Top 5 myths about being served with a foreclosure complaint

Submitted by New Jersey Foreclosure Attorney, Lee M. Perlman

1. If I ignore the foreclosure complaint it will go away

WRONG, in most cases you want to accept service of the complaint and decide if a reply or a formal answer makes sense. You have 35 days to file a written answer with the court. You do not ignore medical symptoms before you call your doctor!

2. I will wait until I have to go to court and talk to the Judge myself, he or she knows everyone hates mortgage companies

WRONG, while talking things out usually makes sense in the real world, in court you can and will lose rights if you fail to respond to court papers or pleadings that have set deadlines. Pleading your case in person looks good in the movies but it does not work that way in real life. An attorney is in the best position to review and evaluate the complaint with you.

3. I am working on loan modification so the mortgage company cannot put me in foreclosure

MAYBE. This depends on the how the modification is being processed and what stage the modification is at. There sometimes are defenses an attorney can raise on your behalf. For instance, servicers cannot start a foreclosure proceeding if a borrower has already submitted a complete application for a loan modification and the application is still pending review. This is called dual tracking.

4. I have called the mortgage company so many times to explain my issues and they still filed this foreclosure complaint

Mortgage companies can be bad record keepers and staying in touch does not mean the mortgage company won’t refer this to their legal department. This is not uncommon, if you have made your payments and they are not being credited properly or your payment changed without a mortgage company explanation, there could be defenses in connection with your answer

5. I cannot afford my house, why bother my credit is already shot

Not necessarily. You may have other options to remediate your credit like a short sale or deed in lieu of foreclosure. Additionally, there could be options for disputes under the FCRA, The Fair Credit Reporting Act, if information by your mortgage company is being reported wrongly or inaccurately by the credit bureaus.