Legal

Lawyers Who Can Help Homeowners Avoid Foreclosure

English: Foreclosure signs, Mortgage crisis, (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The reality is that for most homeowners foreclosures are overwhelming, confusing, and stressful because they are not familiar with foreclosure process. They are unaware that there are ways to prevent a foreclosure.

Foreclosure is the legal procedure that can be used by a mortgage lender or county to repossess someone’s home. The process usually begins with delinquent mortgage and/or property taxes. The county or lender starts the legal proceedings to repossess the house and then sell it to recover the money owed. But before a foreclosure auction takes place, there are two types of lawyers who can help homeowners avoid it.

Real Estate Lawyers

Real estate lawyers who handle foreclosure defense fight for homeowners who wish to save their homes. A Foreclosure Defense Attorney San Antonio will defend a homeowner during the entire foreclosure procedure, using his expertise in the real estate law. For example, a foreclosure defense attorney will talk with mortgage lenders to come up with a way to stop a foreclosure outside of court and if the process ends up in court, the attorney represents the homeowner.

Bankruptcy Lawyers

Bankruptcy lawyers are experts in helping homeowners keep their homes, by representing them during the bankruptcy process. For instance, bankruptcy lawyers can file bankruptcy petitions in behalf of the homeowner to stop the foreclosure process through the automatic stay. Then they attend meetings with creditors together with the homeowners, making use of their expertise in bankruptcy guidelines to reduce the possibility of a foreclosure.

Considerations

Only foreclosure defense lawyers and bankruptcy attorneys who are licensed to practice law in the state can help the homeowners. For that reason, if a homeowner resides in San Antonio, Texas, he can only hire a bankruptcy lawyer or real estate attorney in Texas to represent him. The foreclosure lawsuit can be prevented by the automatic stay in bankruptcy. But the homeowner has to pay his lender the balance due while continuing to keep his payments up-to-date. Chapter 7 bankruptcy, which is a personal bankruptcy, cannot help homeowners who would like to save their homes from foreclosure since its automatic stay does not include foreclosures.
The following are popular options for avoiding foreclosures and how lawyers can help them:

  1. Loan Modification – Homeowners facing foreclosure can opt for loan modification. A foreclosure defense attorney can assist a homeowner in negotiating the mortgage loan modification with the lenders.

  2. Short Sale Under this option, the house will be sold by the homeowner for less than the amount of the remaining amount owed to the lender. The income of the sale is paid to the mortgage lender. Prior to the sale, the San Antonio Real Estate Attorney will talk to the bank to convince it that because of financial hardship, the borrower should be given a discount on the remaining balance. Thus, the remaining amount owed is discounted after the property is sold.

  3. Bankruptcy – The homeowner can stop a foreclosure proceeding under the automatic stay. A bankruptcy lawyer can help the homeowner to file a bankruptcy petition, create a repayment plan, and keep the house.

  4. Contesting Foreclosure – A foreclosure defense lawyer can help find the legal grounds on which the foreclosure proceedings can be contested. It may be possible that the mortgage lender has illegally filed the foreclosure proceedings.

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