How to avoid foreclosure in Alaska

How foreclosure works in Alaska, step by step

1. You miss payments

   Your servicer must tell you about options to avoid foreclosure and usually cannot start the foreclosure until you are more than 120 days behind. Ask for help in writing as early as you can.

   12 C.F.R. § 1024.41(f)

2. Notice of default is recorded and mailed

   The trustee records a notice of default at least 30 days after the default and at least 90 days before the sale. It must state the amount owed and the date, time and place of the sale. A copy must be mailed to you by certified mail within 10 days after recording, or delivered in person.

   Alaska Stat. § 34.20.070(b), (c)

3. You can cure the default

   If the default is missed payments, you can stop the sale at any time before the sale date by paying the past due amount plus the lender's and trustee's actual foreclosure fees and costs. You do not have to pay the whole loan. If a notice of default was recorded and cured two or more times before under the same deed of trust, the trustee may refuse the payment.

   Alaska Stat. § 34.20.070(b), (e)

4. Sale is advertised

   Notice of the sale must be posted in three public places at least 30 days before the sale, published in a newspaper once a week for four weeks in a row, and published on a website starting at least 45 days before the sale.

   Alaska Stat. §§ 34.20.080(a)(2), 09.35.140

5. Trustee's auction

   The home is sold to the highest bidder. The trustee may postpone the sale by announcing a new date and time at the place set for the sale, for up to 12 months in total. Unless the sale is rescinded, the sale ends your rights in the property.

   Alaska Stat. § 34.20.080

6. After the sale

   Once the trustee's deed is signed, the buyer has the right to possession. If you do not move out, the buyer can go to court to have you removed. There is no right to buy the home back unless your deed of trust says so, and the lender cannot sue you for any shortfall.

   Alaska Stat. §§ 34.20.090, 34.20.100

Alaska foreclosure deadlines to know

These are the periods written into the law. Your own dates are on the notices you received. If a notice and this page disagree, trust the notice and ask a counselor or lawyer.

Your rights as a homeowner in Alaska

Other Alaska protections

• Right to cure with past due amount only

  Before the sale you can stop the foreclosure by paying what is past due plus actual fees and costs, not the full loan balance. The notice of default must tell you this.

  Alaska Stat. § 34.20.070(b), (e)

• No deficiency after a trustee's sale

  When the home is sold by a trustee without a court case, no further action or judgment for a deficiency is allowed on the debt the deed of trust secured.

  Alaska Stat. § 34.20.100

• Right to ask a court to stop a sale

  The borrower, a guarantor, an heir and certain others with a recorded interest are allowed to bring a court action to stop a foreclosure sale.

  Alaska Stat. § 34.20.070(l)

• Limit on how long a sale can be postponed

  A sale cannot be postponed for more than 12 months unless a new notice of sale is given.

  Alaska Stat. § 34.20.080(e)

Alaska mortgage assistance programs

If the home is sold for more than you owe

After a trustee's sale, the trustee pays the foreclosing lender first, then the holders of recorded interests below that deed of trust in order of priority. Any money left goes to you if you still owned the home at the time of the sale, or to the owner of record if you had transferred it. Sale proceeds must be held in a trust account until paid out, so contact the trustee in writing to ask about any surplus.

Alaska Stat. § 34.20.080(a), (f)

Ways to avoid foreclosure

Most of your options come from federal rules and from whoever owns or insures your loan, so they work the same way in Alaska as anywhere else. What changes by state is how much time you have to use them.

• Repayment plan
• Forbearance
• Payment deferral or partial claim
• Loan modification
• Reinstatement
• Short sale
• Deed in lieu of foreclosure
• Chapter 13 bankruptcy