New Jersey Foreclosure Processing Time

How long does a New Jersey foreclosure take? Well, that answer depends on when you asked the question. If you had asked 5-6 years ago, it could have been years. Now the economy in relation to mortgage foreclosures is doing much better. With the backlog of New Jersey Foreclosure court cases cleared from the NJ Courts and the New Jersey scheduled Sheriff Sales cleared from the NJ County Sheriffs list of auctions, you are now looking at between 8 months to 1 ½ years when the foreclousre matter is uncontested. (This means an answer was not filed by you in the Foreclosure action with the court. If you get a New Jersey Foreclosure attorney this is easily remedied.) To understand why we need to break down the New Jersey foreclosure process and what takes the most time.

Prior to a foreclosure you most likely stopped making payments on your home. Business could have been bad. You may have lost your job by being laid off from your company. As a homeowner, it can be hard to stay on top of taxes and home payments when you are struggling to make ends meet.  You may miss one, two, or even three mortgage payments before your lender or lenders contacts you. The amount of time before your lender files for foreclosure can vary.  If you reached out to your bank to explain your financial situation, they may have offered you a forbearance.  The banks normally have programs for their clients when they fall on tough times and start missing mortgage payments. There are also laws that protect homeowners, such as your self from banks from trying to sell your home.

Prior to filing a foreclosure summons and complaint, under the Fair Foreclosure Act, specifically N.J.S.A. 2A:50-56(a), the Mortgagee (also known as the lender) must send to the Mortgagor (also known as the borrower) a notice of intent to accelerate and foreclosure. This is commonly referred to the Notice of Intent to Foreclose. This notice is required to be served 30 days prior to the filing of the complaint and summons in a New Jersey Foreclosure Action.

If the US is Named as a Defendant in a New Jersey Foreclosure, the Foreclosure takes longer to complete

After these 30 days, the bank will proceed, depending on how organized and efficient they are with submitting documents to their attorneys (and how efficient their attorneys are in filing the complaint), with filing the summons and complaint. Once filed, they will attempt to serve all the Defendants in the case. Once a party is served, they have 35 days to respond. Failure to respond will result in the Plaintiff filing for default so they can continue. An interesting point here is that if the United States is included as a defendant, the bank must wait 60 days instead of the standard 35. There is a possibility that the Plaintiff will default all parties together in 60 days, rather than 35, but that may not be the case (as the Plaintiff still has the right to default parties are required to respond in 35).

What is a Lis Pendens?

After the filing of an NJ foreclosure action, Plaintiffs out of good practice and common sense file a Lis Pendens with the county registrar where the mortgage was recorded. The Lis Pendens notifies the world that the property is apart of pending litigation, namely a New Jersey foreclosure in this instance. This means you’ll have a very difficult time obtaining another mortgage once the title search comes back if you want to pay off the mortgage with a new mortgage!

After the parties time to respond has expired, the Plaintiff will move for default, paving the way for the end game in foreclosure. They are required under the Fair Foreclosure Act to submit a Notice to Cure. The specific statute requiring this notice is found under N.J.S.A. 2A:50-58(a)(1) and N.J.S.A.2A:50-58(a)(2). Within this notice, they notify the borrower that they are entitled to “cure” or pay what is due and owing on principal, interest, and escrow to reinstate the mortgage in good standing. If the borrower responds according to the statute, they are entitled to an entire 45 days from the notice. Otherwise, the Plaintiff can proceed in 14 days.

After the 14 or 45 days has expired from the Notice to Cure, the bank will then proceed with its final application, the Final Judgment. A Final Judgment in foreclosure is the ultimate judgment that allows the bank to proceed with the sheriff sale. Once applied for, it typically takes the Office of Foreclosure, located in Trenton New Jersey, 20-30 days to enter. Once it is entered, a foreclosure writ and judgment will be docketed, allowing the Plaintiff to proceed with the Sheriff Sale.

This is where much of the time varies in uncontested foreclosures from county to county. I have accumulated a list of estimated backlogs for each county to show how much time you can expect to have, from the date of this writing, after a sale is listed after the entry of the Final Judgment. Keep in mind the Plaintiff still needs to send a “sheriff sale package” to the each Sheriff prior to the sale being listed, which can take a few days, or several weeks, again depending on the Plaintiff’s attorney.

New Jersey Sheriff Backlog Listed by County

The amount of time you have before a public sheriff sale is scheduled depends on the county of your residence. Stopping a sheriff sale or postponing the sheriff sale is possible. Talk with a New Jersey Foreclosure Defense Lawyer today. As a side note, tax liens are treated differently in New Jersey.  If you have a tax lien foreclosure, your home will not be sold at auction if there are no federal liens against it. Your timeline to respond to a New Jersey tax lien foreclosure is limited.

The NJ Atlantic County Sheriff Sale Timeline is an estimated 2-3 months from when Judgment is entered to the time your home would be sold at auction.

The New Jersey Bergen County Sheriff Sale Timeline – Currently you can expect your sale date to be listed an estimated 3-4 months from when Judgment is entered. People placed on this list used to have almost a year waiting for their foreclosed home to be sold.

The NJ Burlington County Sheriff Sale Timeline – Currently you can expect your personal home sale date to be listed an estimated 3-4 months from when Judgment is entered. Even after your home is sold, you may receive additional time to stay in your home. At times the winning bid at auction is not always completed by the winning bidder.  If the sheriff is not paid, then a deed is never delivered and your home will need to be reauctioned.

NJ Camden County Sheriff Sale Timeline – Currently you can expect your sale date to be listed an estimated 3-4 months from when Judgment is entered. You may have noticed many of the sheriff sale auctions are listed by the same service.  https://salesweb.civilview.com/

Cape May is one of the counties with a different service for listing sheriff sales. NJ Cape May County Sheriff Sale Timeline – Currently you can expect your sale date to be listed an estimated 1-2 months from when Judgment is entered.

The New Jersey Cumberland County Sheriff Sale Timeline – Currently you can expect your sale date to be listed an estimated 3-4 months from when Judgment is entered. If you are looking to avoid the sheriff sale, so your residential property cannot be sold, New Jersey Laws allow you to apply for two 14-day extensions for a total of 28 days of having the sale adjourned. (If you need help with this we can help you with this program.)

The NJ Essex County Sheriff Sale Timeline period for your sale date to be listed is an estimated 3-4 month from when the foreclosure Judgment is entered. Please don’t take all of these numbers to be an exact estimate.  The start time for scheduling can change at any time.

NJ Gloucester County Sheriff Sale Timeline – The current time you can expect before your sale date start time to be scheduled is roughly 2-3 ½ months from when Judgment is entered. These timelines don’t include the actual amount of time it will take for you to be forced to find new housing.

Hudson County NJ Sheriff Sale Timeline – If you have had your judicial foreclosure, you can expect your sale date to start an estimated 2 ½ -3 ½ months from when Judgment is entered. You always need to be careful at what you are bidding on at the foreclosure sale.

Also a different website than most other sites. The local Hundertond sheriff NJ posts its set of rules in full with the listings at Hunterdon County Sheriff Sale Timeline – The Sheriff reporting does not allow for an estimate of the backlog. Some sheriffs only look to their own community when developing the full programs to sell homes at auction.  They do not appear to care about the costs associated with their programs.

NJ Mercer County Sheriff Sale Timeline  – Currently you can expect your sale date to be listed an estimated 1-2 months from when Judgment is entered. The sale list for Mercer County is updated one day a week on Monday. Every New Jersey department holds auctions.  Sheriff sale auctions may be different from county to county, but make sure you understand the etiquette involved with the sale process and what you need to do prior to attending a sheriff auction.

The New Jersey Middlesex County Sheriff Sale Timeline has an estimated 1-2 months from the time when Judgment is entered.

NJ Monmouth County Sheriff Sale Timeline  – Currently you can expect your sale date to be listed an estimated 2 ½ -3 ½ months from when Judgment is entered. If you have financial worries about the period of time you have left in your home you should speak to a New Jersey Foreclosure lawyer.

NJ Morris County Sheriff Sale Timeline  – Currently you can expect your sale date to be listed an estimated 2-3 months from when Judgment is entered. There is no longer a year-long waiting period for sheriff sale auctions. However, if you want to compare attorney fees to paying rent, it may make sense to employ a foreclosure defense lawyer to explore your financial records.

The NJ Ocean County Sheriff Foreclosure Sale Timeline  – The Sheriff reporting does not allow for an estimate of the backlog. This site is also a bit unique (You can always feel free to contact the sheriff about his site policy.).  There is no court order directing sheriffs how to spend their money or how to avoid excessive fees for web development.  Hence one sheriff gets credit for creating their own system from the ground up.

New Jersey State – Passaic County Sheriff Sale Timeline  – Currently you can expect your sale date to be listed an estimated 2 ½ -3 ½ months from when Judgment is entered. If you are looking to by real estate at an NJ Foreclosure auction, make sure to review the official listings and disclaimers. There are many issues that can arise from sheriff sale proceedings.

NJ Salem County Sheriff Sale Timeline  – Currently you can expect your sale date to be listed an estimated 2 -3  months from when Judgment is entered. If you feel your privacy is being invaded or your rights are being violated by the listings of your house number, mortgages, address, loan terms, and debt,  remember it is an official New Jersey State law that requires the listing of the sale.

The NJ Somerset County Sheriff Sale Timeline  – Currently you can expect your sale date to be listed an estimated 1 ½ -2 ½ months from when Judgment is entered. If you are worried about losing your properties at auction. Contact a lawyer to learn the steps to follow with free legal advice to point you in the right direction or even get a payment plan for the lawyers at our office to work with you.

NJ Sussex County Sheriff Sale Timeline  – Currently you can expect your sale date to be placed on the sheriff sale list at an estimated 1 ½ -2 ½ months from when the foreclosure Judgment is entered. Before you sign over any of your rights to your real estate, work with an attorney to understand the terms of any agreement you are asked to sign.  It is a common scam for people to offer owners of the property facing foreclosure deals that are too good to be true.  If someone is offering to get you a loan modification or not fully explaining a short sale, and they are not registered with the state of New Jersey, you are likely being scammed.  Your response should be to contact an attorney for free advice.

NJ Union County Sheriff Sale Timeline  – Currently you can expect your sale date to be listed an estimated 2 ½ -3 ½ months from when Judgment is entered. Use all of your resources provided by the New Jersey official civil foreclosure website.

NJ Warrant County Sheriff Sale Timeline  – Currently you can expect your sale date to be listed an estimated 2 ½ -3 ½ months from when Judgment is entered. It does not matter if your foreclosure started in 2017, 2018, or 2019, you have options. Don’t turn to a facebook group looking for a place for free advice.  Talk to a Foreclosure Defense Attorney today.

There are additional options that can extend the time for borrowers to pursue loss mitigation, including statutory stays of the sheriff sale pursuant to N.J.S.A. 2A:50-64(a)(2) and bankruptcy filings. This brief overview is not meant to be relied on for legal purposes and is written to provide readers with a general understanding of the foreclosure timeline in New Jersey.

Your situation is unique to yourself.  A foreclosure defense attorney will be able to give you better advice then whatever you find on the internet that is specific to your situation. If you have any questions, give us a call at 973-200-1111 or email us at info@focusedlaw.com.