Maricopa County AZ Foreclosed Properties – General Time Line

Posted October 2009

There is a pretty standard time-line which takes place when a property is due to be legally foreclosed. In Maricopa County AZ foreclosed properties happen pretty much the same as in any other state, the only difference being that in Arizona, they allow both the Judicial and the Non-judicial foreclosure process to take place. This of course is dependent upon whether there is a “Power of Sale” clause included in the primary security instrument.

Generally speaking home owners have thirty days past due date for their mortgage to be marked “late” for payment. At this juncture the bank will have added late charges to your account and notified Trans Union, Experion and Equifax (credit bureaus) that you are late with payment, and already this begins to impact on your credit rating.

Technically speaking you owe only one arrears payment, however the next payment to be made is going to have to be doubled, plus late charges paid. It is round about this time that the home owner begins to receive calls from the lender. At sixty days in arrears the nasty letters begin to arrive and when your account is ninety days in arrears it will be sent to the legal collections department.

Looking at the above timeline, if any home owner is going to have a problem paying their mortgage repayment, they should approach their lender immediately. Even before the first late payment. In this way it may be possible to forestall the foreclosure process. Maricopa County is one of the counties in Arizona which is experiencing high rates of foreclosure filings.

Any homeowner needs to realize they are not alone, and that many other home owners in Maricopa County are experiencing the same thing. But your lender will not be able to assist you if you ignore the fact that this is happening. Lenders are expecting home owners to approach them with a view to modifying their loans, they are as aware as anyone that people in Maricopa are experiencing financial problems.

Once your account reaches ninety days in arrears and is sent to the legal department, this becomes the point of no return for many people. It becomes virtually impossible to catch up with all the missed payments and late charges, and the property will generally fall into foreclosure.

At this juncture your lender will want you to pay the entire outstanding debt on the mortgage, and they will threaten you with homelessness. A notice of default is filed with the court, providing a date for the sale of the property and the whole foreclosure process charges ahead like a runaway train. Typically home owners will not be evicted from the house on the day the property is sold, but there isn’t much time left and the inevitable happens, your property becomes another of the many Maricopa County AZ foreclosed properties.

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