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Foreclosure Timeline - with 90 Day Right to Cure Notice

Produced by Massachusetts Law Reform Institute
Created October 2013

The lender - the “mortgagee” must give you a Right to Cure Notice once every 3 years. Usually this notice says that you have 150 days to pay your missed payments or the bank can begin to foreclose. But the bank may be able to shorten the 150 days to 90 days in two ways:

If the bank has a face-to-face meeting with you, or a telephone conversation, and they make a good faith effort to work out an agreement to save your house:
- They do not have to offer a way to save your home, if it would be more profitable for them to foreclose. They have complicated formulas, that calculate if it is profitable. They have to do the math. The law calls this offering to “negotiate a commercially reasonable alternative to foreclosure”.
- The bank only has to try to find a way for you to keep your home. As long the bank makes a good faith effort, they can shorten the 150 days to 90.
If you do not respond within 30 days to their offer for of an alternative to foreclosure. They must mail the offer to you in a certified first class letter.

If you get a 90-Day Right to Cure notice, you have at least 196 days from the day you miss your first payment before the auction.

	If you do this	What the bank does	What you need to do
Day 1	Miss a payment – or do not pay your mortgage the day it is due		Pay your missed payment.
Day 30	Still have not paid the mortgage payment you missed.	30 days after you miss payment bank usually sends you “30 days Right to Cure notice”	Pay your missed payment.
Day 60	Miss 2 payments	30 day right to cure expires. Bank sends: G.L. c 35A right to cure 90 day notice and Right to Modify, if a certain mortgage	Pay your missed payments or apply for modification.
Day 90	Miss 3 payments		Send the bank request for modification within 30 days after you get the Right to Modify notice.
Day 120	Miss 4 payments	Bank should respond to loan modification request 30 days after you make the request.	Pay your missed payments.
Day 150	Miss 5 payments	The bank can refer your case to a foreclosure attorney.	Pay your missed payments.
Day 151		Accelerate the loan –The bank can say the only way to stop a foreclosure is if you pay off the full amount of the loan.
Day 152		Soldiers and Sailors Act filed with the court. You will be served the summons and complaint.	If you are a soldier or sailor, you must respond within 20 days from the day you are served.
Day 173			Last day to file answer with court
Day 174		Judge can issue a judgment that allows the bank to foreclose	It usually takes several months for the judge to issue this judgment, not just 21 days.
Day 175		The newspaper publishes the auction notice including the date three weeks in a row before the sale.	Check the newspaper for notice of the auction.
Day 182	Miss 6 payments	The bank sends you a letter at least 14 days before the auction. The letter notifies you of the sale date. The letter must be mailed through certified mail. The bank mails letters to anyone who has an interest in the property 30 days before the sale date.	Accept and read all certified mail from the bank. You need to know what is going on in your case and if there is a sale date.
Day 196		Earliest date the bank can sell your home at a foreclosure auction.
			You do not need to move out right after the auction. Only a Judge can force you out of your home. You will get a notice if you are going to be evicted. See What happens after foreclosure?