Real Estate Defined Terms For Property foreclosures

Foreclosure is the process of barring, closing out or taking away. A judicial remedy that technically brings a mortgage to an end and vests the mortgagor’s estate or interest in land in the mortgagee. A process instigated in the event of a default by the mortgagor, with which a mortgagee (or anyone who has acquired the rights of a mortgagee by succession or assignment) takes an action to force the mortgagor to repay the outstanding debt, or risk the loss of the mortgaged property. The act of barring or precluding the mortgagor’s equity of redemption, i.e. barring their right to reclaim the mortgaged property. The termination of a mortgagor’s equity of redemption “without possibility of recall”, 2 Bl Comm 159.

Foreclosure is:

In fact, foreclosure is the process by which a mortgagee has a right to claim title to the property when a mortgagor is in default in paying the mortgage debt (but not before), and may be distinguished from any other procedure by which the mortgagee may seek to have the property sold and merely lay claim to the proceeds of sale. Nonetheless, foreclosure may be used to refer to any process by which the mortgagee seeks to cut off, beyond recall, the mortgagor’s right to the mortgaged property, including the process by which a mortgagee may seek a sale of the property by recourse to a court order, or by exercising his power of sale; as well as taking possession of the mortgaged property and holding possession for the period allowed for redemption (in the US called ‘foreclosure by entry and possession’ or ‘foreclosure by writ of entry’). In common law, a right to foreclosure arises when the date stipulated for the redemption of the mortgage loan has passed. If there is no specified date for redemption, or if the mortgage provides for repayment of the entire debt on demand, foreclosure proceedings may be commenced a reasonable time after the mortgagee has demanded repayment (Toms v Wilson (1862) 4 B & S 442, 122 Eng Rep 524).

Foreclosure Is A Remedy

Foreclosure is the remedy available to any legal or equitable mortgagee (whether the original mortgagee or an assignee, and to any first or subsequent mortgagee); but not to a chargee, because a charge does not grant a right to any interest in land.

In English law, foreclosure might be instigated only by application to the High Court and the action must involve all parties interested in the mortgaged property. The court initially may issue a decree of ‘foreclosure nisi’ and give the mortgagor time to pay (usually six months). At that stage all subsequent mortgagees also have the right to repay the delinquent mortgage, or else lose their security, i.e. be foreclosed by the prior mortgagee-hence the expression redeem up, foreclose down. If the debt is not repaid by a time specified by the court, the court may then grant a ‘foreclosure absolute’, which vests the mortgagor’s fee simple or term of years in the mortgagee, free of the mortgagor’s right to redeem and the rights of all subsequent mortgagees, although any prior or superior mortgages remain in place (Law of Property Act 1925, ss. 88(2), 89(2)). …

In the US, foreclosure may take a number of different forms depending on the jurisdiction. It may be: (i) strict foreclosure; (ii) foreclosure by a writ of entry and possession; (iii) foreclosure by action; or (iv) foreclosure under a ‘power of sale’ (55 Am.Jur.2d., Mortgages (Rochester, NY),