What are the chances the bank will sue after a foreclosure?
Posted by admin in Finance Monday, 21 November 2011 19:34 3 Comments
If I have an 80/20 loan (and the 80% is a 30-year balloon note), and I try to negotiate a short sale or my house goes into foreclosure, and the house does not sell for what is owed on the loan, what are the chances that the banks will sue me? What is the absolute worst thing a bank can do if the owner stops paying? And if they do sue, and I can’t pay, what happens then?
I live in Ohio, btw.
If the bank forecloses your house and you hand it over, it is very unlikely that they will pursue more legal action against you, regardless of how much the house sold for. Banks understand that people who have had their homes foreclosed probably don’t have too much spending money, making any lawsuit winnings very unlikely to cover the costs of their legal fees and additional labor.
The chances are slim that the lender will pursue you unless they identify some other assets of yours that are ripe for the taking. But I wonder if there is anyway you can avoid foreclosure considering how low interest rates are today. In addition you can avoid the added fees associated with foreclosure that eventually get added to your debt by offering the deed in lieu of foreclosure which will add to your chances of not being sued in your future when you start making some money
It’s unlikely that they’ll sue you, unless you have obvious assets. They may send you a 1099 after the home is sold and you might pay taxes on the difference between what you owed and what the home sold for because this “forgiveness” would be counted as income. I wouldn’t worry about being sued… they wouldn’t have time to sue all of the homeowners who have walked away or completed a short sale.