Foreclosure in Missouri

How a Missouri foreclosure works, step by step

1. Generally, the legal foreclosure process can't start until you're at least 120 days behind.
2. Under a deed of trust, the holder of the debt can choose a trustee's sale instead of a lawsuit. The law requires at least 20 days' notice of the sale, even if your deed of trust doesn't.
3. The notice of sale runs in a newspaper. It lists where the deed of trust is recorded, who signed it, the time, terms and place of the sale, and a description of the home. In a county with a city of 50,000 people or more, the ad runs in a daily paper at least 20 times, up to the sale day. In other counties, it can run in a weekly paper for four issues in a row, the last no more than a week before the sale.
4. At least 20 days before the sale, the lender or trustee must also mail the notice by certified or registered mail to the borrower named in the deed of trust, at the last address the lender knows. The notice counts even if you never actually receive it.
5. If you might want to buy the home back after the sale, you must give the person running the sale written notice, at the sale or within 10 days before the advertised date.
6. The trustee holds the sale in the county where the home is. It can be held at any time between 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. on the sale date.
7. If the lender bought the home and you gave notice, you have 20 days after the sale to give security that satisfies the circuit court. If you do, you have up to one year from the sale to redeem.
8. If you stay after you've had written notice of the foreclosure and a written demand to leave from the new owner, Missouri law calls that an unlawful detainer.

Ways to catch up or step away before the sale

Talk with your servicer early. These are the options to ask about.

• Under federal rules, if your servicer gets a complete application for help more than 37 days before a sale, it has 30 days to act on it. And if that application arrives after the first foreclosure notice but more than 37 days before the sale, the servicer can't hold the sale unless certain conditions are met.
• With a deed in lieu of foreclosure, you hand ownership of the home to the lender to avoid the foreclosure. If you could owe a deficiency, the gap between what the home is worth and what you owe, you can ask the lender to waive it.
• You have the right to stay in your home during the whole foreclosure process.

The trustee's sale

A sale held between 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. on the sale date counts as a commercially reasonable time. If the notice names a time, the sale must be held then, unless it's put off as the law allows. For deeds of trust signed after August 28, 1989, the sale must be held in the county where the land is.

The trustee can put off the sale without a new ad or new mailing by announcing it at the time and place of the sale. The trustee can do that only once, for no more than seven days. But you and the lender can agree to more delays, or longer ones.

How long it takes

Foreclosure generally can't legally start until you're at least 120 days behind. Once it starts, how long you have until the sale depends on your state.

For FHA loans, HUD's time frame runs from the first legal action until the lender has clear title to the home and possession of it. In Missouri, that's 5 months, and HUD lists publication as the first legal action.

Under Missouri law, the sale needs at least 20 days' notice, with ads in the paper and a letter mailed at least 20 days ahead. A trustee can push the sale back once, by up to seven days, without new notice.

These are official markers, not a forecast. Your case can move faster or slower, so don't count on extra time.

After the sale: buying it back, shortfalls and leftover money

Missouri's right to buy the home back after a sale is narrow. It applies when the home is bought at the sale by the holder of the debt, or by someone for the holder.

• First, you must give written notice that you plan to redeem, at the sale or within 10 days before the advertised date.
• Next, within 20 days after the sale, you must give security that satisfies the circuit court in the county where the land is. That security is a bond with at least one good surety, big enough to cover the sums owed other than the loan principal, including interest and damages.
• Then, within the year, you must pay the debt and interest, plus what the lender or buyer paid toward earlier liens, taxes and assessments, and the legal charges and costs of the sale.

Before a sale, ask a lawyer or a HUD-approved counselor whether you could owe a shortfall afterward, and who would get any money left over.

Protections when you sell, rent back or get offers

• Missouri's foreclosure consultant law covers anyone who offers, for pay, to stop or postpone a foreclosure sale, among other services. You can cancel it until midnight of the third business day after you sign.
• The Attorney General says it's illegal in most cases for a foreclosure consultant or rescue business to charge any fee before all the work is done. A consultant also can't take a power of attorney from you, except to inspect documents, or acquire any interest in your home.
• The Attorney General warns about advice to stop working with your lender and deal only with the consultant. If you stop making your payments, your home may go into foreclosure.
• A wholesaler is someone who, for a fee or other payment, signs a contract to buy a home and then assigns or novates that contract to someone else. At least 14 days before signing a contract with you, a wholesaler must give you a separate written disclosure in bold type. It tells you the wholesaler may assign the contract to someone else without your consent before closing. If the wholesaler skips the disclosure, you can cancel any time before closing without penalty.
• A sale leaseback is when you sell your home and, as part of the deal, rent it back so you can stay. The buyer must give you a written warning that you're selling your home and will no longer own it, at least 14 days before you sign the agreement. Title can't transfer until 30 days after the agreement is signed.

One of these touches how I buy: the wholesaler rule above. It bears on a novation, and on any purchase contract that's signed and then passed to another buyer. And don't stop talking to your lender while you weigh any offer, including mine.

Free help in Missouri

• Missouri Housing Development Commission: help for homeowners. Points you to HUD-sponsored housing counseling agencies, which give free or low-cost advice.
• Missouri Attorney General: consumer protection. The Attorney General asks you to report mortgage rescue scammers to its consumer hotline.
• Missouri Attorney General: military and veterans consumer guide (PDF). Its section on mortgage rescue fraud lists the warning signs.
• Missouri Division of Finance: consumer complaints. Where to file a complaint about a state-licensed lender or mortgage broker.
• CFPB: find a housing counselor. Search HUD-approved counseling agencies in Missouri.