Month 1 - Month 3: Notice of Default
After three missed mortgage payments, the foreclosure process starts and action begins. The sheriff or a process server will serve you the foreclosure complaint by handing you a someone else living in the house over the age of 13, a copy of the foreclosure complaint and summons. If the sheriff cannot locate you or anyone else in the house, the bank will post a notice in the newspaper, this is called service by publication.
Month 3 - Month 5: Reinstatement Period
You have 90 days after you receive the foreclosure complaint to reinstate your mortgage. This right of reinstatement means that you are allowed to repay all the missed mortgage payments, plus all costs and fees. If you can do this, once payment is made the foreclosure case against you is supposed to be dismissed, in many cases the bank fails to dismiss the case.
If not, you will receive a notice of motion for default judgment advising you of the court date. If the bank frustrates your ability to reinstate by refusing to provide accurate reinstatement amounts, or fails to respond to your request to reinstate this is another possible cause of action that can be raised against the bank in the foreclosure action, and comes with possible damages against the bank.
Month 5 to Month 6: Default Judgment
On the day of court you may be given more time to hire a lawyer or time to answer or otherwise plead.* Failure to answer or otherwise plead, or failure to show on the day of court, could result in a foreclosure judgment and order for sale entered against you. From the date the foreclosure judgment is entered, your redemption period begins. *Be advised do not file documents without the help of an attorney knowledgeable in foreclosure defense law, specifically securitization of mortgages. At all costs avoid the Cook County Chancery help desk at the Daley Center. The Chancery Help desk pushes borrowers to file answers to the foreclosure complaint resulting in borrowers waiving valid defenses and counterclaims that could very well overturn the foreclosure case. Redemption period gives you time to pay off the total mortgage plus all court costs, bank's attorney fees costs and taxes. Your redemption period ends the latter of anyone of the following:
- Seven months after you are served the foreclosure complaint, if you are living in the home;
- Six months after you are served the foreclosure complaint, if you are not living in the home;
- Three months after the judgment of foreclosure is entered against you,
Month 7 to Month 8: Sheriff Sale
Before the foreclosure sale of your property takes place, the mortgage company must:
- Publish a notice of sale in a widely read, local newspaper.
- Notice of the sale date must be sent to Borrower
- The notice must be in the real estate section and should appear at least three weeks in a row.
- Check if you qualify for a loan modification under the federal government's Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP).**
** A sale cannot be conducted if there is a pending HAMP modification.
Month 8 - Month 10: Confirmation of Sale, Deficiency, and Order of Possession
Plaintiff Bank motions the court to finalize and approve the sheriff sale, enter a deficiency judgment against the borrower and take possession of the property. The court will usually grant the bank's motion to confirm the foreclosure sale finalizing the foreclosure process and recently enter deficiencies against the borrowers. The deficiency judgment lasts for 10 years, and is renewable for another 10 years for a total of 20 years. Unless you challenge the underlying judgment with cause, (which EV Has, LLC has done successfully), and/or prove one of the following:
- Notice of the sale was not proper
- The terms of sale were unreasonable
- The sale was conducted fraudulently
- The lender violated HAMP requirements
If the sale is confirmed an order of possession is granted to the bank, giving the bank authorization to send the Sheriff to evict the borrower from the home.
Month 10 to Month 11: Special Right to Redeem
If the successful bidder at the sheriff sale is the lender (no third party lender); and the lender bids an amount less than what is owed, borrower gets an additional 30 days beyond confirmation of sale to redeem the property at the amount sold in the sheriff sale. Beware of the deficiencies. If there is a deficiency, the lender could refuse insisting that the deficiency be satisfied in addition to the sheriff sale amount.
Month 10 - Month 11: Eviction / Sheriff shows up
The mortgage company will then pass along the order of possession to the Sheriff who will then show up the door and post an eviction notice on the front of the door, and within a few days return to forcibly remove you from the house. After You Have Left the Property The foreclosure deed, a written document of foreclosure, becomes public record DISCLAIMER: The above time periods regarding the foreclosure process are purely estimates based on experience and statutory rules of the Illinois Mortgage Foreclosure Act. In some cases the definition of a commercial property is not clear cut and may create sufficient question of fact that will prevent furtherance of the mortgage foreclosure.