Foreclosure is the means that a bank has a legal right to take possession of a property if the mortgagor (owner) has failed to live up to the commitments as outlined in the mortgage agreement. Usually a missed payment will trigger this process.

Foreclosure in itself is pretty straight forward. The process doesn’t start until after the bank has failed to receive payment and has filed suit to foreclose. In Florida the legal term is Lis Pendens. Lis Pendens is the formal notice that starts the legal process. (Note: In Florida formal notice could mean a notice published in a newspaper-it doesn’t have to be actually served or given to the mortgagor in person.)

Once a Lis Pendens is filed, the mortgagor is required to appear in court to answer to the allegations in the suit. At this point, the mortgagor can ask the judge for an extension to buy time. Nowadays the extensions are being granted regularly. If the mortgagor didn’t respond to the suit at the initial hearing, a judgment against the mortgagor will be found and another date is set for a ‘foreclosure sale’ or auction of the property, typically 30 days after the judgment.

Florida laws allow the homeowner to redeem the property at any time before the auction date. This is known as the ‘Redemption Period’. After a certificate of sale is issued, the right to redemption is lost and the homeowner in effect no longer owns the property.

The entire process from the time the mortgagor missed the first payment to the time the property is actually sold at auction typically is 180 days. It is has been taking longer because the mortgage companies have been back logged from the recent rash of foreclosures. The timeline can be extended considerably by asking the court for extensions.

Noel Padilla