New Jersey Foreclosure Laws

New Jersey Foreclosure Laws

According to New Jersey foreclosure laws, real estate foreclosures in the state are done only through judicial procedures. These judicial procedures are governed by the New Jersey Foreclosure Act. As per this Act the mortgage lenders should send notices of intent to the borrowers and occupants of the distressed property before the foreclosure referral.

Know More About the Foreclosure Process in New Jersey

The New Jersey Foreclosure Act stipulates that a title search for the distressed property be conducted and received by the court before the complaint of default of payment is filed in court. This procedure referred to as a title search can take between ten to twenty days to complete. The New Jersey foreclosure act requires the county sheriff to serve a notice on the borrowers and any other lien holders of the property. A period of forty days is awarded for these notices to be served. It is possible that the notice is not served due to various reasons. Under such circumstances the court advocates diligent enquiry into the whereabouts of the concerned lien holders and then have the notices served. In several cases this process has been seen as a very time consuming one. Once the defendants and other lien holders get these notices they are awarded a period of 35 days to answer the notices. A period of 60 days is awarded if the USA or the State of New Jersey is the defendant. In such cases the property in question is in all probability a government foreclosure property or a HUD foreclosure property.

What is Next?

The next step is to serve the Notice of Intent to Enter Foreclosure Judgment to the defendants. This notice gives the defendants a last chance to cure their loan and redeem the foreclosure property. In case the defendants do not respond in any manner to this notice then the lender is required to wait for period of 45 days before proceeding with the next legal step.

In the event of there being no response from the defendants to the Notice of Intent to Enter Foreclosure Judgment, then the lender can appeal for a judgment in favor of mortgage foreclosure. The court then issues a Writ of Execution and empowers the county sheriff to fix a date and time for the sale of the foreclosure property. This sale should necessarily be scheduled within a period of six months from the issue of the Writ of Execution.

The New Jersey Foreclosure Act allows for two postponements each for the lender and for the borrower. Any postponements beyond this limit will need Court intervention. The Court order specifies bidding instructions, settlement procedures and the like for the foreclosure sale. Stipulations as per court order must be followed closely to avoid the foreclosure sale being declared ineffective.