If you are facing foreclosure, or you are getting behind on your payments, attorneys from Stanley & Associates are ready to meet with you for free to discuss your many options. 

 

Contact us for a free consultation on foreclosure options:  Gregory@Stanley-Law.Com. 

 

 In Alabama we have Non-Judicial Foreclosures and Judicial Foreclosures.

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Non-Judicial Foreclosure:

For almost all consensual property liens (mortgages) there is no necessity to go to court to foreclose. If a borrower falls behind on their house (mortgage) payments, the lender will begin the foreclosure process. This process has many steps and requirements and if any step is missed or not performed properly the foreclosure will likely be deemed invalid. Further, the non-judicial foreclosure does not include a writ of possession for the property. The foreclosing lender’s attorney will likely send the homeowner a letter demanding possession, but there will be no sheriff to set the occupant out. Only after a Judicial proceeding called Ejectment, to which the homeowner is cordially invited to attend, is completed in Circuit Court, and the judge orders possession, and the court clerk issues a writ of possession, will a sheriff get involved. The county sheriff will arrange and notify the occupant of a “set out” date at which the occupants and their belongings will be set out by the street. Depending on what county in Alabama you are in, the sheriff may or may not provide labor (at a cost to the new owner) for the set out. The foreclosing lender loses interest at this time and if the foreclosure is challenged in court, the lender will be unresponsive.

 

This is because the foreclosing lender typically sells the foreclosed property at auction, with the former owner still in it, and the winner at the foreclosure auction must arrange to take lawful possession of the property relying on the validity of the foreclosure. Techniques such as cash for keys or ejectment are usually employed by the winning bidder’s attorney. Occupants are usually not interested in cash for keys until the ejectment court date approaches. Some former owners have delayed and stayed in their homes as long as two years after the foreclosure, however Stanley & Associates, LLC probably would not advise this because Jefferson County courts have awarded our clients as much as $40,000 in back rent. Only after the occupant received the notice from the Sheriff of the set-out date did that occupant move and give our client the keys.

 

Judicial Foreclosure:

Judicial Foreclosure is required in Alabama for all Tax Lien Certificates, for certain older mortgages, and all mortgages without the arcane and specific verbiage our laws require for non-judicial foreclosure.

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Stanley & Associates has already filed Tax Lien Certificate Foreclosures in circuit courts from Baldwin to Lauderdale. These non-consensual lien foreclosures are an unprecedented action in light of Alabama's historically required years of adverse possession, and the law has already been amended twice since it was implemented.

 

Because these foreclosures appear fraught with peril for investors, it is paramount for the attorney handling these foreclosures to cover every possible condition and contingency to avoid a prolonged litigation and appeals process. Stanley and Associates, LLC is also available to defend these tax lien foreclosures.

 

Certain older Consensual Mortgages, and any Mortgages without the precise verbiage require judicial foreclosure.  If the mortgage was not written with particular words and terms of art, or it was not signed by the borrower and properly notarized and recorded in the county land records, a non-judicial foreclosure is ineffective. These matters are of particular importance to investors because they are subject to buying a bank’s foreclosure deed, without a warranty deed, that was performed by a foreclosure mill.

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