A Guide to Foreclosure In New Hampshire

FORECLOSURE is the act of your lender repossessing your home for your failure to fulfill your mortgage obligations. If you do not take steps to prevent foreclosure, you will lose your home.

In New Hampshire a foreclosure sale of your property can happen very quickly. New Hampshire is a power-of-sale foreclosure state. This means that your lender does not need to take you to court in order to foreclose. Instead, your lender will sell your home at a foreclosure sale, using the proceeds of the sale to pay off your loan. Typically, your lender will send you a letter giving you 30 days to “cure,” which means to bring your loan up to date. If you fail to cure, your lender will accelerate your mortgage obligations, which means that your entire balance becomes due. To complete the foreclosure sale, your lender must take the following steps:

At least 25 days before the scheduled foreclosure sale, the lender must send you a notice of the scheduled foreclosure sale.
At least 20 days before the scheduled foreclosure sale, the lender must publish a notice of the sale in a newspaper in circulation in your town or county. The notice must be published once a week for three weeks in a row.
The lender must conduct a foreclosure sale at your home, or another location if specified in your mortgage.

A third party, or the lender itself, may purchase your home at the foreclosure sale.

SOLUTIONS & OPTIONS

Loss of your home from a foreclosure will hurt your credit, family, and future ability to purchase a home. When you are facing foreclosure, time is of the essence. If you want to save your home, do not ignore foreclosure notices! Take simple steps such as the following:

Contact your lender
Seek out professional counseling services and/or a lawyer
Consider your options carefully
Educate yourself about foreclosure and current consumer protection laws

Some alternatives to foreclosure that a professional home ownership counselor may discuss with you include:

Forbearance - This is when a lender allows you to skip a payment, or allows you to make a special repayment plan. If you enter into a forbearance agreement, get it in writing from your lender, make certain you understand the agreement, and be sure you can meet your new financial obligations.
Loan modification - Some lenders may be willing to change the terms of your mortgage. For example they may extend your loan term or reduce your interest rate.
Partial claim - If you have mortgage insurance your lender may be able to make a partial claim against your mortgage insurer.
Pre-foreclosure sale - If you cannot afford your mortgage, selling your property prior to the foreclosure sale may be your best option to avoid a foreclosure and keep your equity. Work with your lender to minimize deficiency balances.
Bankruptcy - Sometimes bankruptcy, particularly filing under Chapter 13, can save your home from foreclosure. To consider this option, try to meet with a lawyer as soon as possible.
Deed-in-lieu of foreclosure - Use this as a last resort. Your lender may be willing to accept your property in lieu of foreclosure. Giving your home back to the lender will hurt your credit, but avoids a foreclosure.

RESCUE SCAMS

Beware! There are people out there who will try to profit from your misfortune! These people may contact you by mail or telephone, or even knock on your door offering you quick and easy solutions to your problems. If the deal sounds to good to be true, it probably is! Here are some of the foreclosure rescue scams you may be offered:

Deals that let you stay in your home - Some foreclosure rescuers will offer to bring your mortgage up to date and let you stay in your home until you can pay them back. Victims of these scams often don’t realize that they have actually sold their homes, turning themselves into tenants with very high rental payments! They end up facing eviction and losing all of their equity. If someone offers to pay off your mortgage arrears and let you stay in the home, read EVERYTHING you sign very carefully. The rescuer may be stealing from you by walking away with most or all of your home equity!
Unethical consulting services - Some foreclosure rescuers try to pass themselves off as legitimate foreclosure counselors. They may charge you for services you can easily do for yourself, or take steps that actually hurt you. Do your homework on any foreclosure counseling service. Ask if the company is accredited and by whom, and find out how long it has been in business. Research the company to find out if it is a fake.
Bait and switch/fraud - Some foreclosure rescuers will simply lie about what they will do for you. Protect yourself! Refer to this flier for a list of free home ownership counseling services and regulatory agencies. Contact these credible sources for assistance if you need advice about foreclosure.

PROTECTIONS

The New Hampshire legislature recently enacted a law, RSA 479-B, designed to protect you from misleading foreclosure consulting services. Companies offering to pay off your mortgage arrears or provide foreclosure consulting services must comply with this law!

In general, a foreclosure consultant shall not enter into any agreement or provide any services on your behalf until you have executed a foreclosure consulting contract. A foreclosure consulting contract must:

Be written in the same language that you speak;
Fully disclose the exact nature of the foreclosure consulting services to be provided to you, and the total amount and terms of the foreclosure consultant’s compensation;
Be dated and signed by you and the foreclosure consultant in front of a notary public or justice of the peace; and
Be accompanied by a “notice of cancellation,” which tells you how to cancel the contract.

A foreclosure consultant who is going to take title to your home must also give you a “notice of loss of ownership” which sets out the terms of the transfer in detail and notifies you of your right to cancel the transfer within five business days.

This is a very limited description of the protections offered to you by RSA 479-B. For the full text of the legislation creating RSA 479-B, please follow this link. To understand how this law may affect you and your particular situation, please contact an attorney.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

COUNSELING SERVICES

If you need home ownership counseling, contact the home ownership center nearest you. Information on these centers may be found on our Frequently Asked Questions Page about Foreclosures.

FREE LEGAL ADVICE

If you do not have an attorney and don't know how to find one or you cannot afford an attorney, please contact:

New Hampshire Legal Assistance
1361 Elm Street, Suite 307
Manchester, NH 03101
Tel: (800) 562-3174
www.nhla.org

Legal Advice and Referral Center
PO Box 4147
Concord, NH 03302
Tel: (800) 639-5290
www.nhls.org

BANKING REGULATORS

If you feel you are a victim of a predatory lender contact your state and federal regulatory agencies. Their information can be found on our Frequently Asked Questions page regarding this topic.

For a printable brochure with all this information, please click here. Note: this brochure is best printed on Legal Size (8 1/2" x 14") paper.

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