Georgia Foreclosure/Eviction Questions

[maudgonne]

Hi, All --

I'm in a foreclosure mess here in Georgia, and I'm having trouble finding straight answers to even the most basic questions. I'm hoping that there are a few people from Georgia that visit this forum and can offer some info and advice. Here's my back story:

Lost my job in July 2008. I stopped paying my mortgage and credit cards in Feb. 2009. In June, got a notice of pending foreclosure from MetLife. I applied for a loan modification in early July. The house was initially scheduled for sale on the courthouse steps on August 4. It's been delayed twice since then -- current sale date is November 3rd. The house is worth about $40,000 less than I owe on it (I owe $150,000), due to tanking home values and some structural problems with the house that I was trying to fix when I lost my job. I have a first mortgage with MetLife only, no 2nd, liens, etc. I can't get anyone at MetLife to tell me when I'll hear back about the modification request, but it's been almost three months since I sent in my application, so it's got to be soon.

Here are my questions:

1) If the house ends up selling on the courthouse steps, how long do I have (according to Georgia law) before I have to leave? I saw another poster that said the lender changed the locks BEFORE the house was sold -- is that legal?

2) If I do receive a modification offer from my bank, how long do I have to approve it, reject it, or negotiate the terms before they foreclose? Since the foreclosure auction is currently scheduled for November 3rd, what's the latest date that they can send me an offer at this point?

3) I'm hoping to stay in the house until the first of the year, if possible. Would it make sense to request a short sale at this point, so I can postpone the foreclosure on November 3rd? I don't want to keep the house long-term unless the bank agrees to a serious principal reduction (which I doubt).

Sorry for the long post, and thanks in advance for any suggestions or advice you might have!!!

Maud (not my real name, of course)

[DeadManCrawling]

Have you worked with anyone to assist you?

NACA has had quite a bit of success in helping people get through these types of situations.

You can read stories about others at www.loansafe.org

and learn a bit more. They are a nonprofit and are one of the few legit organizations who can actually accomplish things.

Best of luck to you.

-dmc

[justbroke]

1) If the house ends up selling on the courthouse steps, how long do I have (according to Georgia law) before I have to leave? I saw another poster that said the lender changed the locks BEFORE the house was sold -- is that legal?

First, as far as getting out the house, the bank would need to issue you a Notice to Quit/Vacate, basically telling you to surrender the property and leave (because you're basically a tenant at that point). They will then send you a certified letter or otherwise serve upon you an Eviction Notice. You will generally have 7 days to answer that. If you answer it, then you can go defend yourself in Court and delay it another couple of weeks. Then you'll have, probably 7 more days to get out. So, you could delay the eviction process by 4 weeks.

However, that 4 weeks would be measured from the time the lender actually seeks to evict you! There have been several cases in which the lender allowed the debtor to stay in the place for no other apparent reason other than to keep the property safe (from thieves, copper thieves, gutting, etc).

The other poster you read about, actually ABANDONED the property. If you abandon the property, most Mortgage/Notes allow the lender to secure the property. The other poster was actually trying to "hide" the fact that they abandoned the property. A bank/lender cannot "secure" the property if you are living there or if it "looks" like it's lived in (in Georgia, by law).

2) If I do receive a modification offer from my bank, how long do I have to approve it, reject it, or negotiate the terms before they foreclose? Since the foreclosure auction is currently scheduled for November 3rd, what's the latest date that they can send me an offer at this point?

The bank will tell you what the offer date is. Please bear in mind, that the lender controls the show. They can cancel/reschedule the foreclosure date whenever they want to! They don't even have to foreclose.

3) I'm hoping to stay in the house until the first of the year, if possible. Would it make sense to request a short sale at this point, so I can postpone the foreclosure on November 3rd? I don't want to keep the house long-term unless the bank agrees to a serious principal reduction (which I doubt).

Requesting a short sale won't postpone a foreclosure. I don't think you even have it on the market, and if you did have it on the market, they may offer a deed-in-lieu of.

What's your real end game? Do you want this place? Are you just trying to prolong the foreclosure? What's the real issue?

[bigdogfire42]

We are in the same boat. Bank of America has rescheduled the auction every 20 days for the last 6 months!!! Tried to work with them over a year ago to avoid this and they can not keep track of paper work or talk to the same person ever. Trying to cut through the call centers as they seem to be the barrier to getting anything done. Trying to do a Died and Lieu and get caught in the chicken before the egg bit, nice play on their part for setting up a shadow system that appears to be helpful to Washinghton DC and follows the "Help for Home Owners", but in realty is severly broke! I am waiting for some civil lawsuit to get started as anyone who has dealt with them has the same experience with Bank of America. Yes you can call and speak to someone, but that is all they are capable of. They lose your paper work not once, but always and make you start over at square one. Never can speak to the same person. They will not give you there last name, extension and will not provide written policies to you on their processes. If it was just me then I will accept the blame, but there of thousands of properties that Bank of America took on knowningly when they acquired Countrywide and are leaving us hanging in the wind so they will not have to show massive losses. Once they put it to auction they will have to show those losses on their books. Please contact me at [email protected] if you have any success with working with Bank of America need know your secret of getting a loan mod, forelcosure finalized or deed in lieu.

[SweetGeorgia]

I don't know if I'm the one justbroke is talking about, but the bank did change the locks on our house before foreclosure in GA. But that situation was so very weird in so many ways - and the house was unoccupied, though not abandoned - that I don't think you need to worry about it. (Oddly enough, we'd filed an eviction on that tenant already. So it would have been illegal for us to change the locks!)

Still, I thought I might be able to help a little. I looked up one foreclosed house in our neighborhood. The dispossessory (eviction) was filed about 3 weeks after the foreclosure date. There's some time for a response, etc. but eviction is pretty quick in Georgia. I don't know if they're all like that; you might have a lot more time, but be prepared in case you don't.