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The Lender Didn’t Follow State Foreclosure Procedures or
Mortgage Terms Governing Foreclosures

Because every foreclosure means that someone loses a home, many courts require the foreclosing party to strictly follow state law and respect the terms of the mortgage or deed of trust. If they don’t, you can call them on it.

But if the foreclosing party makes a trivial violation of the rules, the judge will probably let it go. Virtually all judges overlook errors that are inconsequential, such as the misspelling of a name. And the statutes of some states specifically provide that certain procedural errors (often failure to provide required notices) will not affect the right of the foreclosing party to obtain the foreclosure.

Similarly, if the foreclosing party’s error doesn’t actually cause you any harm, it’s probably not worth fighting over. Most courts will overlook a violation that is technical in nature and doesn’t deprive you of a fair procedure, on the principle of “no harm, no foul.” For example, say the lender failed to record the notice of default in the local land records office (a typical requirement) on time, but you got your required notice on time. The court might well decide that the failure to record didn’t harm you and allow the foreclosure to proceed.

More serious violations will get a more serious response from the court. For example, if the lender failed to send you a notice of default as required by state law, the lender might have to start over, because the lack of adequate notice deprived you of valuable time to resolve the problem. (You might have negotiated with the lender, gotten refinancing, or taken advantage of state rules permitting reinstatement or redemption of the mortgage.)