Dealing with Foreclosure in Oregon, Part 4

Dealing with Foreclosure in Oregon
(c) 2009 Benjamin D. Knaupp
Attorney at Law
Admitted in Oregon since 1997

#4. Do I have any legal defenses to a foreclosure?
A foreclosure proceeding must follow strict rules in order to be enforceable. Proper legal notice must be given to you and lien holders and the notice must contain a number of statutorily required details (see ORS 86.745). Most banks are using large bulk-volume foreclosure processing firms that use legal documents overseen by attorneys, and so generally most foreclosure sales are properly performed. If, however, your lender and the trustee conducting the sale don’t follow all the rules, you can file a legal challenge to the sale prior to the date of the sale, or within 48 hours of the sale to preserve your rights to the property.
There are other potential legal defenses to a foreclosure, including invalid legal documents, failure to provide certain federal notices required by law, etc., but these are very rare. A new law in Oregon (House Bill 3630, to be added to ORS 86.705 to 86.795) will provide that a certain form of notice must be provided to homeowners starting in 2009. If the notice is not given, the homeowner will have a right to an action against the trustee who conducted the sale.
Most importantly, once the foreclosure sale has taken place, and a proper public auction was held, the homeowner lose the right to possess the house, and can be evicted using the F.E.D. procedure, which takes about 2 weeks to complete. If the trustee did not follow procedures at the sale, the homeowner's only remedy is a legal action against the trustee for damages.

Next up is part 5: What happens to my property debts after foreclosure.
For all 8 questions stay tuned for updates to this blog or go to my legal website. You can also watch my video explaining the 8 foreclosure questions in brief. If you live in Beaverton, Hillsboro, or Portland Oregon, give me a call with your questions or comments, or post a comment to this blog.