Starting January 19, 2012, the Attorney General, together with other agencies and organizations, has initiated a mandatory mortgage foreclosure mediation program to give homeowner’s a voice in the foreclosure process. However, they can not just automatically put a lien on any other home or property, or garnish wages; the lender would have to take the homeowners back to court, hire local attorneys to file the lawsuit paperwork, get the judgment from the court, and try to have it enforced in the county to where the homeowners have relocated after moving out of the foreclosed home.
However, they are not imposed by statute, so if a mortgage does not have an acceleration clause, the mortgage holder has no choice but to either wait to foreclose until all of the payments come due or convince a court to divide up parts of the property and sell them in order to pay the installment that is due.
After your lender files an NOD but before they schedule an auction, if you get an offer from a buyer, you lender must consider it. If they foreclose on your home, the lender is going to simply turn around and try to resell it; if you present them with a reasonable short sale offer, they may see it as saving them the time, effort and trouble of finding a qualified buyer in a soft market.
This process, which can take anywhere from a couple of months to years depending on the location (laws vary from state-to-state), allows the bank to sell the house and try to get back some of the money it lost when the borrower stopped making their loan payments.
In an effort to help homeowners who are looking for information on foreclosure prevention, and professionals in the housing industry, including counselors and realtors, the Office of the Indiana Attorney General holds foreclosure prevention preparation seminars.