Psychologists have long referred to people’s response to a fear-inducing stimulus as “fight or flight.” When the frightening stimulus is a notice of mortgage foreclosure, flight seems like the less futile response. If your choices are to abandon your home or dig in your heels and wait until the lender spends a tiny fraction of its immense resources to kick you out, why not just leave now and go somewhere far enough away that you do not have to see or hear the fallout? This strategy can backfire.
If you have never seen a movie about people who try to run away from a zombie apocalypse, only for the undead to find them in their remote hideout well before the ending credits roll, you can find multiple examples of these movies on any streaming platform at this time of year. Everyone knows that zombies of the kind that you see in horror movies are not real, but undead home mortgages are. If you abandon your property, a completed foreclosure case will obliterate your mortgage debt along with your homeownership, but its transformation into a zombie mortgage will not. If your debt problems are getting so bad that you are struggling to pay your home mortgage, contact an Oakland lawsuits, collections, and creditor harassment lawyer.
Here Come the Undead Foreclosure Cases
How do home mortgage loans become zombies? A foreclosure case begins when the lender sends the homeowner a foreclosure notice, announcing that the homeowner has defaulted on the mortgage and that the lender is initiating foreclosure proceedings. At this stage, the homeowner can stop the foreclosure by negotiating to formulate a new plan for repaying the mortgage, with or without the involvement of the court. If this does not work, or if the homeowner does not respond, the court can declare the bank the legal owner of the house and order its sale at auction. The homeowner loses the house, but at least he or she is no longer on the hook for the remaining balance of the mortgage loan.
Zombie mortgages happen when the lender sends a foreclosure notice to the homeowner but then does not follow through with foreclosure proceedings. The homeowner abandons the property and stops making payments, but the mortgage debt continues to accrue. The lender might even sell the mortgage to another creditor, such as a collection agency.
Face Your Fears Instead of Letting the Problem Morph Into Something Worse
If a zombie mortgage has caught up to you, you should contact a debt relief lawyer to help you address it. An even better solution, though, is to contact a debt relief lawyer sooner to stop your mortgage from turning into a zombie. Your lawyer may be able to help you negotiate so that you can keep your house or, if this is not possible, can help you execute a deed in lieu of foreclosure.
Contact the Law Office of Melanie Tavare About Protecting Yourself From Zombie Debt
A debt relief lawyer can help you before your debt problems turn into zombie debts that sneak up on you when you least suspect it. Contact the Law Office of Melanie Tavare in Oakland, California, or call (510)255-4646 for a case evaluation.
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