If you have fallen behind on your personal or business mortgage, it can be both scary and frustrating to receive default notices and foreclosure warnings from your lender, especially if you don’t have the means to bring the loan back to a “current” status.
You may be tempted to ignore the notices and phone calls, but it is critically important that you take action, and an attorney with experience in foreclosure defense can both help you understand what to expect and offer assistance through the process.
There are several possible strategies that could save your home, including a reinstatement of your mortgage, a forbearance, a short refinance, and loan modifications. An experienced attorney can help you understand these options and can help clarify which option, if any, makes sense based on your particular circumstances.
An experienced attorney can also help identify if there are valid reasons to challenge the foreclosure action. This may be appropriate if the terms of the original mortgage were “unconscionable”, if you are a service member on active duty, or if the lender failed to follow the proper procedures required for foreclosure actions.
If, after evaluating options, foreclosure cannot be avoided entirely, there may still be options to help soften the blow. These might include a short sale, a deed in lieu of foreclosure, or bankruptcy.
It’s also important to note that there are fraudulent companies representing themselves as “foreclosure specialists” or “foreclosure consultants”; be sure to evaluate the credentials of anyone offering to help you avoid foreclosure. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is one source of good information about reputable companies.
If you are facing foreclosure in South Florida, contact us for a free phone consultation to find out how we can help you through the process.
