If you fall behind in your mortgage payments, you may end up facing a foreclosure. While you want to do everything possible to stop the process and keep your home, it can help to understand what happens when your lender begins foreclosing on your property in Tennessee.
To begin with, you should understand that your lender may start the foreclosure process once you miss one payment. Sometimes, they wait until you fall several payments behind. In some states, the lender must file a lawsuit in court to properly foreclose and retain the right to sell the property at an auction. In Tennessee, according to the Tennessee Housing Development Agency, lenders often use a non-judicial process.
This means that after alerting you to your missed payments and providing you with information about the violation of your contract, the lender will publish a newspaper notice that it intends to sell your home. This can happen in as little as two months after you first miss a payment. The notice must appear in the newspaper for three weeks. After three weeks, the auction occurs.
Lenders may also go through the court, which will take more time and allow you to put up a defense. However, most lenders will use the non-judicial option.
You should work with your lender as soon as you receive the first notification of your missed payment. At this time, your lender may be willing to work with you to reduce payments or defer payments if you need. However, the window in which the lender may work with you is often short. This information is for education and is not legal advice.