How to stop a foreclosure in Arkansas

Ways to stop or delay a foreclosure in Arkansas

• Apply for a loan modification or forbearance

  As early as possible, and well before the sale date

  Use the program phone number and web address from the pre-foreclosure packet. The home cannot be sold unless the lender has certified that each borrower who applied was told at least 10 business days before the sale that he or she does not qualify.

  Ark. Code §§ 18-50-103(2), 18-50-104(a)(3)

• Reinstate the loan

  Any time after the notice is recorded and before the sale

  Pay the lender the entire amount then due, plus its actual costs and trustee's and attorney's fees, but not the part of the principal that is due only because of acceleration. The foreclosure must then be dismissed and the lender must record a cancellation of the notice.

  Ark. Code § 18-50-114

• Raise claims and defenses in court

  Before the sale

  A statutory foreclosure has no judge unless you bring one in. Any claim or defense must be asserted before the sale or it is barred, except fraud and failure to strictly follow the foreclosure law. This takes a lawyer and a filing in circuit court.

  Ark. Code § 18-50-116(d)

• Check that the lender followed each required step

  Before the sale, and no later than 30 days after it

  The lender must send the pre-foreclosure packet, record the notice, mail it by certified and first-class mail within 30 days, publish it for four weeks and wait 60 days. A claim for failure to strictly comply must be raised within 30 days after the sale.

  Ark. Code §§ 18-50-103 to 18-50-105, 18-50-116(d)(2)(D)

• Ask for a postponement

  Before the sale is concluded

  The person conducting the sale may postpone it. Ask your servicer in writing to postpone if a workout, sale or refinance is close, and get any agreement in writing.

  Ark. Code § 18-50-107(c)

• Bankruptcy stay

  Before the sale

  Arkansas Law Help explains that filing bankruptcy creates an automatic stay that temporarily prevents the bank from selling your home. What happens next depends on the type of bankruptcy, so talk to a bankruptcy attorney first.

• Answer the lawsuit (court foreclosure only)

  Within 30 days of being served

  If you were served with a summons and complaint, file an answer with the circuit court clerk. Arkansas Law Help warns that without an answer a default judgment may be entered and the home sold.

What Arkansas law gives you

The options your servicer can offer

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

Common questions in Arkansas