Michigan Foreclosure Law Changes
By Kurt O'Keefe, Detroit Consumer Attorney on Apr 2, 2009 in Foreclosure News, Foreclosure Process
The state Senate passed significant changes to Michigan’s foreclosure law today, April 2, 2009.
Michigan allows foreclosure by publication, without any court proceedings, as well as judicial foreclosure, through the courts.
The Michigan state House of Representatives passed legislation that would have allowed the homeowner to force his mortgage company into court even in a foreclosure by publication. The state Senate gutted that proposed revision to Michigan foreclosure law, but still passed some significant changes.
The bills go to conference committee of House and Senate members to resolve the differences.
The Michigan state Senate is controlled by Republicans, the House by Democrats.
Another version of the Democrat House bill was reportedly killed partly thanks to the influence of the law firm in Michigan that handles the most foreclosure sales.
Many states require mortgage companies to go to court before that can take back people’s homes from them.
By allowing foreclosure by publication, the homeowner with a legitimate legal basis to stop foreclosure of his home, is forced to find a lawyer, get to a court, and get a stay of the foreclosure from a judge, which is not guaranteed.
And there is less than a month’s time to get this done.
The Senate bills add some protection for the homeowner, allowing him or her to buy more time by agreeing to submit the issue to a government counselor.
That agrement gets a 90 day extension for the homeowner.
I would expect this would require many more counselors than are currently available. How does one prove that you agreed to work with a government counselor?
There are more complex provisions as to how this process must be done, but we shall have to wait to see what other changes may be made by the conference committee.
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