Mailbag: When Should I Talk to a Foreclosure Defense Attorney?

Q: I’m terrified that I could lose my home to foreclosure. It hasn’t happened yet, but it’s sometimes been really close in the last year. I’ve been trying to fight it off on my own, but I can’t get the lender or servicer to listen. When do I need to hire a foreclosure defense attorney?

A: Now. Actually, before now. Maybe even when you first began to have trouble with meeting your payments or having a problem with your lender. It’s always a terrible feeling to lose a home, and foreclosure leaves psychological scars as well as financial ones. The stress of losing your home can be overwhelming, and trying to deal with it on your own can be a recipe for disaster. Banks, after all, have more resources than any individual homeowner. You didn’t say much about your circumstances, but I can tell you that if any of the following apply to you, you need to call us as soon as possible in order to make sure that your rights in foreclosure are being respected.

• If your loan servicer has not followed foreclosure procedures.
• If the party foreclosing on your property can’t prove that it owns the mortgage.
• If your servicer has not credited payments, misapplied them, or charged fees that you’ve never seen before or agreed to.
• If the bank is stalling on your loan modification process.
• If the bank is dual tracking by pursuing both foreclosure and a loan modification.
• If you are notified of an event such as a court date or a case management conference.
• If you receive a motion for default, a motion for summary judgement, or an order granting a summary judgement or default.
• If you have been notified of a sale date.

The sooner you hire an attorney experienced in foreclosures, the more secure you will be in having your rights protected. Not every case is winnable, but lenders and servicers must be held to account and made to respect the process and rights of the people that they have in foreclosure.  Further, if those rights have not been respected and the process has been subverted and the law broken, the servicer and lender must make the injured party whole, not just throw up their hands and say, “Oh, my bad! No harm, no foul!” As mentioned above, foreclosure places tremendous stress on the homeowner, and can precipitate depression and anxiety, or even post-traumatic stress.

I urge you to call us at Van Horn Law Group for a free consultation. We have experience protecting homeowners and might even be able to help you keep your home. We can help you get that loan modification, negotiate a short sale or stop an unfair sale, and even provide an alternative to foreclosure that will allow you to walk away from your home debt-free. You’re not alone, you do have rights, and we will fight for you. The lenders and servicers have lawyers, and so should you.