We are behind in our payments - How long do we have after receiving a Notice of Default?
This is clearly explained in the Notice of Default - For a timeline please refer to our Foreclosure Timeline.
If you have missed just one payment, it may be a few months before your lender files a notice of default - they want to make sure that your not just late.
By the second or third month if no payment has been received, your lender will file the notice of default (NOD).
Once the NOD is recorded (not received) it generally takes about four months for your property to be sold at a trustee’s sale unless you are given an extension.
If you are not certain that you will be able to bring your account current, you may want to consider selling your property. If you have a fair amount of equity in your home, you will probably make a profit and save your credit.
If your home is worth less than what you owe, consider a short sale rather than foreclosure.
What ever you decide to do, you need to act fast - four months passes quickly and if you do plan to sell, not only do you need to find a buyer, you also need to close escrow.
7 Comments
Want To Provide Some Feedback?
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Couldn’t a person in this situation just refinance?
Refinancing your home is an option, as well as speaking to your lender about restructuring your payment plan, but there are a few things that you need to consider:
Whatever the problem is that got you to the point of foreclosure must be short term, or you will most likely find yourself quickly back in the same situation.
By the time you receive the notice of default, your credit score will most likely already be affected which will mean that you may not qualify or your new interest rate may be considerably higher.
You must have enough equity in your home… When refinancing your home will be appraised (just as it was when it was purchased). Since property values have dropped you may find that your home is worth less than you owe and in this case the lender will not fund a new loan unless you are able to come up with the cash to cover the difference between the appraised value (that the lender will loan on) and the existing principal of all loans against your home.
I am a renter who just found out that a NOD was filed on the house we are renting as of 8-11-08. How long do we typically have from that date to move? We live in California. Is the NOD the “start” of the foreclosure process? I did speak with the lender who gave me just a little information and they stated that the loan was not in foreclosure yet. So is there a difference between the NOD and foreclosure process. I was told the foreclosure process in CA is 4 months. Any help would be appreciated!
The publishing and receipt by the owner of the NOD is the beginning of the foreclosure process and you are looking at about 120 days for the foreclosure to be completed.
I don’t know what to think about what the lender has told you, as they are not allowed to discuss any loan with anyone other than the person(s) on that loan.
If you have already seen the published notice of default, you may want to contact the owner (or management company) and find out what is happening.
If you are interested and have the ability, one option you may have would be to buy the home yourself. You would have to discuss this with the homeowner and see if an agreement could be made with them and the bank.
If you do have to move, I would start looking for another home right away - it’s always better to be prepared than to wait until you must leave.
Thank you for the feedback. I have another question for you. I have spoke with the landlord and they are demanding that we pay them an addl 2 months rent. Our lease expired 7-31-08. They have not made a payment to the mortgage company since Feb 2008 and they are stating that we need to move out in 30-45 days. We also have a security deposit of $4500 that more than covers 2 months worth of rent that I am sure we will never see again. The notice of default is dated 8-11-08 and the landlord told us that they are surrendering the house to the bank. I have started looking for another place to live and I did not pay them rent for the last month because we found out the house was going to go into foreclosure when somebody knocked on the door to offer us loan modification options we told them we were the renters. I stopped payment on the rent check after the knock on the door because I did not want to lose any additional money.
Do we have any rights? Do we have to make any payments to the owners who are now in foreclosure even though there is no valid lease? I contacted Countrywide and they stated the foreclosure process is 4 months in California. I was going to ride that out as long as possible since I am now out a security deposit and will have to come up with more money now to move. Any insight would be appreciated. Thank you
The fact that the home has gone into foreclosure does not negate the lease, but the fact that the lease has already expired is another story - this is an area of Real Estate Law that we would not be able to comment on.
You may want to seek legal advice, or do an online search for ” California tenants rights”.
Our mortgage company filed a notice of default and sale last year in March and they never anulled it. They now sent us a notice that they have an option to file a notice of default. We had a change of mortgage holders in between.
Question: How long is the NOD valid before a new one has to be filed? Can they act upon the old one from last year? How can we find out if a trustee sale has been scheduled?
Thank you
MB