“I was foreclosed. Does this mean the sheriff will kick me out of my house?”

Need help with foreclosure?

This is a very common question. There are so many foreclosures and there’s so much misinformation out on the internet, from real estate agents that come by, from friends and family that give you advice, etc.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of misconceptions out there about what a foreclosure means.

Let’s talk about the three stages of foreclosure.

The first stage is before the foreclosure sale.

This is when you’re making your payments on time, then maybe you start missing payments. Eventually, you get what’s called a default letter, and  an acceleration letter, and then the foreclosure is advertised in the paper.

Then we get to the second stage which is the actual foreclosure sale itself.

This is at the court house outside the main entrance, usually on the steps to the court house. This is where the auctioneer person reads the foreclosure paperwork, conducts the auction, and usually the guy reading it for the mortgage company is the one who buys it. Typically, the mortgage company, or at least the investor or owner behind the scenes, is the one that buys the house. That’s the second stage. So the first stage is before foreclosure and the second stage is the foreclosure itself.

The third stage is after the foreclosure sale and here we are typically talking about an ejectment lawsuit.

Here’s the key question.

“Will I get kicked out by the sheriff?”

Have you been sued in an ejectment lawsuit? If you have not, then no, you’re not going to be kicked out by the sheriff.

The only way you can be kicked out of your house is to be sued in an ejectment lawsuit and then to lose that ejectment lawsuit.

If you haven’t even been sued, you can’t lose…

There are other issues about whether you should leave your foreclosed home or should you not leave, even before you get sued. That’s not the point of this video.

Have you been sued?

If the answer is no, then there’s still time.

I encourage you to take immediate action. Get with somebody that can help you. We’re happy to do that for consumers who live in Alabama. You can reach us by phone at 205-879-2447. Or, if you prefer, you can contact us through this website by filling out a form and we’ll get right back with you.

Get with us or get with somebody that can help you. Because, if you’ve been foreclosed and now you’re in that final stage and they haven’t sued you yet, it’s just a matter of time.

Let’s assume you have been sued.

Then the question is, have you lost your ejectment lawsuit?

If the answer is no, then again, there’s still time, but you’re in the middle of a lawsuit. You have got to take immediate action to preserve your rights.

But what if you have lost your ejectment lawsuit?

Losing it means the court has decided that you have no right to be in your home and you must leave.

Now the question is, how long ago did you lose that ejectment lawsuit?

If you say, “Well, that was yesterday,” there’s still time. It’s very difficult, but there’s still time.

Here’s kind of a basic timeline for you. Once a final judgment’s entered against you, you typically have thirty days to ask the court to reconsider its ruling. The technical name is called a motion (a motion is just a written request) to alter, amend, or vacate the judgment. It just means that you’re going up to the judge, in writing, and saying, “Judge, I think you made a mistake. I need you to change the ruling. Get rid of the ruling. Set aside the ruling, so that I do not lose this case.”

You also typically have forty-two days from the time that you lose a case to appeal it.

If you are doing this on your own you will need to verify the dates because there are some complicated rules.  We’re not going to get into all those details here.

If you say, “I lost my case a week ago,” there’s still time to ask the judge to reconsider. If you say, “I lost my case thirty-five days ago,” then probably your time to reconsider has expired and your only option is to appeal.

You have to figure out where are you in that time frame or that timeline to see what your options are. We have people that call us and say, “I lost six months ago.” If it was a final judgment six months ago, then normally there’s nothing that you can do. There’s maybe one or two exceptions. Very unusual. Again, beyond the scope of this video.

With that said, let’s go back to the original question, “Will the sheriff kick me out after a foreclosure?”

Only if you lose your ejectment lawsuit and you have no more options to appeal or to ask the judge to reconsider. In other words, it’s done. It’s final. It’s over. Yes, the sheriff will literally come to your house, knock on your door, and say, “You and all your stuff and everybody in here have got to get out.”

Sometimes I’ve seen them say, “Look, we’ll give you a couple weeks.”

I’ve also seen them do this. This was to a family with two small children, the mom was saying, “Look, I’m getting my kids ready for school.” Sheriff’s deputy said, “That’s fine. Take them to school and before they get out of school today, all your stuff has to be out of this house.”

Understand that this is what is coming and that it is real. You have to keep that in mind.

If we can help you, again the phone number is 205-879-2447 or you can fill out our contact form.

We have all sorts of resources there to help you wherever you are in this foreclosure process. 

–John G. Watts