreclose on your home and reclaim it as the collateral property for the loan that financed the purchase.
Foreclosure proceedings can result in an order for you to vacate the property where you have long lived and made investments. However, if the lender trying to foreclose on your home make certain mistakes in the process, you may have a better chance of defending yourself against foreclosure in civil court.
They don’t provide you with written notice
Before the lender goes to court, the company first needs to communicate with you about how you have fallen behind on the loan and give you an opportunity to catch up on those missed payments. You have the right to redeem the property by paying off what you owe.
Adequate notice is crucial, as someone struggling to pay all their bills would likely not have enough cash on hand to pay several months’ worth of their more all at once. If your lender did not provide you notice before trying to take you to court, you may have more time to resolve the matter before they can successfully foreclose on the property.
They don’t make a good-faith effort to work with you
Lenders should try to help homeowners retain their property if possible. Agreeing to modify the loan by extending how long it lasts, reducing monthly payments or moving past-due payments to the end of the loan instead of requiring their payment in full right now are all examples of ways that a mortgage company could help a homeowner avoid foreclosure.
If you have repeatedly requested reasonable accommodations but your lender has refused to communicate with you or has denied every request, that conduct might help you fight back against the foreclosure proceedings in court.
Reviewing all of the documentation provided by the lender and your payment history will be a good starting point if you hope to defend against upcoming foreclosure attempts by your mortgage lender.