Foreclosure in Pennsylvania

How a Pennsylvania foreclosure works, step by step

1. Generally, the legal foreclosure process can't start until you're at least 120 days behind.
2. Once you're at least 60 days behind, a lender that wants to foreclose must mail you a notice, known as the Act 91 notice. It has to arrive at least 30 days before the lender demands full payment or starts a court case. It must tell you that you may qualify for help from the Homeowner's Emergency Mortgage Assistance Program, called HEMAP.
3. To apply for HEMAP, you must meet with one of the designated counseling agencies within 30 days, plus 3 days for mailing. While your application is pending, the lender can't start a foreclosure case.
4. If the lender goes ahead, it files a complaint in court that states the default and gives an itemized statement of the amount due.
5. Your written response to a complaint with a notice to defend is due within 20 days after it's served on you. If you don't respond, the lender must send you a notice at least 10 days before it asks for a default judgment.
6. Once the lender has a judgment, it's enforced with a writ of execution.
7. The sheriff posts a notice of the sale at the sheriff's office and on the property at least 30 days before the sale, a written notice is served on you at least 30 days before the sale, and the sale is advertised in a newspaper once a week for three weeks in a row, starting at least 21 days before it.
8. The home is sold at a sheriff's sale. You can still catch up until one hour before the bidding starts.
9. Within 30 days after the sale, the sheriff files a schedule showing how the sale money will be paid out.
10. The sheriff then signs a deed to the buyer between 20 and 40 days after that schedule is filed. The court doesn't have to confirm the sale.

Act 91 and HEMAP, the state's emergency loan

HEMAP was created by Act 91 of 1983 to protect people who, through no fault of their own, can't make their mortgage payments and could lose their homes. It's a loan, not a grant, and it must be repaid.

The Act 91 notice also carries the information required by Pennsylvania's Loan Interest and Protection Law, often called Act 6, so one notice covers both laws. Under that law, the notice must go by registered or certified mail to your last known address and to the home, if that's different.

• You must be at least 60 days behind and have received an Act 91 notice.
• The home must be in Pennsylvania, be lived in by its owner, and have one or two units.
• FHA Title II loans can't get HEMAP, and you need a good mortgage credit history for the five years before you fell behind.
• You must be in financial hardship because of things beyond your control.
• A HEMAP loan can't be more than $60,000.

The meeting with the counselor is free, and it's the only way to apply. The counseling agency has 30 days after your meeting to send in the application, and PHFA has up to 60 days after it arrives to decide.

If you apply late, the foreclosure won't pause while you wait, but if you're approved, a case that has started is put on hold as long as you go on to close the loan. If you're turned down, you can ask for an appeal hearing in writing, postmarked within 15 days of the denial letter. A HEMAP loan is recorded against your home as a mortgage lien.

Don't sit on the notice. Call a counselor the day it arrives.

Philadelphia's diversion program

In Philadelphia, when a lender files a foreclosure on an owner-occupied home, the court schedules a conciliation conference and bars the lender from getting a judgment until the conferences are over. If your case wasn't marked that way and you think it should have been, you can file a certification and ask for a conference.

• The Department of Housing and Community Development will give you a free housing counselor to go over ways to keep your home and help with the paperwork.
• At the conference, you meet face to face with the lender's lawyers to talk through ways to resolve what you owe.
• Lawyers from groups such as Community Legal Services and Philadelphia Legal Assistance are also there to talk about legal issues.

Outside Philadelphia, ask the court in your county whether it runs a program like this.

Catching up before the sheriff's sale

Under Act 6, you or someone acting for you can cure the default until one hour before bidding starts at the sheriff's sale, up to three times in a calendar year. Curing means paying, by cash, cashier's check or certified check, everything that would be due if you hadn't defaulted and the loan hadn't been called due, and it puts you back in the same position as if the default never happened.

The lender can't charge you lawyer fees for work done before or during the 30-day notice period.

Ask the lender for the exact payoff or catch-up figure in writing, and ask again as the sale gets close.

The sheriff's sale

The sheriff posts notice of the sale at the sheriff's office and on the home, and advertises it in a newspaper in your county. If the sale is postponed, a new notice generally has to be given, unless an exception or a court order applies.

Before the sheriff's deed is delivered, anyone with an interest can ask the court to set the sale aside for good cause.

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 Pennsylvania, that's 21 months, and the first legal action is the court complaint.

The state's own markers: the Act 91 notice at least 30 days before a case, 20 days to answer the complaint, sale notices at least 30 days before the sale, and the right to catch up until one hour before bidding.

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

Deficiency, surplus and what happens after the sale

If the lender buys the home at the sale for less than what's owed and wants to collect the rest, it must ask the court to set the home's fair market value. You're then released from the debt up to that fair market value, minus prior liens, costs and taxes the sale didn't clear. The lender must file that petition within six months after the sheriff's deed is delivered.

If it misses that deadline, you can ask the court to mark the judgment satisfied, released and discharged. Any agreement you make to give up these protections is void.

The sheriff pays out the sale money according to the schedule filed after the sale, unless someone files written objections within 10 days after it's filed.

If your home might sell for more than you owe, watch for that schedule and get help reading it quickly.

Protections when you sell, lease or get offers

• A wholesale transaction means promoting the sale of an interest in a home with the intent to assign or sell that interest for a fee without taking title. That definition was added in 2024. Anyone who engages or tries to engage in one counts as a broker, and it's illegal to act as a broker without a license.
• If you sign a wholesale contract, you can cancel until midnight of the 30th day after you sign, or until the closing, whichever comes first. If the contract leaves out the required disclosures, you can cancel any time before closing. Any money you paid must be refunded within ten business days after your notice of cancellation. These wholesaling rules took effect 180 days after the law was approved on July 8, 2024.
• Pennsylvania's Installment Land Contract Law covers contracts to buy a home in a city of the first class or a county of the second class where the buyer makes six or more payments before getting title. If the buyer misses a payment, the seller must give at least 30 days' notice before ending the contract.
• Pennsylvania's Credit Services Act covers anyone who, for pay, says they can get you an extension of credit, which the law defines as the right to put off paying a debt. They can't take your money before they fully do the work unless they have a surety bond or trust account, and you can cancel the contract until midnight of the fifth day after the date of the deal.
• Federal law bars mortgage relief companies from taking any fee until you've signed an agreement with your lender or servicer based on the offer they got for you.
• The Act 91 notice must state your right, if any, to transfer the home to someone else subject to the mortgage, and that person's right, if any, to cure the default. A HEMAP counselor can explain options like selling or transferring the home, or having someone else cure the default through a short sale or an assumption of the mortgage.

Three of these touch how I buy. The wholesaling rule can touch a novation or any contract that gets assigned. The installment contract law can touch a seller-financed deal where title passes only after the payments. And the transfer and cure rights touch taking over your payments. Don't stop talking to your lender while you weigh any offer, including mine.

Free help in Pennsylvania

• PHFA: trouble paying your mortgage?. Housing counseling for mortgage delinquency and foreclosure prevention is free for Pennsylvania residents.
• PHFA: HEMAP and Act 91 counselors. Find a HEMAP counseling agency by county.
• Philadelphia courts: Residential Mortgage Foreclosure Diversion Program. How the Philadelphia conference program works.
• Pennsylvania Attorney General: submit a complaint. Where to report a business you think misled you.
• CFPB: find a housing counselor. Search HUD-approved counseling agencies in Pennsylvania.