• Your state’s housing agency might have a foreclosure avoidance program.
• You can also take advantage of aid programs such as: Medicaid, SNAP (food stamps), and heating assistance. This may not go directly to paying your mortgage, but the extra money will free up your budget allowing you to keep up with your mortgage payments. The Benefit Finder at Benefits.gov can help you find and apply for programs in your state.
17. TEMPORARY RESTRAINING ORDER (TRO)
The best way to temporarily stop a foreclosure up to the day before an auction, and when a homeowner does not need to otherwise declare bankruptcy, may be to file a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO). A TRO is a legal order filed by an attorney on behalf of a homeowner against their lender. In most cases, it will result in a brief delay (30 days, give or take) of a foreclosure auction – which may provide enough time for a homeowner to sell a home using other strategies or catch up the payments. TROs are a legal specialty; you must have an attorney with this specialty lined up in advance if you need to utilize this maneuver.
ADVANTAGES
The advantage of a TRO is that it can be done at the last minute just before the home is actually auctioned off by the lender. In addition, it does not require the homeowner to declare bankruptcy and thus often both a bankruptcy and foreclosure can be avoided. Once the TRO is filed, the auction is stopped or nullified until the lender has the TRO lifted.
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