Foreclosure can mean the loss of a home or business, and a foreclosure defense attorney in Louisville, KY can stand at your side and help you fight back if you’re being threatened. While the precise details will depend on your unique situation, the following are some strategies that often work in challenging foreclosures.
From a Foreclosure Defense Attorney: 5 Strategies for Successfully Challenging a Foreclosure in Louisville, KY
Try for a Temporary Restraining Order
If you’re facing a non-judicial foreclosure, talk to your lawyer about filing for a TRO. If you’re able to convince the court that losing your property would cause you irreparable harm, it’s likely you’ll be able to get a TRO to stop the process until you’re able to get a court hearing. At the hearing, you will ask for a preliminary injunction.
Ask for a Preliminary Injunction
The preliminary injunction involves the court reviewing all the documentation related to the foreclosure, and your lawyer will defend you here to prove that the lender is violating either the specifics of your agreement, Kentucky law, or federal law. Again, a preliminary injunction is a temporary measure. It puts everything on hold until you can have a full trial, but it lasts longer than a TRO and means that a judge has looked over your paperwork and believes that it’s reasonable to say you have a case worth hearing.
The court has to decide whether it’s likely that you’ll win at trial, so if a preliminary injunction is issued, this is usually an excellent indication of the strength of your case. If you do get a preliminary injunction, it’s common for lenders to then try to settle with you to avoid having to go to trial. They may also give up their foreclosure attempt and start the whole process over. But if they don’t, then the process goes to trial, where you will need to prove that you should not lose the property.
Declare Bankruptcy
Bankruptcy must always be entered into carefully, but it is an option for stopping a foreclosure. If you declare Chapter 13 bankruptcy, then you have 3 to 5 years to catch up with your payments, and the lender is not allowed to proceed with the foreclosure process.
Try for a Loan Modification
It’s always worth at least asking your lender if they would be willing to modify your loan in some way. There are no guarantees here, but if the lender would rather continue to receive payments from you than have to deal with the property, they may be willing to agree. A lawyer can help you make a good case for this.
Sell
If you have equity in the property, selling it outright could let you pay off the rest of the loan and still have enough to find another, smaller property.
There are other options, but the right one for you will depend on your circumstances. To learn more about what’s best to avoid foreclosure on your property, reach out to us now at the Winton & Hiestand Law Group PLLC in Louisville, KY. We take pride in fighting hard for the “little guy” against the bullying tactics of big lenders and insurers.
