Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Massachusetts

Re: homestead act

No. Homestead protection protects your EQUITY ownership in your home from attachment by others to satisfy a litigation judgment against you (for amounts a court has deemed due by you to the third party). When a bank forecloses, they are foreclosing on their OWN equity in the home; i.e., the unpaid amounts remaining due on the mortgage note to the bank. The bank will sell the home at auction to recover the unpaid balance due on the mortgage note.

In other words, if the bank is foreclosing, it is taking back its OWN equity in the home; the homestead act protects only YOUR equity.

Re: homestead act

No. The homestead only comes into play as to liens filed by judgment debtors not lenders you have autohorized to record a Mortgage, which is a specific kind of lien.

It will help you, should you file a chapter 13 bankruptcy in protecting your equity in your home.