Why should I pull my credit reports when I’m dealing with a foreclosure?


Why should I pull my credit reports when I'm dealing with a foreclosure?When you’re facing foreclosure, we recommend that you pull your credit reports.

This confuses people, and they ask, “Why in the world should I do that? I’ve got a foreclosure that’s happening in two weeks! How is that going to help me?”

Well, there are a couple of ways it will help you.

It may give you information that shows the foreclosure isn’t allowed.

You may also see information that violates other laws, such as the FCRA, Fair Credit Reporting Act, or the FDCPA, Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.

This would be leverage for you when you sue your mortgage company, in addition to the combination of other factors that you may be able to sue your mortgage company for.

Hopefully, once they have seen the evidence you bring forward they will say,“Well, they’ve caught us on several accounts. We should back away from this foreclosure.”

“What would be considered information that would not allow the foreclosure to take place?”

We’ve  talked about the concept of 120 days in another article.

This is where they have to prove that you’re 120 days late before they can foreclose on you.

Well, what if your credit report says you’re only 30 days late?

That’s something to take to the judge if you file a lawsuit before the foreclosure.

Show the judge that the mortgage company is telling Equifax, Experian, TransUnion, etc. that you’re only 60 days late, and the mortgage company can’t foreclose until you’re 120 days late.

“What about violations?”

Well, you might see that they have the balance wrong on your account.

Or maybe the time periods where they say you’re late are wrong.

Maybe you’re currently late, but a year ago you weren’t, but the mortgage company is saying that you were late last year.

That would violate the FDCPA and FCRA, and it might even give you time to dispute it under RESPA (Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act).

Think of this step as a building block.

If you pull your credit reports and find errors, you could sue your mortgage company under different laws.

Remember, you’re trying to get your mortgage company to look at your lawsuit and go,“This really looks bad for us. Maybe we should stop the foreclosure.”

It’s definitely worth looking at your credit report.

You can pull your credit reports from AnnualCreditReport.com and pull your Equifax, Experian, and Transunion reports.

However, if you want to pull your SageStream or Innovis reports, you’ll need to go directly to their websites.

Hope this has been helpful to you!

If you have any questions, feel free to get in touch with us.

You can reach us by phone at 1-205-879-2447, or you can fill out a contact form and we will get in touch with you quickly.

We look forward to chatting with you.

Thanks for reading, and have a great day!

-John G. Watts

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