Florida guides · Foreclosure
Facing foreclosure in Florida
If a case has already been filed, the dates that matter are in the papers you were served — not on any website, including this one. Read them, and get free advice quickly.
Prefer to talk it through? Call (269) 389-9961.
Foreclosure is frightening partly because it is unfamiliar, and unfamiliar processes feel faster and more final than they are. Understanding roughly how it proceeds makes it easier to act while there is still room to act.
Broadly, and with variation in every case: payments are missed; the servicer contacts the borrower; at some point a lawsuit may be filed and served; the case proceeds through the court; a judgment may be entered; and a sale may be scheduled. Those are stages, not a schedule — how long any of it takes varies enormously with the case, the court and what the borrower does.
We deliberately do not publish a Florida foreclosure timeline. Any number we printed would be wrong for somebody, and being wrong about this costs people their homes. The dates that bind you are in the documents you were served and in the court’s own record.
If a deadline is close, or you have been served and do not understand what you were served with, speak to a licensed Florida attorney now — ahead of reading the rest of this page, and ahead of calling us.
What to gather
The papers worth finding first.
None of this needs to be complete before you talk to anyone. It is simply what makes every later conversation shorter.
- Every document you have been sent or servedIn date order if you can. What they are called and when they arrived both matter, and people frequently misidentify which stage they are at.
- Your mortgage statements and payment historyWhat is actually owed, including fees, is often different from what people assume.
- Any case number you have been givenIt lets you and an adviser look up where the case actually stands rather than guessing.
- What the property is worth, roughly, and what is owedWhether there is equity changes which options are worth exploring.
- Anything else recorded against the propertySecond mortgages, tax liens, code liens, judgments. They affect what any sale could achieve.
- A note of who has contacted youIncluding anyone offering to help. Some of them are worth talking to and some are not.
Working through it
A sensible order to take things in.
Read the actual papers, today
Not a summary and not a recollection — the documents. Whether a lawsuit has been filed and served changes everything about what happens next, and it is the single fact most often misunderstood.
Call a HUD-approved housing counsellor
This service is free. Counsellors work with servicers routinely, know what programmes exist, and have no financial interest in what you decide. For most people in default it is a better first call than any company, including ours.
Contact the servicer
Servicers have loss-mitigation processes, and they generally cannot consider you for anything if you do not engage. Keep a record of who you spoke to and when.
Find out what categories of option exist for you
Reinstatement, a repayment arrangement, a modification, a sale, a short sale, bankruptcy protection, or a legal defence to the case. These are categories that may or may not be available — which ones apply depends on your loan, your circumstances and the stage of the case. An attorney or counsellor can tell you; a website cannot.
Be careful about who you take help from
Be wary of anyone who guarantees a result, asks for a large fee up front, tells you to stop talking to your servicer, or asks you to sign over the deed to stop the process. Those are recognised warning signs.
Official resources
Who actually holds the answers.
- Free HUD-approved housing counsellingFind a counsellor through HUD, or call the HOPE Hotline on 1-877-GET-HOPE (1-877-438-4673). Free, and independent of any buyer or lender. Federal, statewide.
- Court help and legal-services referralsFlorida Courts publishes self-help resources and routes to legal aid. Statewide.
- Your county’s foreclosure case informationDuval: Clerk’s foreclosure department. Clay: Clay Clerk. Baker: Baker Clerk of Courts. County-specific — procedures and sale practices differ.
- What is recorded against the propertyThe official records for your county will show mortgages, liens and judgments. County-specific.
- If you think you are being targeted by a scamThe Florida Department of Financial Services publishes consumer resources. Statewide.
Links to public bodies for your own use. Bayfront is not affiliated with any of them.
Questions worth asking
Before you commit to anything.
- What stage is my case actually at, and what is the next date that binds me?
- Which loss-mitigation options am I eligible for, and what is the deadline to apply?
- Is there equity in the property, and what would happen to it in each scenario?
- What are the consequences of each option for my credit and for any remaining debt?
- Is anyone asking me to sign something I do not fully understand?
- Who is advising me here, and are they paid by me or by someone else?
Where we fit — and where we do not
What a direct sale can and cannot do.
Contacting us does not stop a foreclosure. Selling to us does not stop a foreclosure. Nothing about talking to a buyer pauses a court process or extends a deadline, and any company that suggests otherwise is not being straight with you.
What a sale can sometimes do, where there is time and where there is equity, is resolve the debt before a sale is completed by the court — which is a different thing, depends entirely on the circumstances, and is not something we can promise in advance for any property.
We are not attorneys, housing counsellors or financial advisers. If a deadline is active, an attorney or a HUD-approved counsellor is the right call, and it is the call we would make in your position.
Questions we actually get
Common questions
Will selling to you stop the foreclosure?
No. Nothing about contacting or selling to us pauses a court process. Where there is time and equity, a completed sale can sometimes resolve the underlying debt before the court’s own sale happens — but that depends entirely on the case, and we will not promise it for any property.
How long do I have?
We will not guess, because being wrong about this is unforgivable. The dates that bind you are in the papers you were served and in the court record. An attorney or a HUD-approved counsellor can read them with you, and both can do it faster than you probably expect.
I have equity. Does that change things?
It usually widens the options, because more routes make sense when a sale would cover what is owed. It also makes you a target for people who want that equity, so be particularly careful about who you sign anything with.
Someone offered to take over my payments if I sign over the deed.
Treat that with real caution. Signing over a deed does not by itself remove your liability on the loan, and this pattern appears repeatedly in warnings about foreclosure rescue schemes. Take it to an attorney or a HUD counsellor before signing anything.
Should I keep paying if I cannot pay everything?
That is a financial question specific to your loan and circumstances, and it is one for a housing counsellor rather than a buyer. The free HUD-approved service exists precisely for it.
General information about selling, not advice about your property. No structured FAQ markup is published pending review.
Related
Related reading
If you have time and want to understand the sale route
Speak to a HUD-approved counsellor first — it is free and independent. If you then want to understand what a direct sale would look like, call (269) 389-9961 or tell us about the property.
Tell us about your property Call (269) 389-9961
Sending the form starts a conversation. It is not an offer, and it does not commit you to anything.