Foreclosure is a process that allows a lender to recover the amount owed on a defaulted loan by selling or repossessing the property by which the loan was secured. The foreclosure process begins when the homeowner defaults on the mortgage payments and the lender files the necessary documents to begin the foreclosure proceedings.

To understand the process, you need to understand where the lender’s right to foreclose comes from. At the time of grating you the loan, the lender wants to secure his loan so that he does not lose out in the event you are unable to pay the loan. The lender generally asks for some property as security. In the case of a housing loan, it is the house that becomes the security. This is called mortgaging the property. The house is the collateral for the loan. When you mortgage a property with the lender, the lender acquires a claim over the property. This claim is referred to as ‘lien’. The lender can exercise his lien in case you default on the loan. Normally this exercising of the lien implies the authority of the lender to foreclose on the property.

Once you get too far behind in your payments, the lender will begin the foreclosure proceedings. This usually involves a lawsuit in which the lender takes your home to satisfy the debt due to your failure to comply with the mortgage. The lender may actually take your home, or have your home sold to pay off the mortgage. As a result of the foreclosure, you loose whatever rights you have in the property. The proceeds of the sale are used to pay off the mortgage.

Once foreclosure proceedings are complete, your right of redeeming the mortgaged property ends. It is a termination of all your rights in the property. Foreclosure is a process in which the property becomes the absolute property of the lender.

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