What to do if you were just served with a foreclosure complaint?
Foreclosures are a complex, difficult legal issue that affects your most valuable property. Your mortgage company is not on your side, and speaking with them on the phone is not the same as a legal defense.
You should seek advice from an attorney who only fights for the interests of consumers like yourself to determine what options you have to save your house.
If you or someone who lives with you has been served with a foreclosure complaint, you need to act quickly to protect your home.
South Carolina provides 30 days for you to file a written response to a complaint, and requires you to respond to the allegations made by the bank. If you do not respond to the complaint in that time, a court can determine that you have admitted every allegation made against you by your mortgage company, and you risk losing your house.
You also may have a limited period of time to request relief from foreclosure directly from your lender. Foreclosure complaints in South Carolina are generally served with a form titled Request for Foreclosure Intervention, which allows you to request options directly from your bank to relieve you from foreclosure. If you fail to request such relief within 30 days of being served with the complaint, you may have waived your right to seek the relief.
The lesson is simple – if you are behind on your house payments, or if you’ve been served with a foreclosure complaint, seek advice from an experienced attorney immediately.
South Carolina recognizes the importance of providing homeowners whose residences are being foreclosed an opportunity to seek intervention to potentially save their home.
The South Carolina Supreme Court issued an administrative order on May 2, 2011 requires a mortgage company, when serving a foreclosure action, to also serve a notice of the right to foreclosure intervention. A foreclosing mortgage company must certify to the court that they have complied with the administrative order prior to proceeding with foreclosure.
In order to be eligible for foreclosure intervention, the property must be owner-occupied and must be your principal residence. In other words, the foreclosure must concern your house where you live, and cannot be a temporary, part-time, or vacation home.
Different options are available through foreclosure intervention, including:
loan modification;
forbearance agreement;
repayment plan;
short sale; or
deed in lieu of foreclosure
The process of applying for a loan modification or other foreclosure relief in South Carolina can be complex, confusion, and can require a large number of documents and paperwork. While the process can be stressful, it can ultimately be rewarding if it leads to an options to save your house.
Mortgage companies are subject to complex and detailed rules and regulations concerning the servicing of mortgages. These rules do not end when the foreclosure begins, as mortgage companies are governed by specific requirements concerning processing and responding to applications for loss mitigation and foreclosure intervention.
Federal statute regulating mortgage servicers, including RESPA (Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act), directly impact homeowners who may be facing foreclosure, and many borrowers may have rights under these rules that they may not even be aware of.
Such violations of servicing laws can act as both a defense to a foreclosure action, and as a claim against a mortgage servicer for damages.
Many victims of mortgage fraud, breach of contract by their mortgage company or predatory lending are not aware of the illegal actions that have been taken against them until the damage has already been done. Misrepresentation of the terms of a loan, approval for loans someone cannot afford, falsifying income of a borrower to ensure approval for a loan, and misrepresentation concerning the condition of a property are only a few of the issues that can arise at the beginning of the mortgage process.
If you’re purchasing a home through a contract for deed, rent to own agreement or lease with an option to purchase, you are relying on the seller to follow the terms of the contract. If the seller is overcharging you, failing to properly apply payments, failing to following their obligation in a contract, misrepresented the terms of the contract to you, threatening to evict you, or has failed to deliver a deed at the end of your purchase, you need to take action to protect your property and your investment.
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