albineproperty

If you lag on your mortgage payments and your bank is threatening to foreclose on your home, there are some things you can do. Make certain to look thoroughly at any documents you get from the court or your bank. You must fulfill all court deadlines.
dig.do
Notice of Default

A Notice of Default is generally the very first step in the foreclosure procedure. It will visit mail from your bank. The notification tells you which of your mortgage terms you have actually defaulted on. If you are behind on your mortgage payments, the notice must tell you just how much you are behind on your payments and fees and how much time you need to capture up and cure the default. If you pay the cash you owe by the cure date, you will prevent foreclosure.

Foreclosure Summons and Complaint

If you do not cure your mortgage default by bringing your mortgage present, the bank can submit documentation to start a foreclosure action in civil court. You will get copies of what the bank files. It will include a Summons and a Complaint. The Summons provides you guidelines on what you need to do.

You need to file a composed Answer within 21 calendar days of when you got the Complaint.

It is very important to submit an Answer. If you do not, the bank can ask the court to issue a Default Judgment. You will not get a notice if the bank requests a Default Judgment. If the court provides the bank a Default Judgment, the bank can get a Final Judgment Order and Decree of Foreclosure against you.

Even if you do not file an Answer, the home that you live in can not be sold by the bank less than eight months from when you get foreclosure papers. Also, you can still ask the court for mediation, even if the bank gets a Default Judgment versus you.

Your confirmed Answer

Your Answer must remain in composing and ought to react straight to the Complaint. For each numbered paragraph in the Complaint, you need to write a corresponding number in your Answer and state if you "Agree," "Disagree" or "Don't understand."

Your Answer needs to likewise be "verified," which indicates that it includes this declaration at the end, followed by your signature:

"I state that the above statement is real and precise to the best of my knowledge and belief. I comprehend that if the above statement is false, I will be subject to the charge of perjury, or other sanctions in the discretion of the court."

If your Answer does not include this declaration and your signature, the court may release a Default Judgment against you.

Use our Foreclosure Answer Form to respond to the Complaint.

- Download a fillable PDF variation of the Answer form.

Use the Word version of the Answer form. This Word file is not fully available. For the most available experience, use the fillable PDF above.

If you have "Defenses" or "Counterclaims" versus the bank, you require to write those at the bottom of your Answer (above the confirmation).

Defenses are legal reasons the bank need to not win the foreclosure case. To prevent losing your foreclosure case, you should compose your Defenses in the Answer. This is due to the fact that even if you address, the court might still issue a Default Judgment against you if you do not raise any Defenses. If you think the mortgage is prohibited or invalid for some factor, write down your factors in the Defenses area of your Answer. Or, if you think you are not behind on your mortgage, jot down your factors in the Defenses area.

Counterclaims are claims back against the bank seeking money or other relief for acts that breach your rights. If you do not raise Counterclaims, it will not lead to a Default Judgment versus you in the foreclosure case. However, if you do not include Counterclaims in your Answer, it is possible that you will not have the ability to sue the count on those claims at a later date.

Mediation

If you qualify for mediation, the Summons and Complaint will include a Demand for Mediation form. Submit the form and send it to or drop it off at the court. Mediation will put the foreclosure case on hold and get you a meeting with the bank and a neutral individual called a mediator. At the conference, the bank has to consider you for a budget friendly loan adjustment or other options that might help you save your home.

Discovery

After the Answer is filed and mediation finished, and before the court decides your case, you or the bank can do pre-trial discovery. This indicates that you can ask the bank to answer written concerns, confess to facts, offer you files, or offer other information. The bank must address your demands in 1 month. The bank might likewise send you questions, ask you to admit facts, and ask you to provide files. You need to answer the bank in 30 days.

Summary Judgment

If you and the bank concur about the truths, you or the bank can ask the court to decide the case without a trial. This is called a Movement for Summary Judgment. The movement has actually to be offered to the court in writing. The bank normally files a Movement for Summary Judgment in a foreclosure case.

If you get a Motion for Summary Judgment, you need to react in writing within 1 month. If you don't respond in writing, the court can presume you agree with the motion and release a foreclosure judgment against you.

The court can offer Summary Judgment before a trial only if you and the bank agree about the facts specified in the motion. If you disagree with the truths, or believe the bank is incorrect or unreasonable, you should react in writing.

Settlement with a loan modification contract

You can ask the bank to customize (change) your loan so that you can lower your month-to-month payments. This is called a loan adjustment. This can happen anytime throughout the course of the bank's case versus you: right after the case is submitted, throughout mediation, or after judgment for the bank has been entered, as long as there suffices time for the bank to review your financial information. The faster this takes place, the better for you.

If the bank chooses you certify for a loan modification, it will normally send you a prepare for a three-month trial period. During the trial period, you need to pay the new payment quantity on time on a monthly basis. If you do that, you can certify for a loan adjustment that brings you existing on your mortgage account.

If you certify, there are numerous ways the bank can get you existing on your account while keeping your payments cost effective:

1. They can include your unpaid payment into your unpaid principal balance and lower your rate of interest.

They can let you pay over a longer duration of time.
They can also choose that part of your debt can be paid back later.

If you sign a loan adjustment agreement with the bank, it will settle the foreclosure case. Most of the times, the bank's attorney will submit a motion to dismiss the foreclosure case. If you sign an irreversible loan adjustment arrangement and the bank's attorney does not file a motion to dismiss the case, you need to submit a letter with the court asking that your case be dismissed because of the adjustment.

Merits hearing or trial

If you and the bank do not concur about the facts or a loan modification and the court rejects the bank's Motion for Summary Judgment, the court will send you a notice of a trial date. The trial is your chance to inform your side of the case to the judge. You can bring witnesses, documents or other proof to show the judge. The court normally notifies at least two weeks before the trial date. If you have a good reason you can't concern court the day of the hearing, you must ask in writing for the court to reschedule the hearing. You require to do this as soon as possible and definitely before the day of the hearing.

If you don't pertain to court on the day of the trial, the court can approve a judgment in favor of the bank.

Judgment

If the judge provides the bank a foreclosure judgment, the court will provide a declaration of what you owe on the residential or commercial property. This is called a "clerk's accounting." If you do not agree with the quantity, you just have a brief amount of time to let the court understand that you don't agree.

If you don't inform the court you disagree, the court will provide a Final Judgment Order and Decree of Foreclosure. It will inform you the total quantity that you owe and how much time you have to pay what you owe before the residential or commercial property is offered. This is called the "redemption duration."

Redemption period

The Final Judgment Order and Decree of Foreclosure will tell you a date when your redemption duration ends. In the majority of cases, it has to do with six months. If the residential or commercial property being foreclosed is not your main house, the court might give you less than 6 months. To redeem your residential or commercial property, you can pay the total that you owe the bank and prevent a foreclosure sale. There may be other methods to prevent the foreclosure of your home throughout the redemption duration. For example, if your bank concurs, you could enter into a loan modification agreement. Or you could sell your home and settle what you owe.

During the redemption duration, you can stay in your home and do not have to make mortgage payments. Any quantity not paid will be consisted of in the quantity you would need to pay to redeem the residential or commercial property, and might be consisted of in a Shortage Judgment (see below).

Foreclosure sale

If you can not redeem your residential or commercial property or work something out before the end of your redemption duration, the bank will arrange a foreclosure sale of your residential or commercial property. The bank needs to give you 1 month composed notification of the sale date. The bank also has to publish the sale notice in a regional paper for 3 weeks.

If you are still living in the home, the foreclosure sale will take place at the curb of your residential or commercial property. Sometimes, the bank will ask the judge to allow it to evict you before the foreclosure sale. Usually, though, the bank will not evict you till after the sale.

After the foreclosure sale, the court will have a hearing to decide if the foreclosure sale followed the law. This is called a confirmation hearing. If the court verifies the sale, the residential or commercial property will go to the highest bidder.

Deficiency Judgment

If the greatest quote at the foreclosure sale is less than what you owe on the mortgage, the bank can ask the judge for a Shortage Judgment versus you. A Deficiency Judgment is a court order saying that you owe the quantity that the bank did not receive from the sale of your residential or commercial property. If the bank does not ask for a Shortage Judgment at the verification hearing, it can not try to get a judgment against you later on for that debt.

Many banks do not ask for Deficiency Judgments. Even if the bank gets a Deficiency Judgment against you, the law may not need you to pay it if your residential or commercial property and incomes are exempt from judgment. Some earnings and assets can not be drawn from you by your lenders. If all of your income and possessions are secured by the law, you are "judgment-proof."

Eviction

Whenever after the redemption period ends, the bank can ask the court for a Writ of Possession to evict you. A constable will serve you with the Writ of Possession. You will have 2 week to move your possessions and leave the residential or commercial property. If you do not go out during the 14-day period, the constable can eliminate you.

Print.
Housing. Discrimination/ Fair Housing. Housing Discrimination Does Happen in Vermont

Have You Been Discriminated Against? Disability Discrimination. Who is Protected?

Reasonable Accommodations and Modifications

Assistance Animals

Mortgages and Residential Or Commercial Property Taxes After a Disaster

COVID-19 Crisis, Mortgages and Foreclosures

Foreclosure Process

Foreclosure Mediation

Special Loans and Situations

Mortgage and Foreclosure Form Letters

More Help

Renter Rights After a Disaster

Vermont Law on Renting: The RRAA

What to Know Before You Rent

Everything About Rental Agreements

Rights and Duties Explained

Rent Increases

Bedbugs

Repair Problems

Guests, Roommates & Trespassers

Can the Landlord Enter My Unit?

Lockouts, Utility Shutoffs & Your Belongings

Housing Protections for Victims

Moving Out

Security Deposits

Evictions

Notice to Terminate Tenancy

Court Process: General

Court Process: Eviction

Court Process: Suing Landlord

Court Process: Small Claims

Abandoned Rental or Residential Or Commercial Property

Rights of Tenants When a Property Owner is in Foreclosure

Renter Credit/ Rebate

Subsidized Housing/ Subsidies

Health and Safety

Mobile Home Park Leases

Lot Rent Increases

Mobile Home Park Evictions

Selling Your Mobile Home

Abandoned Mobile Homes

When a Park is Sold or Closes

News

More Help

How We Can Help - Contact Us

Forms You Can Use

Help From Other Vermont Lawyers:

Ask legal questions through Vermont's Free Legal Answers program. Vermont Bar Association legal representative referral. VT Association for Justice legal representative referral. Criminal Public Defenders

Legal Help for Active Military, Veterans & Their Families

Legal Problem in Another State

Quick Links

- Home.

How We Can Help - Contact Us.
Locations.
Legal Help Tool.
Legal Roadmaps.
VTCourtForms.
Other Forms You Can Use.
COVID Legal + Benefits Info.
Website + SMS Privacy.
Accessibility.
PDFs and Adobe Reader

Language Help

- American Sign Language.
العربية/ Arabic.
Bosanski/ Bosnian.
မ န မ စ/ Burmese.
دری/ Dari.
Español/ Spanish.
Français/ French.
Ikirundi/ Kirundi.
Kiswahili/ Swahili.
Mai-Mai/ Maay Maay.
官話/ 官话/ .
नेपाली/ Nepali.
پښتو/ Pashto.
Soomaali/ Somali.
українська мова/ Ukrainian.
Tiếng Việt/ Vietnamese.
Google Translate

About This Website

VTLawHelp.org is a joint job of Vermont Legal Aid and Legal Services Vermont - Working Together for Justice.

Funding from the Legal Services Corporation.

© 2025 Legal Services Vermont and Vermont Legal Aid. All Rights Reserved.