Five Potential Defenses Against Foreclosure in Ohio
As a homeowner, it is important to understand exactly what you’re facing if your bank is threatening to take back your come. While it’s not uncommon to feel helpless in the face of an impending lawsuit, what many homeowners don’t realize is that there are some ways to fi
ght this in Ohio. The key is to understand what grounds you might have for contesting the the lawsuit. Here are five potential defenses that could save your home.
No Default Notification
While the state of Ohio doesn’t legally require that the bank notify you if they are seeking foreclosure, your mortgage loan terms might. And if the mortgage mandates that the bank has to notify you of your default before they can foreclose, failure to do that may qualify as grounds for dismissal.
No Remedy Time Provided
Like the default notification, there’s no law in Ohio that defines a specific time period to remedy a default before the creditor initiates the lawsuit. However, if your loan requires the bank to notify you of a default, that default notice must give you a timeframe to resolve the problem by. If you don’t catch up the loan by that deadline, they can proceed with the foreclosure. A 30-day notice is usually pretty standard in these cases. If you’re not given time to bring the account current, that may stop the foreclosure to allow you that time.
The Bank Refused Your Payment
If you tried to resolve the default balance and your bank refused the payment because they were already seeking foreclosure proceedings, that might qualify as grounds to dismiss the foreclosure. Legally refusing a payment to settle the default could fall under breach of contract laws in court.
There’s A Calculation Error
If you’re notified of a default and it seems as though something is off about the calculations, look closely at your records. Make sure that the past due amount being reported is actually what you owe. Ask for a transaction history on the loan so that you can verify that the bank credited your payments correctly. If there’s an error in the accounting or the past due balance is incorrect, that may lead to a dismissed foreclosure.
The Bank Isn’t The One Filing The Suit
If the bank where you got your mortgage isn’t the one filing the foreclosure, that may call the foreclosure into question. The person or company filing the disclosure must have legal ownership of the mortgage debt, otherwise, they cannot legally seek foreclosure. Ask for proof of debt ownership if you’re unclear about who has filed the case.
The better prepared you are when it comes to legally protecting yourself, the lower your risk of foreclosure. For more information, contact us today.