How to avoid foreclosure in Mississippi

How foreclosure works in Mississippi, step by step

1. You miss payments

   Your servicer will contact you about the missed payments. Under a federal rule it generally cannot start the foreclosure until you are more than 120 days behind. Use this time to ask for help options in writing.

   12 C.F.R. § 1024.41(f)

2. Default letter under your deed of trust

   Mississippi law does not require the lender to mail you a foreclosure notice, but your deed of trust may. If your deed of trust promises more notice than the law requires, the lender must follow it. Read your deed of trust and keep every letter and envelope.

   Miss. Code § 89-1-55

3. Substitute trustee is named

   The lender can appoint a new trustee, often a law firm, with or without your permission. The substitute trustee handles the notice and the sale.

   Miss. Code § 89-1-63

4. Notice of sale is published and posted

   The notice must run in a newspaper published in the county for three consecutive weeks before the sale, and be posted at the county courthouse for the same time. It must name the original borrowers on the deed of trust. A sale that was not advertised this way is not valid.

   Miss. Code § 89-1-55

5. You can still catch up before the sale

   Until the sale is completed, you or anyone with an interest in the home can pay the past due payments plus costs, attorney's fees and trustee's fees on that amount. This puts the loan back in place as if it had never been in default.

   Miss. Code § 89-1-59

6. Trustee's sale (auction)

   The home is sold at public auction in the county where it is located, or in the county where a borrower lives. The lender may bid and buy the home. The buyer gets a substitute trustee's deed.

   Miss. Code §§ 89-1-55, 89-1-63

7. Removal after the sale

   The new owner may send you a notice to move out. If you stay, the new owner can file a court case to get possession of the home, and you will be served with court papers and can respond.

   Miss. Code § 11-25-1

Mississippi 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 Mississippi

Other Mississippi protections

• Right to catch up before the sale

  You can reinstate the loan any time before the sale is completed by paying only the past due amount plus costs and fees on that amount, not the full balance.

  Miss. Code § 89-1-59

• Notice must be published and posted

  No sale under a deed of trust is valid unless it was advertised for three consecutive weeks in a county newspaper and posted at the courthouse, naming the original borrowers. A contract cannot waive this.

  Miss. Code § 89-1-55

• Your deed of trust's notice terms count

  Mississippi courts say that if your deed of trust promises more notice than the statute, those terms must be followed. In a June 2026 case, the Court of Appeals held that a homeowner who waited more than two years to object lost that argument, so act quickly if notice was short.

  Harris v. Aurora Loan Services (Miss. Ct. App. 2026)

• Deficiency must be fair

  A lender is not entitled to a deficiency judgment just because the sale price was lower than the debt. It must prove fair market value and show a deficiency would be fair, and the foreclosing lender has one year to sue.

  Miss. Code § 15-1-23; Hartman v. McInnis, 996 So. 2d 704 (Miss. 2007)

Mississippi mortgage assistance programs

If the home is sold for more than you owe

If the sale brings in more than the debt and sale costs, there may be money left over. We did not find a Mississippi statute that says who gets surplus from a trustee's sale or how to claim it. Ask the substitute trustee named in the notice, in writing, for an accounting of the sale and any surplus, and keep your mailing address current with them. Be careful with anyone who offers to recover surplus funds for a percentage, and talk to legal aid first.

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 Mississippi 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