6 Ways to Delay Judicial Foreclosure

I do not recommend all of these approaches for all instances. However, by using these strategies you may be able to slow the sheriff sale and do the right thing.

Ohio Delay Foreclosure Method 1- Bankruptcy
Bankruptcy is a kind of “ace in the hole” for delaying foreclosure in Ohio (or any state for that matter). It happens in Federal court so it trumps any kind of local court action. It has even been used to stop a sheriff sale on the morning of the sheriff sale. Of course you should avoid living that dangerously.

Chapter 13 bankruptcy
This bankruptcy reorganizes your debt and creates a payment plan. Recent law changes mean that more people will be forced to file this type of bankruptcy. If you were to simply file this bankruptcy but never make the payments it still may buy you as much as 45 to 75 days. If you make payments according to the plan and properly include your mortgage debt in the bankruptcy you should be able to permanently stop foreclosure. * Warning *- If you want to use this method to permanently stay out of foreclosure, make sure you do not make your chapter 13 payment even one day late. In my experience, banks restart the foreclosure process and refuse to accept any kind of catch up money or anything to stop the foreclosure process when borrowers default on a chapter 13 plan.

Chapter 7 bankruptcy
This bankruptcy dissolves all debt and absolves you of the responsibility to pay it. However recent changes have made it more difficult to actually get all of your debt actually forgiven through Chapter 7 bankruptcy. It will temporarily delay foreclosure while the U.S. Bankruptcy Court works out the details. Usually it will buy 45 to 75 days. When you file Chapter 7 bankruptcy the mortgage holder’s attorneys will typically file something called “A relief of stay”. This is just a request to have the freeze on the foreclosure in the local court that bankruptcy provides be removed so that foreclosure can still proceed. Having the foreclosure move forward though won’t re-obligate you to the debt. You can combine Chapter 13 bankruptcy and Chapter 7 bankruptcy for more delays on your foreclosure.

*warning- Your lender will often try to trick you into reaffirming your loan. This means they want you to re-obligate yourself to the underlying debt. Be very, very careful about doing this. Don’t let your emotions get the better of you. Remember, even if you are in a bad situation with your mortgage and your lender will give you a payment that is easier to make, you will likely have many thousands of negative equity. This means that in this uncertain economy if you lose your job or have to move, you won’t be able to easily sell your home. You will have to sell it on a short sale or let it foreclose.

Ohio Delay Foreclosure Method 2- File a written answer
You can file a written answer in the court system asking for more time as soon as you get your notice of legal action. Just properly filing a written answer can buy you more time. If you don’t file a written answer and don’t even show up to your court date, the plaintiffs will be able to file to move towards sheriff sale without even proving their case. Filing an answer properly will help you make sure due process is followed in the lenders suite to take your home. This could easily buy 30 days or more in your home.

Ohio Delay Foreclosure Method 3- Challenge the sheriff’s appraisal
You can challenge the sheriff’s appraisal and ask for your home to be removed from sheriff sale to be reappraised. The sheriff has an obligation to properly appraise your home. He is selling as a public servant and a mis-appraisal of your home in this forced sale could harm you. When the sheriff sale is scheduled and you believe the sheriff has not adequately valued your home you can present your evidence to the court and ask that the court reappraises your home. Doing this strategy could get you another 30 to 60 days in your home.

Ohio Delay Foreclosure Method 4- Loan modifications and Forbearances
Banks will delay or stop the foreclosure when you do a loan work out plan (loan modifications) to start making payments. A loan modification will usually cause the foreclosure to be completely canceled. It will actually add the back payments onto the end of the loan and in some cases you may have an interest rate that is lowered to 2%. The amortization on your loan with some loan modification programs may even be extended to 40 years.

A forbearance plan however only pauses the foreclosure until you are completely caught up. For most people a forbearance plan is not realistic for keeping their home long term however even a it could give the necessary time to use other strategies. Usually, with this type of plan you will end up making a payment and a half or two payments each month. Obviously a loan modification is much more advantageous.

These agreements can be done spuriously just to buy an extra 30 days or even extend your time in the home indefinitely by faithfully making the full payments as agreed upon. However, using plans like these only as a delay tactic with no intention of making payments is not recommended because generally there is often a significant upfront payment required to start making payments again. You should not enter a plan like this with out good counsel from a financial advisor because if you default on a work out agreement your lender often times will not allow you to make another similar agreement for the same hardship.

Sometimes government guaranteed loans have special zero interest loan programs for assisting your with your back payments. An example of this would be the partial claim that you can do if you have an FHA loan.

Need help delaying foreclosure. These 6 items are a starting point in your strategies. If keeping your house long term isn't an option call Andy Morris to see if you might qualify for HAFA short sale which gives you a period to live in your home and then $3,000 when you move. Call Andy at 888-4-STOP-IT

Ohio Delay Foreclosure Method 5- Present an offer (short sale or otherwise)
I knew of one title agent that would call lenders and say “hey we have a cash offer. Could you cancel the sheriff sale?” She said this worked many times even when the offer wasn’t a full pay off of the loan the lender would cancel sheriff sale just to evaluate the offer. My experience is that most of the time the lender will continue to foreclose whether there is an offer or not. The exception would be HAFA short sales and FHA short sales which will stop foreclosure when you request to do a short sale even if you don’t have an offer. Lenders will often stop a sheriff sale if there appears to be an offer for full payoff or if the offer appears to be a full market short sale offer. My associates and I have seen banks stop sheriff sales and delay the foreclosure process numerous times.

If you have no intention of actually selling your home, then this method is probably not the best one for you as you don’t want to intentionally mislead your lender (going to jail for fraud would be a total FAIL).

Ohio Delay Foreclosure Method 6- Challenge foreclosure
If you are challenging your lender in court or launching an attack, you should look for an attorney with at least 5 years experience that will review the procedures with which you were sued and file answers to delay the foreclosure along with continuances. There are so many ways to take this method that you could probably find 100 ways to delay foreclosure just in this method alone. If you have lots of time and energy and have very sharp language skills you can go at it pro se. Warning- Fighting with sharks that want to eat you and are more experienced than you takes a lot of courage. This is a link from a 23 year old woman who was actually successful in defending her family pro se from foreclosure. In this article it mentions that she used online legal filings as models. You might checkout Google Scholar and Westlaw. Also a book like 23 Legal defenses to foreclosure would guide you. It actually includes 50 plus strategies for defending foreclosure as well as specific court strategies and actual documents to file. As far as delay goes any kind of defense will be something new to be heard in court and will thus cause a delay. A local attorney that I work with does a lot of foreclosure defense. One of his methods in delaying foreclosure is to file a 30 plus page discovery request. This takes tremendous time to answer and will delay foreclosure. There are really too many to name. However I plan on blogging about more of them here so stay tuned.

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Andy Morris is an Ohio real estate broker with an expertise in selling homes on a short sale. If your Ohio home is heading towards foreclosure or you owe more than your property is worth, please call Andy at 888-4-STOP-IT to see if you qualify for a short sale with your lender. Are you not in the North Eastern Ohio area? His team can negotiate short sales across the United States. Hire an Ohio Short Sale expert today!