The squeaky wheel gets the grease

I had a new file come in recently to start a foreclosure action on a property in Queens. There are a few preliminary things that a foreclosure attorney has to do before he can start a foreclosure action. You can get more of a deep dive into the foreclosure process here. Those few preliminary things can take a few weeks to a few months, depending on the foreclosure attorney and the bank involved. If you’re defending a foreclosure, this is your time to get aggressive in trying to resolve the foreclosure. Resolving the foreclosure before the action is commenced is the best thing you can do.

Once a bank refers a foreclosure case to an attorney, the bank won’t talk to you anymore. Frustrating as it may be, it’s for everyone’s own good. It should signal to you that your mortgage situation has become serious and requires your urgent attention. Some people get intimidated and they don’t want to call the bank’s attorney. Don’t let that be you. From now on, and for as long as this foreclosure action goes, everything is going to go through the bank’s attorney. Your best bet would be to get your own attorney and have her deal with the bank’s attorney. Experienced attorneys speak their own language and it makes things go smoothly (even though it may not always seem like that).

Anyway, back to my recent new file. It’s already over. Over before it even started.

A husband and wife took out a mortgage some years ago. The husband died and the wife fell behind on her mortgage payments. Her adult son was helping her out, but he had an unexpected expense and so the loan was referred to me to start a foreclosure. The son calls me up on Monday. I’m in court on Monday, and by the time I get back, I see his message but it’s too late to call him back. The next morning, the son calls again. I tell him that I can’t speak with him directly due to privacy laws, so he provides written authorization from his mother to me. He asks for a reinstatement quote. I tell him that I will aim to get the reinstatement quote to him by the end of the week.

Now I don’t know what the “end of the week” means to you, but to me, it means by Friday. Well, not to the son.

I woke up on Thursday morning, and like everyone else, I check my phone pretty much first thing as I wake up. I see that I have a work e-mail, and it’s a voicemail. From 5:00AM. It’s the son.

I don’t know how you feel, but to me, 5:00AM is still the night before. This guy was not only awake, but he was calling a foreclosure attorney following up on a request from the day before after the foreclosure attorney asked for a couple of days. It’s ballsy for sure.

I sent my paralegal a reminder to get figures from our client to put together a reinstatement letter, and the reinstatement letter went out that day by e-mail. The next morning, I received a FedEx envelope with the reinstatement check.

And that was that. Over before it started.

Jason Sackoor is a real estate attorney in Queens, New York concentrating on foreclosure and real estate litigation. You can check out his website, e-mail him, or call his office at (718) 767-3333 to set up a consultation.