Foreclosure in Tennessee

How a Tennessee foreclosure works, step by step

1. Generally, the legal foreclosure process can't start until you're at least 120 days behind.
2. On or before the date of the first newspaper ad, the trustee or other party selling the home must send you a copy of the sale notice, by registered or certified mail, return receipt requested. It goes to the property's mailing address, and also to your last known address if that's different.
3. The sale must be advertised at least two times in a newspaper published in the county where the sale will happen. The first ad must run at least 20 days before the sale.
4. The sale must also be posted online by a third-party internet posting company for at least 20 days in a row, in a way that anyone on the internet can see. The notice must name that company's website.
5. The sale can be postponed and reset without a new newspaper ad, one or more times, as long as it happens within one year of the first scheduled date. If it's put off for more than 30 days, the new date, time and place must be mailed to you at least 10 days before the sale.
6. The sale is held at a physical place, or on an online bidding website if the sale is run online.
7. How long you can stay after the sale depends on state law, and each state has its own eviction process after a foreclosure sale.

The notice rules changed in July 2025

A 2025 Tennessee law on foreclosure notices replaced the state's rules for advertising a sale, and the new version took effect on July 1, 2025. It requires the online posting and sets the rules for postponing a sale described above.

A posting company must give its website address to the Secretary of State's Publications Division before it does this work, and the Secretary of State keeps a list of these companies and their websites. The office doesn't approve or vet the companies on that list.

If you think a sale date has been set, check the posting sites on the Secretary of State's list and your county's newspaper. Don't wait for the mail to find you.

Before the sale: talk to your servicer and get help

Tennessee's housing agency says to contact your loan servicer right away and not let the payment deadline pass. The Attorney General lists options that may include a loan modification, a repayment plan, a temporary reduction or pause in payments, or a deed in lieu of foreclosure.

If your servicer gets your complete application for help more than 37 days before a sale, a federal rule sets out what it must do within 30 days.

The Tennessee Housing Development Agency is a HUD-approved counseling agency, and its certified counselors will talk with you confidentially about your situation. Counselors don't give out money, but they can point you to resources and solutions. The agency's Hardest Hit Fund Reinstatement Only Program is no longer taking applications.

Postponed sales and where the sale happens

Each postponement must be set for a specific date and time. It must be announced with the internet posting company and at the date, time and place of each scheduled sale. The online announcement isn't required if the sale is put off by less than 5 days. For Tennessee foreclosure law, the place of sale can be a physical location or the website of an online bidding platform.

A postponement isn't a cancellation. Use any extra time to keep working with your servicer or a counselor.

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 Tennessee, that's 6 months, and the first legal action is publication.

Without a lawsuit, the newspaper ads set the pace: the first one must run at least 20 days before the sale, and the online posting must stay up for at least 20 days in a row. A postponed sale must still happen within one year of the first scheduled date.

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

If the sale doesn't cover what you owe

Under Tennessee law, after a trustee's or foreclosure sale, the lender can sue for a deficiency judgment for the rest of the debt. Unless fraud, collusion, misconduct or irregularity in the sale is shown, that judgment is the total debt before the sale plus the costs of foreclosure and the sale, minus the home's fair market value at the time of the sale.

The law presumes the sale price equals the fair market value. To change that, you must show by a preponderance of the evidence that the home sold for materially less than its fair market value.

A deficiency lawsuit must be filed by the earlier of two deadlines, and one is two years after the sale, not counting any time a bankruptcy case is pending. The law doesn't stop a lender from suing on the debt instead of foreclosing, before it, or at the same time.

If the sale brings in more than you owe, ask the trustee in writing what happens to the extra money. Read your deed of trust too, and ask a lawyer or a counselor what rights it leaves you after a sale.

Rules for rescue offers, deed deals and wholesalers

• The Attorney General says the Mortgage Assistance Relief Services Rule and Tennessee law don't allow a company to take your money before you've received and accepted an offer of relief from your lender.
• Tennessee law doesn't allow anyone to offer foreclosure rescue services without a written agreement that includes a notice of your right to cancel. You may cancel within 3 days of signing, and the company must refund your money within 10 days. A contract that doesn't have or honor this notice is treated as cancelled.
• In a lease-buyback scheme, a scammer asks you to sign over your deed and promises you can stay as a renter and buy the home back later. Then the scammer takes all the value of your home, stops paying the mortgage and you get evicted.
• Tennessee's housing agency warns about anyone who says they can save your home if you sign or transfer the deed, or who asks for a fee for counseling or a loan modification.
• Under Tennessee law, a buyer is wholesaling when it assigns its rights under a purchase contract to another buyer for a higher price than it paid. A wholesaler must tell you in writing, before you sign, that it plans to market its interest, and must give you the date of any assignment at least 3 business days before it takes effect. It must also tell the next buyer the nature of its interest. These disclosures must be in bold, large print in the written agreement. A lawsuit over a violation must be filed within two years after the contract is signed.

Two of these touch how I buy: the wholesaling rule, if I ever assign a contract on your home, and the warnings about deeding your home away, which matter when I take over your payments and the loan stays in your name. Ask me about either in writing. And don't stop talking to your lender while you weigh any offer, including mine.

Free help in Tennessee

• Tennessee Housing Development Agency: foreclosure prevention. Confidential help from the state housing agency's certified housing counselors.
• Tennessee Attorney General: mortgage-related scams. How to spot a foreclosure rescue scam and where to report one.
• Tennessee Secretary of State: foreclosure posting companies. The state's list of internet posting companies for foreclosure notices.
• CFPB: find a housing counselor. Search HUD-approved counseling agencies in Tennessee.