Foreclosure is the process that a mortgage company takes to repossess and sell your home when you fall behind in the payments. In Mississippi, the mortgage company does not have to file a lawsuit against you and get an Order from the Court in order to sell your home. In Mississippi, the mortgage company does not have to send you a letter telling you they are foreclosing and when the sale will be. All they have to do is to run an ad in the newspaper and then auction your home.
When you fall behind on the mortgage, your mortgage company will typically send you a letter telling you that you have a thirty days or so to catch up before foreclosure proceedings start. This is called an acceleration letter. Once the mortgage has been accelerated, the mortgage company is no longer obligated to accept payments unless they are enough to catch up all of the past due amounts. But this won’t be just the number of months that you think you are behind. It will be all of the past due amounts they say you are behind, plus all of the fees and charges they have added on to your account, including foreclosure fees.
The lender must advertise the sale in the newspaper once a week for at least three weeks. At the end of the advertising period, usually the fourth week, the foreclosure auction sale takes place on the courthouse steps. Anyone can bid, including the mortgage company and the property goes to the highest bidder.
What happens after foreclosure? If the mortgage company sells the property at a loss, it has one year from the date of the foreclosure sale to come after you for the difference between what was owed on the mortgage and the amount actually paid by the purchaser at the foreclosure sale.
If your mortgage company gets a judgment for this deficiency, it can use all of the remedies available under the law, including garnishment of your wages, garnishment of your bank accounts and levying on other property.
An eviction proceeding in court usually follows the foreclosure, to force you out of the house if you don’t leave the property voluntarily.
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