Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in Georgia

If the owner is behind, yes.

You do not tell me anything of the facts. Are we talking about a house? What kind of payment arrangements are there? Are you in a special program and making the payments? Are you behind at all in your payments and have you been making partial payments? If the lender is attempting to foreclose on real property, many lawyers are fighting foreclosure. The mortgages have been sold so many times that the lender cannot produce the original notes. If this is your case, get to a lawyer specializing in foreclosure immediately.

If this is not your case and foreclosure is proper, the only way to stop foreclosure is bankruptcy. Chapter 13 will allow you to get caught up on the mortgage if you are behind. They will stretch out the payments over a 5 year period if you can make them. If you cannot make the payments, maybe a chapter 7 is the way to go and just give up the home. The bankruptcy works as an automatic stay - the lender cannot touch you in bankruptcy or continue with the foreclosure and will have to get special permission from the bankruptcy court to take the home back. All of this buys you time.

Some other alternatives - you can sell your house even if its in foreclosure. You can sell any time up to the sale. Can you sell the home? Its better to sell than face the foreclosure. Underwater on your mortgage? Then do a short sale. A short sale is where you sell the house for less than its worth. Do you have 1 mortgage or 2? If there are 2, then each lender will have to agree to take less than what is owed. Given home values, short sales may be an attractive option for you, although I do not know your circumstances. Foreclosure has costs to the bank too, so that may help induce the bank to agree, although banks have been willfully stupid. Given the mess they made of the economy and the fact that EVERYONE loses in a foreclosure, one would think that lenders, if acting out of nothing more than their own self interest, would work to help people stay in their homes but I am sorry to report that is not the case.

If you cannot afford an attorney, at least talk to a housing counselor. You can locate one in your area through www.nfcc.org or HUD at http://portal.hud.gov/portal/page/portal/HUD.