Foreclosure: Read the Contract
Recently, I was retained by a family in Northern Virginia to represent them in an unlawful detainer hearing in General District Court. In fact, the first time they heard that their house was foreclosed upon and sold was when they received a summons to be evicted out of their house. For six months, the family has been trying to contact the bank and renegotiate the loan due to a hardship in the family. Both the husband and the wife, lost their jobs during these hard economic times.
I was called in a week before the hearing with not much time to prepare. Luckily, the Bank produced the Note to the family. Upon review, I realized that the Bank did not properly pursue the sale of the house by foreclosure. In fact, the accelerated sale of the house was unwarranted by the Bank. In my case, there was an issue of fact of whether the Bank provided proper notice of default to the family. The judge ruled in my favor when I moved to strike the writ of unlawful detainer.
Now in the end, the outcome might be the same, the family is still in default. The Bank will just have to redo the foreclosure sale and can evict the family. However, President Obama has passed regulations to assist families in default of their mortgages. Maybe, just maybe, this family will qualify and the family will be able to keep their house.
In the end, read your note, you may be able to set aside a foreclosure sale by the Bank and buy a few more months to figure out a way to stay in your home.
