How Do I Answer A Foreclosure Complaint In Illinois: Fill & Download for Free

Thank you for the A2A Nancy Byrne!There is no easy answer. As some answerers point out, personal finance can play a big role. It is important to budget, budget, budget. Unfortunately, budgeting starts at deciding how much house to buy in the first place. Mortgage brokers and real estate agents alike work on a commission basis, so they will encourage one to take out as much mortgage and buy as much house as possible. Sales resistance is key. When we bought our first home, the various crooks tried to pressure us into buying a $150,000.00 home (because we “qualified” for the mortgage). We bought a $79,000.00 house (for other reasons, it was never a home). Even then, with two retail jobs (at that time, each under $10.00/hour), $79,000.00 was a stretch. We did not miss payments, but our lives were not very enjoyable as we devoted all of our time and energy into making the payments. Our next home required less than 1/6 of my husband’s pay at that time, and I think most families would benefit from digging in and insisting on finding extremely cheap properties. (A topic that definitely warrants a separate post!)Once the home is purchased, many people just do not practice the discipline to make that payment every month. It is almost impossible for me to make clients understand: once you have been in foreclosure (even if we save the home, even if it was not your fault) your life will not be the same as someone who has not been in foreclosure for a long, long time. It is worth every effort to avoid a foreclosure on your residential home. This can mean eschewing restaurant meals, driving a used car (well into being a lawyer, I drove a car my poorest friends derided as “a bucket of bolts”), wearing fashions from years past, selling your excess stuff online, etc.However, as much as people play a role in bringing on foreclosure, the banks and legal system are very much to blame. It all starts, as pointed out above, with selling people on homes that are too expensive, too large, and too unwieldy.Once one is in a home, the game of “Let’s allege a default” starts. Banks misapply and lose payments, delay crediting payments, falsely allege the homeowner has failed to keep homeowners insurance, and play other games. In some cases, they foreclose on the wrong property and refuse to correct their mistakes or even break into a home and evict the homeowner without any court order—even before a summons and complaint is served. The large law firms that process foreclosure do almost nothing to put on the brakes even when shown incontrovertible evidence that the alleged default is patently false.While many homeowners do not understand that even the hint of an allegation of default is a serious matter and must be resolved immediately, woe unto those who diligently seek help! Those who prey on people in foreclosure are legion. Scammers will try to persuade the homeowner to sign over the deed to trick the bank into being unable to foreclose (It is actually a very simple process to substitute the new “homeowner” in the foreclosure paperwork.). They will then fail to follow through on promises to fight the foreclosure or pay off the mortgage. In the meantime, the scammer will demand “rent” from the homeowner, default on promises to convey the home back to the homeowner, evict the homeowner, and even give the property to third parties to make it harder for the homeowner to ever get a clear deed.Lawyers often promise to “save your home.” Some take $1,500.00 per month (or more) and then do nothing—file no appearance, file no pleadings, go to no court dates. The homeowner ends up finding out a final order against them has been entered when the Sheriff comes to evict. Because of the lengthy nature of even uncontested foreclosure proceedings in some jurisdictions, the owner may have paid $20,000.00 to the scammer “mortgage foreclosure defense” lawyer by this time.If the homeowner lucks into a good lawyer, it is a challenge to get the bank’s lawyers or the courts to listen to defenses. Some jurisdictions, notably Illinois, repeatedly amend applicable foreclosure laws to nullify even the appearance of due process. For example, in Cook County, foreclosure defendants (unlike every defendant in every lawsuit in the United States besides foreclosure) do not get due process by the same mandated service of summons and complaint as every other litigant in every other kind of case. The Illinois legislature has gone so far as to write the foreclosure complaint form for the foreclosure lawyers and even add in “deemed allegations”—allegations against the homeowner that are not set forth in writing but will be deemed admitted (true) if the homeowner is not clairvoyant to answer the imaginary allegations. A help program set up to help homeowners actually queued them up for the foreclosure sausage maker, failing to tell them about defenses or provide them with adequate information to see they should seek other legal advice.Foreclosure has been possibly the most effective tool for stripping homeowners of their equity, ensuring ongoing servitude through what amounts to land tenure, and enriching the pockets of the banks and speculators.I have written in more detail about the above at Kelli Dudley (along with tips for avoiding scams) and in my book Iniquity: How court systems, attorneys, and legal aid organizations cheated homeowners in foreclosure: Kelli Dudley: 9781073101047: Amazon.com: Books — available to read for FREE with Kindle Unlimited.