Nothing strikes fear into the hearts of homeowners quite like the looming threat of foreclosure. Home ownership is a cherished dream of many Americans, and the possibility of seeing their dream home taking away from them in a foreclosure is a terrifying thought.
Fortunately, there is a powerful weapon you can use to protect yourself from foreclosure and buy more time to resolve the situation – or potentially stop foreclosure dead in its tracks.
The most important step you can take is to demand documentation from the mortgage holder that the debt on your home is valid and legal. In recent years, it has become common for lenders to sell, re-sell, or commoditize mortgages. In commoditizing mortgages, lenders combine several mortgages into a common package of securities, which are then sold. It is very, very common during this process for the actual debt to become separate from the mortgage, which can cloud the legality of the mortgage and the mortgage debt.
In addition, many mortgage companies who have sold and re-sold home mortgages have been shown to have engaged in less-than-ethical processes regarding properly documenting the mortgages as they flowed from owner to owner. All too often the legally required documentation supporting the validity of the mortgage and the mortgage debt are not properly filled out, signed, or filed with the proper authorities. Any of this oversights can make the documents regarding the mortage legally null and void, or non-binding. Often the documents are simply missing.
An experienced real estate attorney will demand clear documentation of every stage of the life of the mortgage and accompanying debt. An attorney will also be able to determine whether or not all documentation is correctly filed and shows a clear chain-of-custody of ownership and validity from initialization to the current time.
More importantly, an attorney will also be knowledgeable in how to fight – and win – any challenges regarding the validity of the mortgage. This can effective shut down any attempts at foreclosure on your home.
If you are facing foreclosure, you need an experienced legal team that will fight for you so that you can keep your home.
Contact us to see what we can do to help protect your home from foreclosure.
