The past few years have left many Georgia homeowners struggling to keep up with their mortgage payments. Losing a home is an incredibly stressful experience, with many people never regaining their sense of stability.
When you fall behind on your mortgage payments, your lender will eventually foreclose on your home. You will know when they decide to foreclose because you will receive a foreclosure notice.
Do not ignore the notice
The first thing you should do when you are served with a foreclosure notice is to not panic. Many homeowners are so afraid of losing their home that they ignore foreclosure notices, hoping the problem will just go away.
Ignoring a foreclosure notice is a bad idea for many reasons and is, in fact, a common way in which people do ultimately lose their homes.
Non-judicial foreclosures
Even worse, Georgia is a non-judicial foreclosure state, which means you have less time than in other states to proactively address the situation.
This means that your mortgage lender can obtain a foreclosure against you without filing a lawsuit or going through any type of court process.
The foreclosure notice you receive will state that the mortgage lender intends to foreclose on your home due to a default. The default is you not making your mortgage payments, although it could also be not paying your property insurance or taxes.
Time requirements
Georgia law requires the foreclosure notice be sent at least 30 days before the scheduled foreclosure sale. However, this is not much time.
Therefore, it is important to contact a real estate attorney immediately upon receiving the foreclosure notice.
There may be ways to postpone the sale or even stop the foreclosure process altogether.
Lender requirements
For example, there are many legal requirements mortgage lenders must comply with when foreclosing on a piece of real estate.
There are rules regarding what information must be included in the foreclosure notice and how it is served. The mortgage lender must also file certain documents with the court prior to the sale.
If any of these requirements are not met, the foreclosure sale cannot go forward. A real estate attorney can review your situation and see if there are any available defenses.