ON Canada - most lenders provide a one time skip a payment especially when your payments are in time. Speak with a TD representative to avail of this program. They may even offer you other services to help you on your current issues as a stop gap solution.

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Ok....so my mom (she's 72) filed bankruptcy protection 7 months ago as she has a retirement income and only one house....so now an attorney for the bank that holds a small mortgage on the property has filed a motion to "lift the stay" on the house so the bank can immediately foreclose on the property. but....she has never failed to pay the monthly mortgage payment or been late on it. even after she filed for protection. so....how can i help her? should she file a answer to their motion right away to the judge? her bankruptcy attorney is busy or wont help. i'm trying to get her to find a new attorney...but for right now, what should she do? how do these things play out?? i've had a hard time understanding how a bank can expect to foreclose on someone who's paid their mortgage? will the judge take them seriously when they're dealing in speculation (what might happen) and not absolutes?? thanks for any help!! not sure if any of the covenants of the mortgage have been violated...what's an example of that type of violation? all i know is that she's paid every month on time.

go to google and put in something like "free legal advice" or something. I did a search like that and found a website where you could put in a question and a lawyer would answer it for free within a day or two. I think you would get good advice there. A covenant of the mortgage would be like not moving out and renting it to a 3rd party, not doing something illegal on the premises like a meth lab, not destroying the house like knocking down walls or breaking out windows, keeping any necessary repairs current, not violating local zoning laws.

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My mother passed away here in indiana in march of this year. (god bless her soul, she was a special-needs teacher her whole life and touched so many lives, mine especially) she had no insurance. we paid her medical bills from her heroic fight against breast cancer, but cannot pay off her mortgage. the house is worth 100k, and a second mortgage is currently on the home. my sister and i have let my brother move into the home as he lost his job, and did not have a place his children could come and stay with him (wife left him). he has been making the $350 per month mortgage payment since march, and paying the utilities. i have a grave concern, in that he reported to me the mortgage-holder came to the house and left a message for him to call them (he was named the executor of my mother's estate). in her will she gave everything to us equally... however, we were not on the title/ deed to the house, or on the second mortgage. the mortgage did not have an assumption provision, i know that, but it may have had a "due on death clause"... i cannot get a straight answer from my brother on that. 1. can the bank foreclose on the property if the payments are made, as well as all taxes and insurance? 2. if something were to happen to the house, like a tornado destroyed it, would the insurance company be able to deny the claim because the policy holder is dead? (this worries me even if they cannot foreclose) 3. my brother told me that the estate was closed in july. in indiana, i thought all of the debts had to be paid before that could happen. could he be telling the truth? how could the court have missed the second mortgage on the house? thank you so much in advance and god bless you.

First, speak to a lawyer. It's important to know the laws specific to your state, and some of your questions are specific legal questions. In my experience, banks never foreclosure when the mortgage is being paid on time. It just doesn't happen. But, do NOT ignore their attempts to contact you. Return their calls and work with them. They don't want another foreclosure on their books, but if they don't hear from you, they will take action. Do give the insurance company a call. You may have to update the policy with your names, but it shouldn't be a problem. Best of luck to your family.

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We have a mortgage with chase, which we've missed 7 payments on. we've had a lawyer work with the bank the entire time and she's told us the entire time "just stop making payments and don't worry. as long as they're reviewing your application, they can't foreclose your home" we got a confirmation letter from chase in early december 2009 stating that our case is being reviewed under the making home affordable program (mha). we haven't received any instructions for trial payments yet so we haven't made any payments. yesterday, they slapped a "notice of sale" on our front-door with a foreclosure auction date set for less than a month from now. my wife and i are extremely worried. any advice would be most appreciated! are they legally allowed to do this? exactly what could be going on here? thanks a bunch!

They've called your bluff. Your strategy was sound, but not without risk. If your lawyer really told you that they could not foreclose, well, let's just say that it is unlikely a real lawyer would say that. But you should continue to stay the course. Unfortunately, in order to make it out of the grim situations of many mortgagors, you need a big set of balls. The law is not on your side, but the practical realities of this economy favor people who are willing to take some risk. If you can't get on the same page as your lawyer, you should find a new one, but don't back down. Take some of those house payments and invest in a little liquid courage. I recommend Maker's Mark bourbon.

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This month will be my 3rd month i missed mortgage payment. what's next? should i let my tenants know the bank will take over the house ? i got bills for sewer,water, garbage and property tax, am i responsible for it or the bank does? when should i cut off my property insurance? thanks for your help.

In my state, if you have been advised by the mortgage holder that foreclosure process is commencing, the property owner is required by law to notify tenants of the foreclosure action. Some of the states require the mortgage holder to notify each tenant that the property is being foreclosed upon, when the foreclosure sale is scheduled to be held, and how their tenancy will be handled if the foreclosure is completed. If the rents are current, any utilities which are included in the rent must be paid or the full utilities charged to the unit must be returned to the tenant. Not to do so is a chargeable offense. Don't cut your property insurance until after the foreclosure sale. You are liable right up to the last minute. Sorry for your troubles!

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Handed over the house, completely hers and she will not take my name off the mortgage. can i force her to sell, can i stop paying the mortgage and let the bank take the house from her? there is a fair bit of equity in the house so the bank will get all of their money if they foreclose. and how many payments do i have to miss before they actually foreclose on the property? we are in ontario, canada. my lawyer was crap!

move back in and drive her nuts.

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I'm in a situation where i cannot afford any costly repairs or vacancy on my rental property. i receive $1300/mo. rent, and monthly costs are $1400. i'm $70k upside down. i'm current on all of my bills and have not missed any payments. i've invested $40k into the property, which is lost at this point. i know that a foreclosure affects my credit more than a short sale. either way you will still get a 1099c and have to pay taxes on the difference in sale price vs what you owed. here's my question. if your credit is screwed either way, and foreclosure home owners have been living rent free in their homes until they get kicked out...why can't i stop paying my mortgage and keep all of the rent money until i lose the home? if it takes a year for foreclosure, then i can bank $15600 to pay towards the 1099c and any other costs and recoup some of my money. if i do a short sale, then i have no extra money to pay the 1099c and i'll be losing every month it takes to sell. tell me why i should not foreclose, stop paying, and keep the rent money as long as i can. don't tell me my credit won't be hurt as bad, because my bank account will be hurt bad if i go the short sale route. i don't care about some silly number that they give me. my credit will bounce back. if you agree or disagree, or if you have actually done this, please post . i would like to hear your opinion. thank you. **let me add that i used to think that i agreed to pay and i should be responsible just like everyone else. the fact is that the government allowed banks to be greedy and lend to anyone and that is why people have upside down mortgages. all of the people that have good credit and make their payments get screwed royally. it turned into a bad investment and corporations go bankrupt all the time and cut their losses. foreclosure is legal. so don't give me that lame ethical excuse, if you do, you are a fool! open your eyes. **also, my personal life situation has changed and that is why keeping the property is bankrupting me. try having your wife lose her job and have to go back to school full time. it's really tough for people, so don't question my ethics. i'm taking care of me and my family first. **maybe i can make another note: i am not eligible refinance my property because my loan is more than 125% of the value. i'm upside down by about $60k which means that i'll probably owe 25% taxes on that which is $15k. i see it as a stop loss rather than i'm pocketing $15k. i lose in the end, it's just how bad do i want to lose? i could short sell and keep losing $100/mo and hope i don't need repair or have vacancy and still owe $15k at tax time. or i can stop losing $100/mo now and possibly have the money to pay the taxes. i think the answer is obvious, but i have not seen a reason otherwise by intelligent posters. come on peeps, think about this one and give me a good answer.

Randomguy: While not paying your mortgage and pocketing the money until the foreclosure sale may have some appeal, you have to be careful. We are all hearing stories about people living in their homes for months or years without paying their mortgages and suffering not adverse consequences. In addition, the "robo-signing" problems facing lenders is causing many lender to slow down their foreclosure processes as well. Still, many people are losing their homes through foreclosure sales. In addition, Michigan is a mortgage recourse state which means that the lender can come after you personally for the difference between your loan and the price at which the house is sold at foreclosure. I understand that this deficiency judgment is fairly easy to obtain in Michigan. This could mean a lawsuit against you personally in order to collect the deficiency. Assuming your finances are fine otherwise (if they are not and bankruptcy could be in your future, you have options to restructure your mortgage on this investment property that would not be available to you if this were the mortgage on your primary residence and could consider bankruptcy), I would recommend negotiating a short sale with your lender. In your negotiations, you should be certain that the lender will not hold you responsible for any personal deficiency between the short sale price and what you owe on the mortgage. However, if the lender is not willing to waive your personal liability, the short sale will not provide any benefits over waiting out the foreclosure sale and you might as well let it run its course as you pocket the money.

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My daughter and her sons each rent apartments in our 3 family rental property in another state. because they are family, and we make nothing on the rents, we trust them to pay the bank directly, and rely on monthly mortgage statements or phone calls to alert us if they missed a payment which we promptly take care of. recently we noticed the mortgage statements had stopped prompting us to contact the account rep. to find out why. we were shocked to learn the mortgage was 5 months in arrears without our authorization, that the mortgage company changed the statement mailing address and phone numbers from ours to hers. the mortgage is 5 months in arrears ($35,000). they are now threatening us with foreclosure. we have no way of catching up on these payments. can the mortgage company be held responsible for 1.breaching confidentiality by making phone calls to my daughter and not to us 2.breaching confidentiality by changing the mortgage statement address from ours to hers 3.failing to notify us through mortgage statements and phone calls? appreciate your answer but that is not correct. if what you're saying is true, if you authorize someone to make regular payments into your bank account, it authorizes the bank to inform them of the balance. if what you're saying is true, if you authorize someone to make regular payments into your bank account, it authorizes the bank to inform them of the balance.

You're asking if a lender can be held legally accountable for discussing confidential information with an unauthorized party - the answer is unequivocally YES! If there are no documents on file authorizing the party(s) in question to access or make changes to your mortgage account you definitely have a legitimate cause for action. They have a fiduciary obligation to their customer, not the customer's tenant.

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The property im in is upside down 200k. ive tried to modify my loan and was unable to. i missed 3 mos. of mortgage payments and i plan to try and modify my loan within the next few months again. i was wondering how long it will take to either foreclose the property and kick me out. if there's something i could do to lower payments or options i may have. also the the bank said they wouldn't let me short sell it either.

Generally, it is 6 months from Notice Of Default to your eviction. Here is the bad news, if the lender will not allow a short sale, they do not see a hardship here to warrant the short sale. And they won't allow the loan modification either. If you are going through this simply because you are upside down in your mortgage, you may want to rethink what you are doing. If you have had a hardship that has effected your ability to pay your mortgage, you are going to have to produce the documentation to the satisfaction of the lender.

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I read the following nyt article in regard the housing slump. one part of the article, i did not understand. the author writes that millions of homeowners remain at risk of defaulting on their mortgages if they experience a payment shock because they owe more than their house is worth. can you explain how lower home value leads to a payment shock which leads to a default on a mortgage. assuming you have a fixed rate mortgage, whether the value of your home goes up or down, you still have the same monthly mortgage payment, right? so where is the payment shock coming from? thank you for your help. u.s. tackles housing slump the obama administration is ramping up talks on how to revive the housing market, which is weighing on the economic recovery—and possibly the president's re-election in 2012. last year, advisers considered several housing-policy prescriptions but rejected them in favor of letting the market sort things out. since then, weak demand and a stream of foreclosed properties have put renewed pressure on home prices, prompting concern within the white house. housing "hasn't bottomed out as quickly as we expected," president barack obama said at a white house town hall last week. mr. obama said housing remained the "most stubborn" problem facing the country and conceded that a raft of federal mortgage-aid programs were "not enough, and so we're going back to the drawing board." policy ideas include having taxpayer-owned mortgage giants fannie mae and freddie mac relax their rules for loans to investors, allowing those buyers to vacuum up excess housing inventory. in certain markets, fannie and freddie could hold some foreclosed homes off the market and rent them out to ease the property glut. officials also could sweeten incentives for banks to reduce loan balances for borrowers who are underwater, or owe more than their homes are worth. the white house is weighing ideas to strengthen the feeble housing market. pictured, emptying a foreclosed home in lawrenceville, ga., this year. discussions are in early stages, and there isn't consensus around particular ideas. a spokeswoman said the president and his advisers "are always looking at new ways" to strengthen the housing market but wouldn't disclose details. "while we continue to consider the options available to us, it would be inaccurate to say we are proposing any of these particular ideas at this time," white house spokeswoman amy brundage said. home-buyer tax credits worth up to $8,000 in 2009 and 2010 gave a short-term boost to home sales, but demand plunged after they expired. foreclosures have put pressure on prices and damped residential construction, traditionally an engine of job growth during economic expansions. "as conditions change, some options that were below the line the way the market was 18 months ago might be above the line today," said peter p. swire, who teaches law at ohio state university and until last year was a top housing adviser to the white house. most of the administration's housing efforts have focused on helping borrowers refinance or modify their loans to avoid foreclosure. but some economists say too many borrowers won't be saved through loan workouts and that the administration must do more to soak up the flood of foreclosures by boosting housing demand. view full image president obama's signature loan-modification program, announced during his first month in office, has lowered payments for around 600,000 borrowers. meanwhile, around four million borrowers are in foreclosure or have missed three or more consecutive mortgage payments. while mortgage-delinquency rates have fallen, millions more remain at risk of defaulting if they experience a payment shock because they owe more than their homes are worth. more recent housing relief has targeted unemployed borrowers. last week, officials said unemployed borrowers with loans backed by the federal housing administration could miss up to 12 months of payments while they look for new jobs. a separate $1 billion program is set to begin providing interest-free loans of up to $50,000 for temporarily jobless borrowers this month. unlikely to get congress to provide additional funds, the administration is left to examine options that it can implement without congressional consent. fannie and freddie, the so-called government-sponsored enterprises or gses, could be one policy lever. "there are a number of things that we can look at on the gse side," said austan goolsbee, departing chairman of the council of economic advisers. last year, officials considered a range of policies that included allowing borrowers with loans backed by fannie and freddie to refinance more easily by relaxing fees that lenders are charged for riskier borrowers. others outside the administration have pushed for fede

A couple of things: a) There are still millions of ARMs out there coming to maturity over the next couple of years. So a barely affordable payment on an 'upside down' piece of real-estate may no longer be affordable or practical when compared to walking away. b) Equity is the means by which people often measure their wealth and calculate the value of ownership vs. renting. If paying a mortgage for a property where there is no (or negative) equity exceeds the cost of renting, the decision to walk away becomes a valid option (from a purely selfish point of view). c) Often individuals will make sacrifices to keep their house (ownership) if they experience a bump in the road - layoff or reduced hours or medical emergency or similar. If they perceive that there is no residual or future value in such a sacrifice due to negative equity, they will again walk away rather than tough it out. Those are the three obvious reasons, anyway.

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My husband co signed for a house with a friend four years ago. he has never made payments or lived there. we have a family now and are looking at our home buying options for the future. i have done a lot of research and it appears the only two options for getting his name off of the mortgage are refinancing or selling the house. we have been contacting his friend for a year now to try and get this taken care of and his friend always has a reason why he can't do it. first, he was going to refinance but needed more time at his new job before the bank would let him refinance. the next time we talked, his aunt and her family had moved in and were renting to own. this last time we spoke, he was not going to refininance because he owes a lot more than the house is worth, and the tenants were not sure they were interested in buying it anymore. he said he was going to turn it into a rental property and get a rental property loan, and then he would be able to get my husbands name off of the mortgage. i haven't been able to find any information about this and am not sure if he is telling the truth? we were content on being patient because we understand the economy is financially tough on everyone right now and they were making payments on time, so it wasn't hurting his credit. we are now getting statements in the mail with late fees as last months payment was made 19 days late. i feel helpless to do anything. his friend controls the property and we can't force him to refinance, sell, or even make payments on time. we don't even live in the same state as the property. do we have any options other than beg his friend to refinance or sell? what can the bank do to us if they continue to miss or make late payments or have to foreclose? will it affect my credit since we are now married even if it's just under his name? co-signing was a huge mistake that i'm afraid is going to ruin us. i appreciate any and all advice!

NO, it will not affect YOUR credit. Credit files are separate even if married. If you and your husband have joint accounts, they have nothing to do with this house. Even in community property states husband and wives maintain separate credit profiles. However, it will affect your husband's credit and his alone. The mortgage has to be refinanced or sold to get his name off. If he is on title, he has rights. If he's not even on title, there is nothing you can do.