Upcoming Foreclosures

My mother-in-law is deceased and we just found out that the house is going thru foreclosure, what can we do?

My sister in law that was living with my mother in law when she passed was living in the house, then we find out she up and moved. We want to move in but dont want to get put out soon after because of the mortgage company saying its going thru foreclosure. What can we do? SHouldnt we have the right to keep it?

Public Comments

1. if a house is going through foreclosure, the mortgage payments were not paid on time or at all. IF the M in law owned the home and then died, it is likely that the mortgage note had an insurance clause that pays off the mortgage if the lender is informed of the death. Check that out. IF no such component of the mortgage exists, you have no right to keep a house that is not being paid on. UNLESS her "estate" has sufficient funds to pay off the mortgage.
2. The only option you have to keep it is to refinance it in your own name. You may or may not have time to do it. I would contact the lender and explain the situation. If you are unable to refinance because of your personal credit history you may be able to get it tied up in court because she passed away. This could give you enough time to sale the property and at least get some money out of it, depending on how much she owed and the market value of the place. Keep in mind, when a person passes away, their debts have to be settled. You cannot keep credit lines open for a person who has passed away. With this in mind, you should also find out if there are any other outstanding bills that need to be paid. I would speak to an attorney. Take any and all bills you can find and any paperwork from the mortgage company/trustee regarding the foreclosure and do it ASAP. By that, I mean YESTERDAY.
3. Have anyone filed an action to probate your mother-in-law's estate? Did she have a will naming an executor? How long ago did your MIL pass away? Did she have an attorney? (He might have a copy of the will). Get an attorney NOW (YESTERDAY may be too late) if she did not! The laws vary from state to state, but there is a legal procedure that must be followed to settle the estate of a decedent (If your MIL owned a house, even with a mortgage, she has an estate). That must usually be started within 30 days of her death. If no one has started the process, your spouse or his/her siblings (jointly or just one of them) can file the papers through an attorney. At least in California, the probate process require a legal notice of the filing of the request for probate, and all creditors have a certain period of time (CA - 120 days) to present their claims to the court; they can't take any other action, including foreclosure, during the 120 day period for filing claims. At the end of that time, the executor arranges for payment of all claims, if necessary sells the house to pay the claims, then distributes any remaining money to the heirs according to the terms of the will, or if there is no will, the laws of the state of residence when she died.
4. Don't you think the bank deserves to be paid or do you think they should provide a place for someone to stay for free? While your MIL was sick, someone should have taken over her finances and paid the mortgage each month, and someone didn't, that is why the bank is foreclosing. This person is your MIL so your spouse needs to be handling that, as you have no legal rights to the property. If your spouse has siblings, then any equity from a sale would be equally split. PS: Homes don't go under foreclosure just because the payments are late every month, they go under foreclosure because they aren't getting paid at all.
5. I may not be the right person to answer this, but at http://www.homelandassistance.com they can help you.