North Carolina Foreclosures Legal Questions

Unfortunately the lien (deed of trust) on the home is still enforceable up to 10 years after the loan matures for a standard mortgage, and debts owed to the government are even longer. They have the right to foreclose, but they cannot force you to pay any deficiency if the sale is not enough to pay off the loan. Your best bet would probably be to apply for your own mortgage to pay off USDA. You could also consider filing Chapter 13 bankruptcy which could give you up to 5 years to either pay off the loan or sell the house. ... Read More

You qualify as a "successor in interest" and there are regulations which protect your interest in the house. Did you explain that your husband passed? Was the house titled in both names? If so, all you should have to give the mortgage company in order to get information is a copy of the existing deed to the house. If the house was titled only in his name, information about his estate will need to be provided to prove you inherited the house. You need to look for a local foreclosure attorney and perhaps a consumer bankruptcy attorney for assistance with the specifics. ... Read More

This is impossible to answer withour reviewing your paperwork (equitable distribution order, separation agreement, divorce decree and quitclaim deed) and having a little more information. Was your name the only one on the mortgage loan? This is the most important piece of information you left out. Too many details to be reliably answered in an online forum. If you have a foreclosure hearing date you need to get some very specific legal advice from your own attorney who can also appear at the foreclosure hearing for you and request a continuance so that things can be worked out. ... Read More

The seller would need to get the consent of the loan servicer to the sale and the servicer would ahve to agree to wait on pursuing the foreclosure further until after the sale is concluded. If there is a pending sale date, this may not be possible. You did not provide any specific information about how far along in the foreclosure process this is. You risk going to a closing without knowing that the servicer of the existing loan has agreed to the sale price, etc. The closing attorney may not be able to get a payoff figure if the seller never tells the lender about your offer to purchase and they just leave the lender completely out of the process. ... Read More

You need to initiate a "request for loss mitigation" by calling the mortgage company and requesting it. You will need to fill out an application and provide hardship information. You will be given a choice of solutions at the end of the application. Once of those is for a short sale and another for a deed in lieu of foreclosure. Submit the packet and all requested documentation ASAP. At the same time this is going on, locate a realtor with experience in short sales. There are very few short sales now because the value of real estate went way up since 2020. You may not have to do a short sale, a sale for market value may pay off the mortgage and the costs of sale plus get you some money to help you get a new place to live. In my experience, you only need an attorney if the process drags out a long time and an actual foreclosure action is filed against you. If you start the loss mitigation process before you get too far behind, no foreclosure case will be filed. If you are served with legal papers, contact an attorney. Keep very good notes of what you are told by the mortgage company - date and time of the call, who you spoke to and what they said for every call during the process. Keep a copy of your loss mitigation packet. Mail it in by certified mail and keep the tracking number. Keep all letters you receive from the mortgage company.... Read More

Your grandson is the one who must sign the quitclaim deed to give up his interest in the property. If he refuses to sign it, you will not be able to sell. You need his cooperation, and you two will need to see a local real estate attorney. The attorneys fee for a quitclaim deed should not cost you $600.00. Contact some additional attorneys to see if you can find one who charges less.... Read More

Filing a lawsuit in Superior Court to enjoin the foreclosure sale would be much more expensive out of your pocket up front (because of the attorneys fees)  than filing for Chapter 13 bankcuptcy, and it is not likely to succeed in the long term. It may very well be that under the terms of the lender, you do not qualify for a loan modification. Your safest bet is to file Chapter 13 bankruptcy and you must do so before the sale date to be safe. Either way you will need a qualified and experienced attorney - do NOT hire out of state "foreclosure rescue" firms - hire a local, experienced, North Carolina attorney. Do NOT try to handle this on your own. Filing this type of lawsuit in Superior Court is too complicated for a non lawyer to handle. You can file Chapter 13 without an attorney but most non lawyers do not understand how to propose a confirmable Chapter 13 Plan, and you may end up worse off than you are now and not be allowed to file Chapter 13 again for several months if you file Chapter 13 without following all of the rules and without serious intent. ... Read More

If you pay the delinquent these to your homeowners Association, they cannot foreclose on your property. The simple answer is no you really don't have any options in this matter, You must deal with the attorney for the HOA. When any company or person establishes a relationship with an attorney, by law you must always contact that attorney and if you attempt to contact that attorney client directly, you can be sanctioned by the court. There is no way around an attorney once they are hired by a client. I have responded to your inquiry according to the laws of Massachusetts, where my firm is located. Laws can vary significantly from state to state and cases tend to be rather fact-specific, so you are best served by consulting with a knowledgeable attorney in weighing your options. Email messages/Online Correspondence are akin to conversations and do not reflect the level of analysis applied to formal legal opinions. Email/Online responses do not form an attorney-client relationship.    Joseph F. Botelho, Esq. BOTELHO LAW GROUP Attorneys At Law http://fallriverbankruptcyattorney.com/ 901 Eastern Ave.  Unit 2 Fall River, MA 02723  Office:  888-269-0688 FAX:    877-475-8147... Read More

Your name being on the deed is of no consequence, what is important is if you signed the note and mortgage. If you signed the note and mortgage, then after the foreclosure there will be two things that happen if there is a remaining balance, which in over 90% of house is foreclosed there is always a remaining balance, as many houses are underwater and banks sell homes at foreclosure sale lower than the value of the mortgage outstanding. If you are on the note and mortgage, and the bank does not receive enough money at the foreclosure sale to cover the mortgage, the bank may go after you for the difference between the outstanding mortgage and the sale price. If the bank does not come after you, the situation is even worse, they will send a 1099 to the IRS and the IRS will tax you on that 1099 as income. Basically if the mortgage was $200,000 and the home sold for $100,000, and there is a $100,000 deficiency. If the bank chooses to go after you they will go after you for $100,000. If the bank chooses not to go after you say will send a 1099 to the IRS and the amount of $100,000, the IRS sees this as you earned an extra $100,000 in income for that calendar year. The problem with this is taxes are not dischargeable in bankruptcy until many years have passed and owing that amount of money to the IRS, approximately $33,000 or more, will have serious repercussions on your life. I suggest you file a chapter 7 bankruptcy prior to the house being foreclosed upon and then just move back to your state. You do not have to wait until the bankruptcy discharge has been granted, you can move right after you file, but you will have to go back to your state to deal with the bankruptcy such as a 341 creditors meeting.   I have responded to your inquiry according to the laws of Massachusetts, where my firm is located. Laws can vary significantly from state to state and cases tend to be rather fact-specific, so you are best served by consulting with a knowledgeable attorney in weighing your options. Email messages/Online Correspondence are akin to conversations and do not reflect the level of analysis applied to formal legal opinions. Email/Online responses do not form an attorney-client relationship.    Joseph F. Botelho, Esq. BOTELHO LAW GROUP Attorneys At Law http://fallriverbankruptcyattorney.com/ 901 Eastern Ave.  Unit 2 Fall River, MA 02723  Office:  888-269-0688 FAX:    877-475-8147... Read More

What you are talking about is a typographical error, nothing more. These types of errors can be handled in court by your lender's attorney. You do not get to get a home for free simply because the person creating the documents misspelled your name or made some type of other typographical error. As long as the area is not so great as to be completely incorrect from beginning to end, but in that case the arrow will be so great that nothing about you is even reference that indeed therefore it's not your house either.   I have responded to your inquiry according to the laws of Massachusetts, where my firm is located. Laws can vary significantly from state to state and cases tend to be rather fact-specific, so you are best served by consulting with a knowledgeable attorney in weighing your options. Email messages/Online Correspondence are akin to conversations and do not reflect the level of analysis applied to formal legal opinions. Email/Online responses do not form an attorney-client relationship.    Joseph F. Botelho, Esq. BOTELHO LAW GROUP Attorneys At Law http://fallriverbankruptcyattorney.com/ 901 Eastern Ave.  Unit 2 Fall River, MA 02723  Office:  888-269-0688 FAX:    877-475-8147... Read More

First, a debt by your boyfriend CANNOT affect your credit unless you personally sign onto the debt. Second, I don't usually advise people to enter into short sales...which is when you sell the house and the lender agrees to take less. It takes a long time to get approved and get it sold and it takes a lot of work on the part of the homeowner. I would recommend he speak to a debt relief attorney before making a decision.... Read More

Surprisingly and unfortunately it is not always a quick/simple answer as to who owns your mortgage due to the numerous financial institutions and servicers that can be involved at any given time during the course of your loan (sometimes with seemingly overlapping or possibly even duplicative ownership/involvement). That is also because even when you believe you may have found the name on a particular document or search inquiry, it could have still been subsequently transferred since then. That being said, here are a few options: 1. many mortgages are registered with a system called MERS (Mortgage Electronic Registration System). You can try looking it up here where you may be able to find out not only the servicer but the owner, though it has been said that sometimes this system only has the original information: http://www.mersinc.org/information-for-homeowners/my-mortgage-info 2. many mortgages are owned by Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae.... Read More

If you are not on the actual note/debt, then you should not be liable and as the paperwork says, you are simply being notified of the court proceedings by nature of your being his spouse. Chances are that at his closing, you did sign a "deed of trust" which didn't make you liable for the note, but did acknowledge that while you do have an interest in the property as his spouse that if he defaults you understand they would have the right to foreclose and you could lose your property interest. You should still consult with an attorney just in case to confirm you do not need to respond (e.g if the Lender does in fact have the law wrong and is trying to actually sue you for the liability, then you would want to raise defenses). This is probably a foreclosure notice summons, but it could be a summons with a complaint for money owed which you definitely don't want to sit on even if you owe nothing.... Read More

The mortgage company has to file a lawsuit in court called unlawful detainer. It is the same type of suit that a landlord files to evict a tenant who hasn't paid rent. When your lender files the suit, you will be served with a copy of the complaint along with a summons. Read the summons carefully for instructions on responding to the suit. You have only five days to respond. If you do not respond, the lender will win by default and get a judgment against you. If you do respond, the court will set the case for trial. Unlawful detainer cases get calendaring priority, so the trial will be set soon. If you lose either by default or at trial, the court will issue a writ of execution, which gives the sheriff the authority to move you out of the house. The length of time takes varies from county to county depending on how busy the courts and sheriff's department are and how diligent the lender is in prosecuting the case. You should call the sheriff in your county and ask how long they are currently taking to process evictions. But, if you haven't done so already, you should start looking for another place to live right away.... Read More