For many distressed homeowners, sometimes an Arizona bankruptcy lawyer or Arizona real estate lawyer will advise that the best option is foreclosure. In Arizona, a mortgage lender may foreclose via a trustee sale auction. The lender will send a Trustee Sale Notice scheduling the date and time of the sale. As a side note, the Arizona Anti-Deficiency Statute may offer the homeowner some protection from deficiency liability.
A homeowner may wrongly assume that the foreclosure took place on the scheduled date. The lender doesn’t have to tell the homeowner about any postponements. Until the foreclosure takes place, the homeowner’s name remains on the title, making the homeowner liable for all association fees and home maintenance. If the house sits vacant for a long period of time, the owner could be fined by the HOA and the city for landscaping violations, unpaid HOA fees, and dangerous pool conditions.
Some homeowners may just opt to stay in the property rent free until the foreclosure takes place. Most homeowners, however, want to simply move on with their lives. They fear that if they do not vacate the house well in advance of the foreclosure, the lender will quickly lock them out and take their belongings, leaving them homeless. However, lenders have laws they must abide by before taking eviction actions.