Foreclosure Defense NJ

1. Are you behind on your mortgage payments?

If you’re struggling to make your mortgage payments in full or on time, you might soon face foreclosure.

It’s crucial that you stay on top of your payments to ensure you are paying in full.

If it’s too late and you’re already struggling you can talk to your bank about a number of options:

• Repayment Plan: Keep Current and Catch Up
• Reinstatement: Get Caught Up on the Loan
• Redemption: Pay Off the Loan
• Forbearance: Get a Break From Payments
• Modification: Lower Your Payments
• Refinance: Get a Lower Interest Rate, Adjust Term Length, Switch Loan Type

2. Has your bank promised you a modification and given you the “run around”?

Let’s say you can’t afford your mortgage payments not or in the near future.

Maybe it’s because you lost your job, interest rates change or you had a medical emergency.

A mortgage modification might make the most sense for these types of homeowners. 

In particular, those who have defaulted on at least one payment and are in pre-foreclosure, or are close to defaulting.

If your modification request is denied, reach out to your lender and try to find out why.

If they’re ducking you and not providing an answer or feedback, then it’s time for foreclosure defense NJ.

3. Have you been given a trial modification, just to be told that you don’t qualify when the final payment is due?

Being accepted for a trial payment plan is good news for someone who wants a loan modification, but it doesn’t mean it’s all smooth sailing from there.

To be offered a trial modification payment plan, it suggests that the materials you gave your lender about your financial situation have displayed that you are actually able to make the modified payments.

Lenders want to test your ability to make payments before fully allowing modification.

Unfortunately, we have heard stories of homeowners making their modified payments, only to be told they don’t qualify for modification when their final payment is due.

We know how frustrating this can be. It feels like having the rug pulled out from under you.

4. Have you been served with a Notice of Intent to Foreclose?

Before a mortgage lender can file a foreclosure complaint, they must send the homeowner a Notice of Intent to Foreclose through certified or registered mail.

This document must include a requested return receipt that must be sent a minimum of 30 days before the lender can file an official complaint.

Receipt of this notice shows that the recipient has in fact missed payments, but they have time to fix it.

If you’re not sure you can fix it on you’re own, foreclosure defense NJ would be your best option.

5. Have you been served with a foreclosure complaint?

A complaint for foreclosure is a document outlining a lender’s underlying lawsuit claims.

It should describe the mortgage, promissory note, property to be foreclosed, default, amount due and the defendants and their property interest. 

A complaint may as for the right to sell the property in order to use the sales proceeds to pay off mortgage debt.

If you’ve received this in the mail, you’ll need foreclosure defense NJ.

6. Has the lender instructed you not to be concerned with the foreclosure complaint because you “are in modification”?

If you are in modification, you should not have received a foreclosure complaint.

Maybe there was a simple clerical mistake, but there are also foreclosure rescue and mortgage modification scams.

We’ve heard cases of clients having gone to a third-party lender to receive a modification, even though modification is only something that your mortgage lender can grant.

Also, beware of anyone who ask to charge you in advance for mortgage modification services as charging in advance is illegal in most cases.

Foreclosure Defense In Summary

Unfortunately, many lenders are deceptive in their dealings with homeowners. Promises are made to modify a loan without any good faith intent to modify. Trial modification payments are made by borrowers and when the last payment is due, the bank informs the homeowner that they do not qualify. Worse, homeowners are discouraged from answering the foreclosure complaint when an answer must be filed within 35 days.

Ironically and sadly, homeowners are solicited by unscrupulous companies who promise to save their home from foreclosure. They make promises that they cannot deliver. Some companies are simply scam artists who take money from homeowners and do nothing.