Help on Foreclosure

What is the name of your state? South Carolina

My girlfriend, a single mom with limited income, had gotten behind on her mortgage. She talked to the mortgage company and they set up a payment plan to help her get caught up. She then accidentally missed a payment. When the mortgage company called, she made a payment over the phone. An hour later, she is served a foreclosure notice. When she had made the last payment an hour before, the mortgage company had said they will reopen her file. She did not know what that meant since she had not been served the foreclosure notice. Now she is not sure what is going to happen. She has called the mortgage company and she is suppose to call today since the manager had been out of the office on Friday. I have the money to get her payments caught up. My question is it too late? Should she see an attorney? Are they willing to throw out the notice if she gets her payments caught up? Or since she has been served with this notice is this a done deal and she is going to lose her home? Thanks for any advice. Concerned boyfriend.

[HomeGuru]

Originally Posted by Danny1964

What is the name of your state? South Carolina

My girlfriend, a single mom with limited income, had gotten behind on her mortgage. She talked to the mortgage company and they set up a payment plan to help her get caught up. She then accidentally missed a payment. When the mortgage company called, she made a payment over the phone. An hour later, she is served a foreclosure notice. When she had made the last payment an hour before, the mortgage company had said they will reopen her file. She did not know what that meant since she had not been served the foreclosure notice. Now she is not sure what is going to happen. She has called the mortgage company and she is suppose to call today since the manager had been out of the office on Friday. I have the money to get her payments caught up. My question is it too late? Should she see an attorney? Are they willing to throw out the notice if she gets her payments caught up? Or since she has been served with this notice is this a done deal and she is going to lose her home? Thanks for any advice. Concerned boyfriend.

**A: have her see a real estate attorney immediately.

[Dandy Don]

Does the foreclosure notice originate from the local county courthouse or just from the mortgage company?

You do not need to worry about her immediately losing her home, since the foreclosure process will take 1-2 months to play out in court. The mortgage company was a bit harsh in pursuing foreclosure now so you will need the assistance of a real estate attorney to perhaps negotiate with them to get them to stop the foreclosure notice proceedings. You can also otherwise receive other valuable advice from the real estate attorney about when to pay, etc.

Problem is the mortgage company may not be satisfied with just the monthly payment because the fact that they went to court means they can ask for a judgement awarding them the entire balance due on the mortgage, so let's hope your attorney can get them to come to their senses and put her back on the monthly payment plan. Is there some reason that they would think she would not be able to continue making the monthly payments?

DANDY DON IN OKLAHOMA (tiekh@yahoo.com)

In response to the last question, I am not sure why the mortgage company is so harsh. I am going by what she tells me. We are both teachers with advanced degrees who are struggling raising families, which does not say much about what teachers make. But having said that, she missed a payment back in August. They called and she worked out a plan over the next three months she would pay extra to get that caught up. This was the mortgage company's plan. She makes her payments on the 27th of the month and gets a call on the 20th of October and they say she is late with her payment, it was due on the 17th. She makes the payment over the phone and an hour later, she is issued a supeona to appear in court. This is what happened. Now, this is my girlfriend, I do not know what she may not be telling me. I susupect she has been late on her payments several times before. She has had this mortgage for two years now. But even with that, it seems harsh. Especially where they took her payment over the phone knowing she was going to be supoenaed (sp.?). The man said he would open her account again. She has called him twice with no response. She is calling him again today. She can get the martgage paid up to date today if they would take it.
I appreciate the advice. We are planning on seeing a real estate attorney. I was hoping the mortgage company would call and tell her not to worry about the supoena in the meantime. I am setting her up on a automatic debit regarding this mortgage if they drop the foreclosure. Thoughts?

[Dandy Don]

It's hard to know how to advise you since we don't know if you are being told 100% of the story. However, your suggestion about the automatic debit is excellent.

If there is any way possible to get this matter resolved without the wasted time in court, then it would be best to do so. But if you can afford to pay the remaining balance even if this goes to court, then you don't have much to worry about except paying the additional attorney fees. It's odd that they won't respond to the phone calls.

Just an update**************.

My girlfriend spoke with the manager at the mortgage company. He admitted on the phone to my girlfriend he was not suppose to take the last payment over the phone and he return the money to her. He did however refer her on to the loss mitigation department that was in-house with the mortgage ccompany. He said they would be the ones to decide what the mortgage company can do regarding the foreclosure. Having never been down this road before, I thought that was a good thing to hear. At least he didn't say there was nothing the company could do. We have not seen an attorney yet. I am hoping this goes away before we get to that stage. I hope she gets to talk to the loss mitigation department today and work something out. I willl keep you posted. I am being too optimistic?