How to avoid foreclosure in Arkansas

How foreclosure works in Arkansas, step by step

1. Missed payments

   Federal rules generally stop a servicer from starting foreclosure until you are more than 120 days behind. Use this time to contact your servicer and ask in writing about a loan modification, repayment plan or forbearance. Do not ignore letters from your lender or servicer.

   12 C.F.R. § 1024.41(f)

2. Pre-foreclosure packet

   At least 10 days before starting a statutory foreclosure, the lender must mail you a copy of the note and the mortgage or deed of trust, the name of the note holder, a payment history showing the date of default, and the phone number and web address for each loan modification or forbearance program it offers or takes part in. Use that contact information right away.

   Ark. Code § 18-50-103

3. Notice of default and intention to sell

   The lender records this notice in the county where the home is located and must mail it to you by certified mail and first-class mail within 30 days of recording. It lists the default and the time, date and place of the sale, with the warning that you may lose your property if you do not take immediate action. The sale cannot be held until at least 60 days after the notice is recorded.

   Ark. Code § 18-50-104

4. Publication, and your time to act

   The sale notice is published in a newspaper once a week for four weeks in a row, posted at the county courthouse and posted online. Before the sale you can cure the default by paying the past-due amount plus allowed costs and fees. If you believe the foreclosure is wrong, talk to a lawyer now: most claims and defenses must be raised in court before the sale or they are lost.

   Ark. Code §§ 18-50-105, 18-50-114, 18-50-116

5. The sale

   A licensed third-party auctioneer holds the sale on a weekday between 9:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m., at the property or at the front door of the county courthouse. No bid can be accepted for less than two-thirds of the entire debt. The sale ends all rights to redeem the home.

   Ark. Code §§ 18-50-107, 18-50-108

6. After the sale

   The deed is delivered to the buyer within 10 days, and the buyer is entitled to immediate possession. To remove you, the buyer goes to circuit court for a writ of assistance or files an eviction case. A claim that the lender failed to strictly follow the foreclosure law must be raised within 30 days after the sale. The lender has 12 months after the sale to sue for any remaining balance.

   Ark. Code §§ 18-50-107, 18-50-112, 18-50-116

Arkansas 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 Arkansas

Other Arkansas protections

• Loan documents and help information before foreclosure

  At least 10 days before starting a statutory foreclosure, the lender itself must mail you copies of the note and mortgage, the name of the note holder, a payment history, and the phone number and web address for its loan modification and forbearance programs. The Attorney General describes this as a requirement of Act 885 of 2011.

  Ark. Code § 18-50-103(2)

• No sale until a loan modification request is answered

  The home cannot be sold unless the lender has certified that each borrower who applied for a loan modification or forbearance was told that he or she does not qualify. That notice must be sent by certified and first-class mail at least 10 business days before the sale.

  Ark. Code § 18-50-104(a)(3)

• Minimum bid at the sale

  At a statutory foreclosure sale, no bid can be accepted for less than two-thirds of the entire debt owed on the sale date.

  Ark. Code § 18-50-107(b)(3)

• Attorney's fees if a sale is set aside

  Under a 2025 law, if a court sets aside a statutory foreclosure sale because the lender did not strictly follow the foreclosure law, the borrower may recover reasonable attorney's fees, with listed exceptions such as filing bankruptcy while the case is pending.

  Ark. Code § 18-50-118 (Act 306 of 2025)

• Limits on who can use the no-court process

  The statutory process is open only to a mortgage company, bank or savings and loan that is authorized to do business in Arkansas. It cannot be used on property used primarily for agricultural purposes.

  Ark. Code §§ 18-50-116(c), 18-50-117

Arkansas mortgage assistance programs

If the home is sold for more than you owe

After a statutory sale, the trustee or lender must apply the sale money in this order: the costs of the sale, the debt owed, then other recorded liens that came after the foreclosed loan. Any surplus goes to the person who signed the deed of trust or to that person's successor in interest. The statute we read does not set out a claim form or deadline, so contact the trustee or attorney named in your notice of default and intention to sell soon after the sale and ask in writing about any surplus. How surplus is handled after a court-ordered sale was not confirmed.

Ark. Code § 18-50-109

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 Arkansas 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