How to stop an Alabama foreclosure on your home without filing bankruptcy

Stop your Alabama foreclosure

You are in the right place if you are looking for how to stop your Alabama foreclosure without filing bankruptcy

You are here because you have an actual foreclosure date scheduled for your home in Alabama.  This is known as a “foreclosure crisis” and you are wondering if there is any way to stop it without filing bankruptcy.

[Update — we have a new article that goes over 5 specific steps you can take to stop a foreclosure without a bankruptcy.  Feel free to click the link if you are interested.]

The answer is yes there normally is a way to stop the foreclosure sale even without bankruptcy.  I want to congratulate you on looking into your options as you are facing one of the biggest legal challenges ever — possibly losing your home to a foreclosure sale.  So you are smart to figure out your options wherever you live in Alabama as we help homeowners all over the State of Alabama save their homes.

You want to save your home so you do not face these types of consequences:

• Foreclosure on your record
• Being kicked out of your home
• Being forced to move before you are ready
• Having to change schools for your children
• Explaining to friends, neighbors and family why you must leave
• Potentially being sued for money still owed on the mortgage loan after the foreclosure

(You may know right now you would like to talk to us at no charge to see what your best option is — if so click the red button below or call us at 205-879-2447 and ask for Randi).

Help me stop my foreclosure now!

Let me be brutally honest with you . . . .

Time is your enemy — you must act quickly

Your foreclosure sale date is soon or you wouldn’t be here.  How much time do you have?

A week?

Two weeks?

Maybe 30 days if you are lucky?

Regardless — your sale date should be circled on your calendar.  You must get that foreclosure stopped or you will lose your home.  It is natural to ask ourselves, “How did we get in this position?”

You are in this difficult position because . . . .

Maybe you faced a medical crisis or loss of income.

Or a divorce turned your world upside down.

These are realities in our world.

So you faced that or some other crisis and you thought one of these natural thoughts:

• “I don’t know what to do so I’ve done nothing.”  The good news is we can help you go through your options so you can figure out what to do right now.

• “I think I’ll get more time to fix this.”  Nope — time is up.  Remember that foreclosure date.

• “I’ll just reinstate my mortgage but they are adding bogus fees that I can’t afford or they won’t give me a real number.”  This is very common and often violates the law.  Regardless, you must stop the foreclosure somehow before that date arrives.

There are some who say “Yes that is true but I’m not worried because God will never let me lose my home.”  If this describes you, please read the next section otherwise skip down over this next section.

Some say “I believe in God so I don’t have to do anything” — is this accurate Bible thinking?

Let me be clear, I believe strongly in God and providence.  But does this belief mean I don’t have to do anything?

Here’s the old joke:

• A major flood happens in your town
• Woman prays for help from God
• Truck comes by with rescue workers, “Get in!”
• Woman says, “Nope — I’m waiting on God to save me.”
• Waters rise
• Woman is on second floor of house and a rescue boat comes by offering to help
• Woman says, “No thanks I know God will save me.”
• Now waters are to the roof and the woman is crouched on the one dry part of the roof
• Helicopter comes by offering to save her
• Woman says “No, I’ve prayed to God.”
• Woman dies
• She gets to Heaven and is upset that God did not save her as she prayed and prayed and believed in God
• God says, “I sent a truck, a boat and a helicopter — what more could I have done?”

Is this just a joke or is it accurate?

Well, we are to thank God for our food, right?  Matthew 6:11 (Lord’s Prayer).

So we don’t have to work (assuming we are able)?  Nope — we must work.  And be thankful to God for our food and other necessities.

2 Thessalonians 3:10 says, “For even when we were with you, we would give you this command: If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat.”

Bottom line, if someone believes they don’t have to do anything, then we can’t help those folks.

I hope the above is helpful to remind you that we need to work, and work hard, to accomplish what we need.  Every opportunity that comes our way, every resource, and all of our intelligence — these are gifts from God.

So let’s use those gifts and thank Him for those blessings.   That is entirely consistent with believing in and being thankful to God.

I know you have tried to work this out and it is frustrating when your mortgage company tells you “No we will still foreclose”

Very few folks facing foreclosure have done nothing so I’m confident that you have tried to work this out and have been told “No” by the foreclosure lawyer or the mortgage company.

Or you have been passed back and forth like a ping-pong ball with something like this:

Foreclosure lawyer:  I can’t help you.  You need to contact the mortgage company, as I can’t make any decision on stopping the foreclosure.

Mortgage company:  We can’t help you — you must get with the foreclosure lawyer as it is out of our hands.  Only the foreclosure lawyer can stop the foreclosure.

Foreclosure lawyer:  The mortgage company told you to call us back?  I don’t think they would do that, as we can’t help you.  You need to contact the mortgage company as I can’t make any decision on stopping the foreclosure.  You must have misunderstood so call them back and go through your whole story again and I’m sure they will help you.  Don’t call us again as we can’t help you.

Mortgage company:  We can’t help you — you must get with the foreclosure lawyer as it is out of our hands.  Only the foreclosure lawyer can stop the foreclosure.  Oh, the foreclosure firm told you to call us?  No, they wouldn’t do that.  You need to talk to the foreclosure lawfirm.  Call them back — don’t call us again.

Repeat until you are ready to bang your head into a wall!

Or you were told to fill out a loss mitigation (loan modification) package and send it in.  So you did that.

And your mortgage company says they never received it.  But they did.

Or they claim they are missing documents that you know you sent.  So you send them.

Over and over again.

Your mortgage company finally tells you that you are denied because it is now too close to your foreclosure date but you have been sending in documents and paperwork for weeks now.

Incredibly frustrating that your mortgage company plays games with your home.

And so you find yourself facing judgment day when your home will be sold and you will lose your place to live.  What can you do now?

Let’s go through your four options . . . .

Here are your four (4) possible options if you want to avoid a foreclosure

First, you can do it yourself.

This is probably what you have been doing so you can continue to do this.  We have some resources that may help you if you decide to continue to do this on your own.  www.ForeclosureDVD.com and www.RESPAVideo.com.  You must be quick, smart, and understand your legal rights to do this on your own.  And you must have — no exceptions — lots of persistence and a willingness to work hard.  Every day till you get the foreclosure stopped.

Second, you can hire an out of state supposed lawfirm or some scam loan modification company who promises you they can stop the foreclosure by magically doing a “loan audit” or because of their “special relationships” with the bank or the government.

Here’s the deal — run from those places.  They will tell you to not talk to your mortgage company anymore.  Don’t open your mail.  Only send money to the out of state lawfirm which is not licensed in Alabama or the bogus loan modification company.

You may have already been burned by one of these outfits — if not, then be very careful as the almost certain result is you will lose your money and the place that is taking your money will be gone when you need them.  There are no magical solutions or special relationships with the mortgage companies or government and a loan audit is worthless — these are a joke in the industry and have been for many years.

Third, you can file bankruptcy.

Normally a chapter 13 bankruptcy if you want to save your home.  Make sure you qualify and that it will actually stop the foreclosure under the new bankruptcy rules.  Once you know that, if you are willing to pay the legal fee, court costs, and the long term cost of having a bankruptcy on your record, then this can be a good option.

Just remember you must pay your current mortgage payment and you will be paying on the back amounts so make sure you can do this long term — otherwise you are simply rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.  Its a heavy long-term price to pay to buy a little bit of time before you get foreclosed.  So only go this route if it is in your long term best interest.  And we suggest you read this article on your five (5) options to stop a foreclosure without bankruptcy.

Fourth, you can talk with us about using state and federal laws to stop the foreclosure.

We can help you discover whether using Alabama and federal law can help stop your foreclosure.  We can explain this to you as we understand the options under Alabama law such as reinstatement, has the foreclosure been properly advertised, did you receive the required letters, etc.  You can sue to even have your defenses heard before the foreclosure.  So a judge actually looks at the situation instead of the foreclosure happening with no judge involved.

And we understand and teach lawyers in Alabama and elsewhere the much more powerful options that we get from the federal laws of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) and Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA).

Here’s the short version.

The FDCPA normally covers the foreclosure lawyer (who is often a debt collector under the law) and your mortgage company who likewise is normally considered a debt collector.  You may have noticed when you call they say “This is an attempt to collect a debt” or you will see that language at the bottom of the mortgage company letters.  This powerful law, when used effectively, can be a wonderful motivator for the foreclosure lawyer and your mortgage company to stop the foreclosure.  It allows you to sue if your mortgage company has lied or been unfair to you — for example lying about getting your loan modification documents, lying about cancelling the foreclosure, etc.

And RESPA is a law that was recently strengthened to give you a great number of tools to stop a foreclosure.  Mortgage companies often violate the “dual tracking” law that says, in essence, “Don’t foreclose if you are evaluating me for a loan modification.”

And you can send letters called “Notice of Error” and “Request for Information” that many mortgage companies are still not prepared to respond to properly which gives you options, including suing the company in federal court for money damages.  We can explain these letters and how we use these when we talk by phone.

Can we promise our clients their foreclosure will be stopped?  Absolutely not.

If we did, you should run.  But we don’t — we are confident that any client we accept we can have a good shot at stopping the foreclosure.  Through hard work, constant communication with your mortgage company, and knowledge of the laws, we know who we can help.

Is that you?

I don’t know until we know your unique situation.

As a matter of fact, I don’t know which option is best for you until we talk.  (Well, I do know option two is horrible so never do that one).

Maybe doing it on your own (option one) is best — I have certainly advised this.

I have sent folks to bankruptcy lawyers (option three) to stop the foreclosure that way.

And we have helped many people stop their foreclosure (option four) so they can stay in their home or leave under their own terms.

“But how much is this going to cost to talk?”  

There is no cost to talk with us

We do this as we only want people to hire us and spend money with us if we are confident we can help. We simply don’t know this until we talk to you.

You can pick up the phone and call us at 205-879-2447 and ask for Randi.  She is our paralegal who helps us with foreclosure crisis cases just like yours.  You will have a short phone consultation so no need to get into your car, drive to one of our offices, park, come in, etc.  There is simply no need and you don’t have time to waste.  (Now if you do have time and want to, we are happy to meet you in person).

We almost always do your consultation by phone or video chat.

Have this critical information available:

1. Date of the foreclosure
2. Name of your mortgage company
3. Name of the foreclosure attorney
4. How far do they claim you are behind (dollars and in months — for example, $9000 which is 6 months at $1500 per month)
5. Have you filed for any type of bankruptcy in the last 7 years
6. Have you applied for loss mitigation or a loan modification — if so, when and what was result
7. How much money do you have set aside to catch up on your house payment
8. Your recent mortgage statements

You can also click on the box below to contact us through the website and we will be right back in touch with you.

I know you know this — but as a friendly reminder, you are in a difficult position and it will take hard work and speed to get out of this hole.  So don’t delay — instead call us at 205-879-2447 now.

What should you do right now?

Reach out to us — either call us at 205-879-2447 and ask for Randi or you can click on the red box that says “Help me stop my foreclosure now!” that is below.

Help me stop my foreclosure now!

We will get right back with you to help you go through your options.  Without talking with you, we don’t know your best option but by talking with you we can help you quickly discover for yourself the best route for you to take.

Look forward to talking with you soon.

John G. Watts