Foreclosure

Foreclosure is a legal process that a lender takes to reposses and sell your home when you fall behind on payments.

In Mississippi, the mortgage company does not have to file a lawsuit against you and get an Order from the Court in order to sell your home.

In Mississippi, the mortgage company does not have to send you a letter telling you they are foreclosing and when the sale will be.

All they have to do is to run an ad in the newspaper and then auction your home.

When you fall behind on the mortgage, your lender will typically send you a letter telling you that you have 30 days or so to catch up before foreclosure proceedings start. This is called an acceleration letter.

Once the mortgage has been accelerated, the lender is no longer obligated to accept payments unless they are enough to catch up all of the past due amounts. But this won’t be just the number of months that you think you are behind. It will be all of the past due amounts they say you are behind, plus all of the fees and charges they have added on to your account.

The lender must advertise the sale in the newspaper once a week for at least 3 weeks. At the end of the advertising period, usually the 4th week, the foreclosure sale takes place.

The foreclosure sale is an auction that usually takes place on the courthouse steps. Anyone can bid, including the lender, and the property goes to the highest bidder. If there are no bids, the lender will simply keep the house.

What happens after foreclosure? If a lender sells the property at a loss, it has 1 year from the date of the foreclosure sale to come after you for the difference between what was owed on the morgage and the amount actually paid by the purchaser at the foreclosure sale.

If your mortgage company gets a deficiency judgment, it can use all of the remedies available under the law, including garnishment of your wages, garnishment of your bank accounts, and levying on other property.

An eviction proceeding in court usually follows the foreclosure, to force you out of the house if you don’t leave the property voluntarily.