Sunday, 15 June 2008

Foreclosure Defined

By James M. Crosswell

A foreclosure agreement is a type of a loan agreement where the borrower agrees to provide a property, namely his home as a security in case he is unable to pay up the loan amount of the lender in time. The terms and conditions of the loan are stated in the deed of the trust and the lender as well as the borrower is liable to agree and follow all the points in the deed. Even in case the borrower fails to pay the amount of promissory note to the lender, he is liable for foreclosure.

Normally the mortgage holder may give some time to the borrower so that he can pay the loan amount. However if the mortgagor feels that the borrower will not be able to pay the pending amount he may begin the foreclosure procedure. The foreclosure may happen through a judicial proceeding or through the normal power of sale. The mortgaged property is sold after the court proceedings in the case of foreclosure by judicial proceedings.

The proceeds are first used to cover the mortgage, followed by the other lien holders and finally the mortgagor in the end.

The mortgage holder will initiate the proceedings on his own without any court formalities in the case of foreclosure by power of sale. This saves a lot of time, effort and formalities and the proceeds can be released quickly. The mortgage holder has the first right over the sale proceeds followed by the lien holders. If there any proceeds left, they are taken up by the mortgagor.

Though the major types of foreclosures are mentioned above, there are some minor types of foreclosures also that are still followed in several countries. As the name suggests, these minor types of foreclosures have very limited and specific scope. Take the example of strict foreclosures where the court orders the mortgagor to pay the amount within a specified time to the lender. If the mortgagor is not able to pay the specified amount f time then he is liable to give the property to the mortgage holder. Minor foreclosures like strict foreclosure have lost their significance in recent times.

In every foreclosure there is an understood acceleration clause that entitles the lender to claim any unpaid amount from the borrower after a specific period of time. It is by applying the acceleration clause that the lender can put pressure on the borrower to pay up.

Today all foreclosures have an acceleration clause. However the acceleration clause is not imposed in the act. The foreclosure process does take a lot of time. However, today many people use websites to solve the case instead of engaging the judiciary to solve the case. In the last few years there have been a lot of cases of foreclosure in the United States alone.

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